Why 70% of Organizational Change Fails (And How Kotter's Framework Prevents It)

I've spent the last decade helping organizations build inclusion and belonging. Today, I'm watching many of those same organizations dismantle their DEI efforts without intention, transparency, or data—and hemorrhaging talent in the process.

Here's what I'm seeing: Leaders are treating change as a transaction rather than a transformation. They're implementing change TO people rather than WITH them.

Target decided to abandon diverse communities. Meta eliminated their entire DEI team overnight. JPMorgan quietly rebranded "equity" to "opportunity." These weren't strategic decisions—they were reactive moves that ignored the human ecosystem they were disrupting.

The cost? Predictable and devastating.

Exit interviews from my clients reveal a pattern: employees—especially women and people of color—report feeling dismissed when they try to share how these changes impact them. They're told they're "personalizing it too much" or that there's "no growth potential anyway."

But here's the thing about change management that most leaders miss:

Your frontline employees aren't just keeping the work going—they're your strategic intelligence. They see the system-level impacts that C-suite leaders can't see from their vantage point. When you dismiss their perspectives as "too personal," you're throwing away the very data you need to make sound decisions.

This is where Kotter's 8-step framework becomes essential—not as a linear checklist, but as a cyclical engagement strategy:

Steps 1-2 aren't about manufacturing urgency and building coalitions. They're about testing your hypothesis with actual data from the people most impacted by the change. They're about creating psychological safety so that hard truths can surface before you move forward.

This requires courage.

The late Maya Angelou said that courage is the most important virtue because without it, you can't practice any other virtue consistently. The same applies to change leadership.

It takes courage to:

• Slow down when pressure mounts to move fast

• Listen to perspectives that challenge your assumptions

• Admit when your initial change strategy needs revision

• Lead with your personal beliefs before your professional priorities

Because here's what I know after a decade of this work: Sustainable change requires examining the beliefs that drive behaviors before you can expect different results.

The organizations thriving right now? They're the ones using change as an opportunity to deepen trust, not destroy it. They're collecting data from board level to frontline. They're treating resistance as intelligence, not obstruction.

The organizations struggling? They're discovering that when you dismantle systems that created psychological safety and belonging, you don't just lose customers—you lose the very people who made your culture sustainable.

Change doesn't have to be a butt-puckering experience for your people. (Yes, I really said that in a room of executives, managers and staff, and it created the exact vulnerable moment needed for real transformation to begin.)

Change can be an invitation to collective courage.

But only if you're brave enough to do the personal work first—and only if you're committed to building with your people, not just for them.