The gap that kills more change programmes than bad strategy ever will
Here's a pattern I see over and over again: brilliant strategy at the top, solid project management at the bottom, and a gaping hole in the middle where the real work of change should be happening.
The strategy deck is polished. The project plans are detailed. The governance structure is in place. But six months in, nothing's really moving. People are going through the motions, but the change isn't taking hold.
What's missing? The glue. The bit that connects the big picture to the day-to-day reality of making it happen.
The theory gets it right (sort of)
Change management theory has been telling us this for decades. Kotter talks about creating urgency and building coalitions. The ADKAR model breaks it down into awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, and reinforcement. Bridges focuses on helping people through the emotional journey of transition.
All of these frameworks point to the same truth: there's a critical space between deciding to change and actually changing. But in practice, we often skip straight from strategy to implementation, treating this middle bit as administrative detail rather than the make-or-break moment it actually is.
I've lost count of how many times I've heard: "We've got the strategy sorted, now we just need to roll it out." As if rolling it out is the easy part.
What lives in the glue
So what actually happens in this middle space? It's where strategy meets reality. Where the neat PowerPoint slides bump up against the messy truth of how work actually gets done.
It's where someone has to figure out what "being more customer-centric" actually means for the person answering the phones on a Monday morning. It's where "agile ways of working" gets translated into "here's what your Tuesday will look like differently."
This is where we work out:
What exactly needs to change in people's daily experience?
Who needs to do what differently, and how will they know they're doing it right?
What's going to get in the way, and how do we help people navigate that?
How do we keep momentum going when the initial excitement wears off?
The human translation layer
The glue isn't just about project management or communications. It's about human translation. Taking the strategic intent and making it make sense in the context of real people's real jobs.
I remember working with a team that was supposed to "collaborate more effectively across silos." Beautiful strategy. Clear business case. But when we dug into it, nobody could actually describe what better collaboration would look like in practice. What meetings would be different? What decisions would get made by whom? What would change about how they started their day?
Without that translation, people default to what they've always done. Not because they're resistant to change, but because they literally don't know what else to do.
When the glue goes missing
When we skip this middle bit, we get what I call "zombie change programmes." They look alive from the outside—there are regular updates, RAG status reports, and milestone celebrations. But nothing's really different for the people doing the work.
The classic signs are:
- Training gets delivered but behaviours don't shift
- New processes exist on paper but the old ways persist
- People can recite the vision but can't see how it applies to them
- Early wins happen but momentum fizzles out
The theory warned us this would happen. Kotter's research showed that most change efforts fail because we don't create enough urgency or build broad enough coalitions. ADKAR tells us that knowledge without ability equals frustration. But somehow we keep acting surprised when it happens.
Getting the glue right
The organisations that get this right treat the middle space as seriously as they treat strategy development. They invest time in working out the human side of the equation. They prototype new ways of working before rolling them out. They pay attention to the stories people are telling themselves about the change.
This might look like:
Spending time with people in their actual work environment to understand what really needs to shift
Creating small experiments to test what the change feels like in practice
Building feedback loops so you can adjust course based on what's actually happening
Training managers to have conversations about change, not just deliver messages about it
Celebrating the right behaviours, not just the right milestones
It's not glamorous work. It doesn't make for exciting presentations. But it's where change actually happens.
The reality check
You can have the most brilliant strategy in the world, but if you can't translate it into something that makes sense in people's daily reality, it's just expensive wallpaper.
The glue between strategy and delivery isn't optional. It's not something you can outsource to the communications team or tick off with a training programme. It's the work of change itself.
If your change programme is technically on track but somehow feels stuck, look at your glue. Are you helping people understand not just what's changing, but how to actually live it?
