Change, Unstuck: How to Set Up Change to Succeed

Release quality is tanking. Features aren't meeting customer needs. No one is delivering on time. And great team members are leaving.

Fault Lines

Change can still succeed. I’ve done it, I’ve seen others do it.

The model matters less than the commitment to sustained attention.

Dedicated change leadership takes many forms — an internal transformation lead, a cross-functional role, a mandate as part of a larger initiative, or an external advisor brought in to create focus.

If your timeline matches your expectations, change leadership can even be successful part-time. You might even marry it with an existing initiative. Sometimes change holds more weight when partnered with something familiar.

Just be sure to clear the path — Change has to be a key pillar not a secondary

assumption.

| If OKRs truly drive organizational behavior — especially compensation and bonus behavior — then change must live inside them — its own priority.

And that priority requires a leader.

The right leader.

First Chair

Isn’t my VP, Director or highest performer your change leader?

Maybe.

But lots of change is more effective from the ground up (with the top-down support). Look for the person who solves problems and brings others along.

The “worst” time-entry offender on the team — the one whose time is always last minute but delivers to clients like nobody’s business and mentors everyone — that’s your candidate.

Change leaders don’t just push – they set tempo. A drummer, establishing pace. A hands-on maestro who balances hope, realism, guidance and empowerment.

And they tell the truth—even when it’s uncomfortable.

Can you find the person with empathy but who doesn’t acquiesce? Their radar needs to discern between cultural differences, tone-policing and old processes and failures hiding behind history or ego.

| Assumptions kill. Curious movement wins.

The engineer will want 5 proofs of concept. The marketing manager will want a guarantee that NPS will go up. Operations will insist the issue is product gaps when half the friction is process debt nobody wants to own.

Your change leader takes a constant pulse and keeps the team moving.

Give them Ownership

Accountability without authority is amateur theater.

If your change leader can’t make decisions, remove blockers, or challenge direction, the team will know.

Change requires power — not hierarchy for its own sake, but clear authority. Then let them lead with the heading you’ve given them.

True North

“Change” was the critical buzzword.

Now it barely registers.

Frameworks and methodologies won’t shift culture. Direction will.

| Vision speaks to the sky, goals are grounded.

First clarity. Vision =  the end goal

Will the website rebranding, a new app, or cool workflows substantially shift the organization?

What are you actually trying to become?

If you can tie vision to real pain and see beyond today’s constraints, you’ve found something worth pursuing.

Then set execution goal posts.

Goals = incremental milestones

Let them evolve as you learn. Your subject matter experts will figure out the “how”, later.

And then someone asks about the data.

Data for Data’s Sake?

Measurements are sneaky buggers. They tell us we can’t measure success unless we know where we started. Bullshit. Your team knows what isn’t working even if you don’t have the full picture of numbers.

| Don’t wait for the elevator when you can take the stairs.

Months of as-is measurement won’t get you there. Your teams will spend more time arguing about how and what to measure than they will succeeding.

Does your data model currently support where you want to go anyway? Probably not. That’s part of change, but it doesn’t have to come first, and if it does it’ll probably be wrong until you know more.

If you have baseline data, use it.

If you don’t, start anyway.

Many meaningful changes begin without perfect measurement. Action creates clarity faster than analysis ever will.

Resin

Your charter intro isn’t your message.

Your business case isn’t your message.

Your % targets aren’t your message.

It’s not the monthly all-hands meeting.

Your message is an elevator pitch as a portrait. It binds the work. It fills the gaps. It hardens under pressure.

              Shoot for emotion and clarity. Slightly grandiose but attainable.

Noise is constant.

Board members. Customers. Layoffs. AWS outages. Even good and bad press will try to pull you off course.

How will you break through the noise? Over and over?

| Change needs a Herald.

They bring news, usher in transformation and announce celebration.

The Rule of 7 is a beast. Rinse and repeat until the message resonates. Everyone “hears” different - imagery, verbal and written. Repeat. Refine. Repeat.

You’ll know when it’s working.

Others will start to evangelize before you even get the chance, the message carrying a now moving organization.

Bedrock

Every day. Every week. The team is in the room.

The leader holds the direction. The vision gives it meaning. The message makes it move. And then something shifts. The pieces found each other.

Before you know it, engineering is defending operations. Operations is finding processes to change instead of tools that need low value enhancements. Marketing increased NPS by shifting narrative, no longer relying solely on product. And many days the team laughs themselves out of the friction.

The team can run not walk. They can question and still solve – a river now carrying the weight with ease.

Ownership. Direction. Momentum. It happens when you build it.

If your organization is navigating change and needs outcome-driven, dedicated focus, Copper Aurora Partners works alongside teams to design and implement durable solutions.

© 2026 Melissa Barela | Copper Aurora Partners LLC.

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