When organizations embark on large-scale business transformations, they often focus heavily on technology, logistics, and timelines. But what about the people who actually have to adopt the new systems and processes?
In Episode 123 of the Harmonious Workplaces podcast, hosts Rich Cruz and Ben Kleinman sat down with Andrew Ourique, Founder and Principal Consultant of Reroute Consulting, to discuss a revolutionary yet common-sense approach to organizational change: Inclusive Change Management.
If you’ve ever wondered how to successfully lead a diverse team through a major shift without losing trust, momentum, or revenue, this episode is a masterclass in putting the human element first.
What is Inclusive Change Management?
In change management circles, the concept of inclusivity is often conflated solely with standard Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. While DEI is incredibly important, Andrew Ourique defines inclusivity in change management through a much broader lens:
“It’s really about trying to figure out and set a common direction while also deliberately trying to identify all the different groups that are going to be experiencing the change and adapting to this new way of doing things.”
At its core, inclusive change management leverages cognitive diversity. This means recognizing and respecting differences in:
- Generations: Working with multi-generational teams spanning from Baby Boomers to Gen Z, each with distinct communication styles and expectations.
- Geography and Culture: Navigating regional and international nuances, from North America to Europe, Asia, and Australia.
- Organizational Tiers: Understanding how change impacts front-line staff differently than executive sponsors.
- Tenure and Roles: Acknowledging the perspective of someone who has been with the company for thirty years versus a brand-new hire.
Instead of designing a “one-size-fits-all” change strategy for a mythical “average employee,” inclusive change management meets people where they are.
The Biggest Risk in Change Management: Silence
Many leaders assume that a lack of complaints during a transformation means everything is going smoothly. According to Andrew, the exact opposite is true.
“The biggest risk that we have in change is silence. Nobody is saying anything to you.”
True success in change management occurs when you build enough trust and psychological safety that people feel comfortable sharing their honest truths—the good, the bad, and the ugly.
However, soliciting feedback is only the first step. The real failure point for many organizations is what happens next. Many companies treat feedback as a checkbox exercise: they run focus groups, gather complaints, and then change absolutely nothing about their plan.
As Andrew warns, “You can really kill inclusive change management by going out trying to solicit feedback and doing nothing with it. If you’re going to go out for feedback, you have to commit to doing something with it. Otherwise, just don’t bother. It does way more harm than good.”
“Pay Now, or Pay Now with Interest”
In heavily regulated and high-stakes environments—such as financial services, healthcare, and mergers and acquisitions (M&A)—the pressure to execute quickly is immense. Under tight timelines, leaders often sideline the human element to prioritize immediate “launching.”
Andrew shares a powerful quote from one of his clients: “It’s either you pay now, or you pay now with interest.”
If you do not invest the time, empathy, and resources upfront to build an inclusive change plan, you will inevitably pay for it later. This “interest” accumulates in the form of:
- Drastically slowed adoption rates.
- Active and passive employee resistance.
- A breakdown of organizational trust.
- High employee turnover (especially dangerous in service-oriented industries where human capital is the primary value driver).
- Costly post-launch remediation to fix misaligned systems.
A Multi-Million Dollar Lesson from the Sports World
To illustrate the dangers of ignoring local nuances, Andrew shared a candid “lesson learned” from a major technology implementation in the sports sector.
The national team launched a centralized Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform, aiming to unify membership and event management across all Canadian provinces. The central team designed a top-down strategy focused heavily on national objectives.
However, they failed to perform deep due diligence at the provincial and club levels. Each region had starkly different ways of handling memberships and local events. Although they conducted surface-level checkpoints, the national team did not act on the feedback they received and pushed ahead with the launch anyway.
The result? A highly disruptive, bumpy implementation that is still undergoing fixes three years later. Local clubs reverted to their old ways of working to bridge functional gaps, leading to millions of dollars in lost value and wasted investments. The project proved that launching a system is not the same as achieving employee adoption.
How to Scale Inclusivity for Large-Scale Transformations
It is easy to have one-on-one conversations when managing change for a team of ten. But how do you scale inclusive practices when navigating an acquisition or tech overhaul affecting 10,000 employees globally? Andrew outlines three crucial strategies:
- Match Resourcing with Complexity, Not Size: Organizations often make the mistake of assigning a single change manager to a massive initiative or allocating resources based solely on headcounts or deal size. However, smaller regions or offices often have much higher expectations and a lower tolerance for error. Resourcing must reflect the complexity of the cultural and process shifts required.
- Global Framework, Local Customization: Establish a strong, centralized global strategy supported by executive sponsors, but leave ample room for local or regional change leaders to customize the communication and training to fit their specific office or country context.
- Persona-Based Stakeholder Analysis: Go beyond high-level geographic groupings. Develop detailed persona-based stakeholder analyses to truly understand how different segments of your workforce prefer to receive information and learn new skills.
Andrew’s #1 Actionable Tip: The “Random Person” Test
If you only have the capacity to do one thing to make your next change initiative more inclusive, Andrew recommends this simple, powerful exercise:
Pick a random individual who will be impacted by the change and invite them to a 1:1 conversation.
Listen deeply to their daily workflow, their anxieties, and their expectations. Then, look at your existing change management plan and ask yourself honestly: “Will this plan actually work for this one person?”
If the answer is no, it’s time to adapt. Don’t worry about being perfect—embrace flexibility. At the end of the day, success is not about blindly adhering to a rigid project plan; it’s about doing what is right for the people who make your business run. They are your greatest resource.
About Our Guest: Andrew Ourique
Andrew Ourique is the Founder and Principal Consultant of Reroute Consulting, where he works internationally with organizations navigating large-scale business transformations, mergers and acquisitions, and technology-enabled change. His extensive experience spans financial services, engineering and infrastructure, healthcare, technology, and sport.
Based in Toronto, Andrew has spent four years as an independent consultant and two years as an empathetic podcast host. With nearly 13 years of banking experience at BMO Financial Group, he is Prosci certified and serves as an ACMP Ontario Chapter Board Member. At Reroute, Andrew’s work is grounded in the belief that complex organizational problems can be solved through a powerful combination of compassion, accountability, and adaptability.
Connect with Andrew and follow his insights on LinkedIn.
Join the Conversation
Fostering an inclusive workplace culture starts with listening. How does your organization handle change? Are you paying upfront, or paying later with interest?
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