You’ve seen it: strong performers slowly disengage. The team that once moved quickly now hesitates. Motivation dips. Morale shifts. Everything takes just a little more effort.
It’s not a lack of skill. It’s not resistance. More often than not, it’s change fatigue.
Over the last two issues, we’ve looked at change fatigue as a growing threat to performance, engagement, and productivity in the workplace. In Issue 78, we named the challenge, its costs, and symptoms. In Issue 79, we took a system-wide lens and introduced strategies to proactively manage change capacity and load at the organizational level.
In this final article in the series, we shift focus to the front lines: the individual employees and team members who carry your strategy forward day after day. Their capacity matters. Their engagement matters. And their energy is the first to go when change isn’t managed well.
Gartner’s research shows that employee willingness to support change has dropped from 74% in 2016 to 38% in 2023, which represents a significant shift in team member mindset. Meanwhile, LinkedIn reports that 64% of professionals feel overwhelmed by rapid workplace changes. This may show up as quiet disengagement, mounting cynicism, underachievement, increasing mistrust, or, in some cases, employees taking the next recruiter’s call. As leaders, we must take change fatigue at the individual level head-on. Fortunately, there are five leadership moves that restore energy, reinforce capacity, and reduce the personal drag of change fatigue. They start with how you lead today.
Five Ways to Recharge Your Team’s Energy and Capacity
These five strategies are practical, proven, and can be implemented immediately. Use them to design a “recharge plan” that reflects your team’s specific needs.
1. Involve People Early in Change
People support what they help shape. When employees are brought into the change conversation earlier, whether in planning, timing, or testing, it builds psychological ownership, and they’re more likely to engage fully in the change itself.
Try this:
- Invite team members to brainstorm ideas and/or weigh in on timing or rollout sequencing.
- Identify natural influencers or “power users” to pilot changes and share feedback.
- Create structured feedback loops to get input on what’s working and what’s not.
2. Conduct Short, Frequent Check-ins
When change is constant, clarity and connection are essential. Managers who conduct regular 1:1s with team members create space to address uncertainty, surface pressure points, and realign on expectations and outcomes.
Try this:
- Shift from status updates to more open dialogue: “What’s working well for you right now?” or “What are the biggest things that are getting in your way?”
- Encourage managers to hold 15-minute weekly check-ins during high-change periods.
- Make room to discuss capacity, not just output.
3. Build Psychological Safety Into Your Team Discussions and 1:1s
People struggle to process or adapt to change when they’re worried about being judged for their struggles. In contrast, a psychologically safe environment invites the honesty and feedback needed to move forward in the best manner for the team. In fact, Gartner research found that Managers who create a psychologically safe environment for employees can drive up to a 54% reduction in Change Fatigue. So, how do you start to create this type of environment?
Try this:
- Model vulnerability and openness by sharing your own learning curve, questions, or struggles.
- Empathize, and acknowledge discomfort openly: “I know this isn’t easy, and it’s okay to say so.”
- Remove the fear of failure as a barrier. Ensure adaptation, not perfection, is the goal.
4. Spark Motivation By Setting People Up for Progress and Small Wins
In the book The Progress Principle, Teresa Amabile documented research on motivation showing that “Of all things that can boost inner work life, the single most important is making progress in meaningful work.” Progress is the antidote to stagnation. Even when the end goal is far off, tangible movement in meaningful work creates momentum and renews engagement.
Try this:
- Break significant changes into phases with small, winnable targets
- Celebrate progress—especially effort and learning, not just results
- Eliminate obstacles that are slowing your team down
5. Help People Understand Individual Change and How to Recharge—and Model It Yourself
Change fatigue isn’t just about work. It’s about depletion. If your team doesn’t understand what they might experience as a part of the change process, they may not know how to express or share what they are feeling. In addition, if they never get a pause, a win, or a moment to regroup, the effects may eventually show up in performance and morale.
Try this:
- Educate yourself and the team on the individual change journey. This creates a shared vocabulary and can help facilitate meaningful dialogue and questions.
- Share and encourage simple recharge practices: microbreaks, time blocks, “no meeting” zones
- Normalize focused work and single-tasking during heavy lift periods
- Most importantly: model recovery and boundaries for yourself
To be effective, you don’t need to implement all five strategies at once. In fact, the best leaders design their approach based on what their team needs most right now. So reflect on the following questions to dial it in:
- What are you seeing?
- Who’s quietly struggling?
- Where are people stretched thin, and where is energy building?
- Who needs space, clarity, or support right now?
Start with one conversation, one person, or one shift that brings relief and restores energy. Make it real. Make it personal. And model what recharge looks like in your world.
Closing the Loop on Change Fatigue
This article marks the final installment in our three-part series on change fatigue. We’ve explored the problem, reframed the solution at both the organizational and individual levels, and offered practical tools to reduce strain and build resilience.
Here’s what we hope you take away:
- Awareness matters. Pay attention to both the pace of change and the lived experience of your people.
- Action doesn’t have to be major. Strategic adjustments, small wins, and frequent feedback loops make a big difference.
- Leadership creates the climate. How you lead change will shape not just what gets done, but how people feel doing it.
Change isn’t slowing down. But when you manage it well—with empathy, clarity, and a plan to recharge your people—your firm won’t just survive change. It will thrive and grow through it.
Breaking Through Questions
- When have you seen your team respond to change with energy and engagement? What did you do or not do that helped make that possible?
- Who on your team has navigated recent changes with resilience? What might their experience reveal about what’s working well or still needs attention?
- What conversations are you having or could you start having that help your team members feel seen, supported, and included as the change moves forward?
- If your team had the space and support they needed to recharge, what might become possible for them? For the organization? For you?
