Here's what I've learned after years of watching change programmes succeed and fail: the ones that crash and burn rarely do so because the strategy was wrong. They fail because somewhere along the way, we forgot that systems are just people doing things together.

I've sat in too many rooms where brilliant minds have crafted perfect models and frameworks, only to watch them gather dust because no one stopped to ask: "But how will Business Partners actually use this? What will it mean for the team in Manilla? How will this land on a Tuesday afternoon when everyone's already stretched thin?"

That's the gap where most change efforts die.

People aren't implementation details

When we're redesigning how an organisation works—whether that's a new operating model, rolling out agile ways of working, or bringing two companies together—we're asking human beings to change how they think, act, and feel about their work. That's massive.

Yet somehow we expect this to happen through email updates, process maps, and the occasional all-hands meeting. It doesn't work that way.

Real change happens when people trust the process and the people leading it. It happens through actual conversations, not one-way communications. It happens when people can see themselves in the future you're describing and believe they can get there from where they are now.

The changes that stick are the ones people live

I've watched beautifully planned programmes fall apart because no one thought about what it would actually feel like to be the person trying to make it work. And I've seen messy, uncertain journeys succeed because the leaders were honest about what they didn't know and clear about what they did.

This isn't about throwing out good planning. It's about planning with the people who'll be affected, not just for them.

Being people-focused isn't being soft

Let me be clear: putting people first doesn't mean avoiding hard decisions or moving slowly. It means understanding what motivates people, what worries them, and what they need to succeed. When you get that right, you actually move faster and with far fewer nasty surprises.

The questions I find myself asking are:

• What story is running in people's heads about this change right now?
• What new behaviours do we need to see, and what's going to make those feel impossible?
• How do we make this feel like something people can actually do, rather than something being done to them?

What this actually looks like

In practice, this means things like involving the people most affected in shaping the change from early on. It means using visual tools that help people engage with complexity rather than be overwhelmed by it. It means working with teams to figure out what good looks like in their world, not just on paper.

It means leaders who show up and stay engaged, not just at the launch event. And it means creating real space for people to push back, ask questions, and help make course corrections along the way.

This isn't a checklist to work through. It's a different way of thinking about how change happens.

The reality check

You can't transform systems if you ignore the humans who make them work. And you can't create lasting change unless people are genuinely willing and able to make it happen.

If your strategy makes sense but nothing's really moving, maybe it's time to look at it through a different lens. Start with understanding your people—really understanding them. The rest has a much better chance of following.

That's what I've learned, anyway. And it's why alterNOTION exists.