When organizations invest millions in new enterprise software or state-of-the-art machinery, leadership often expects immediate gains in efficiency and organizational value. Yet, months or even years after go-live, executives are frequently left wondering why employee adoption lags and frustration mounts.
In Episode 130 of the Harmonious Workplaces podcast, host Rich Cruz (Organizational Development Consultant) and co-host Ben Kleinman (Certified Change Management Professional) tackle the root cause of this breakdown: Change Management has a serious branding problem.
Too many leaders mistake change management for a one-time event or a collection of technical manuals. In this episode summary, we explore what change management is not, examine the critical distinction between project management and change management, and share two diagnostic questions every leader must ask before launching their next major initiative.
The Branding Problem: What Change Management Is Not
During a recent visit to the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) in Chicago, Ben Kleinman observed a striking pattern: business leaders and technical vendors either had no idea what change management was or held gross misconceptions about its purpose.
Commonly, organizations reduce change management to three inadequate substitutes:
- A Kickoff Meeting and a Training Workshop: Many leaders believe holding a single kickoff meeting, followed by an hour-and-a-half training workshop, constitutes a complete change strategy.
- A Static Knowledge Repository or Community Forum: Relying solely on recorded video libraries, static PDF user guides, or peer-supported community forums is often a cop-out for real enablement. Leaving employees to hunt for answers in peer forums offers no guarantee of correct or timely support.
- Post-Sales Customer Success Support: Vendors and software companies frequently equate change management with post-sales customer support or technical troubleshooting. While technical support fixes glitches or password resets, it does not drive behavioral adoption.
As Ben Kleinman highlights, even mediocre change management must go far beyond these table stakes. True change management is not merely technical enablement—it is capability building that gives employees both the competence and the confidence to embrace new ways of working.
The High Cost of Misunderstood Rollouts
Why do employees across industries so passionately dislike their enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), or electronic medical record (EMR) systems?
It is rarely because the software itself is inherently flawed. Rather, it stems from rigid rollouts that fail to account for human workflows. Ben compares bad implementations to forcing every worker to use a “5/8ths-inch wrench”—demanding that an entire workforce retrofit their daily habits to fit a monolithic system without proper behavioral support.
The consequences of ignoring the human element can be staggering. During the episode, Ben shared a story from a manufacturing vendor whose client purchased an expensive, cutting-edge laser cutting machine. Because the client failed to prepare its workforce or address user adoption, that high-priced machine sat on the factory floor completely unused for nearly two years—representing massive, avoidable waste.
When organizations ignore change management upfront, they incur heavy “marginal costs” later in the form of rework, retraining, system reconfigurations, and prolonged productivity dips.
Project Management vs. Change Management: Technical Delivery vs. Human Adoption
A common point of confusion in corporate strategy is blending project management with change management. According to standards established by the Association for Change Management Professionals (ACMP), these two disciplines serve distinct, complementary roles:
- Project Management focuses on the technical delivery of the solution. PMs ensure that software is installed, machines are plugged in, and processes go live on time, within scope, and on budget.
- Change Management focuses on the people side of the transformation. Change practitioners focus on stakeholder engagement, awareness, communication, leadership alignment, and guiding employees through emotional and behavioral transitions.
As Rich Cruz points out, when a project faces cost overruns or missed deadlines, leadership often tries to throw change management into the mix late in the process. While late-stage intervention can help salvage a troubled rollout, integrating change management from the very beginning mitigates risk, flattens the “productivity dip” (Bridge’s Neutral Zone), and accelerates ROI.
Two Diagnostic Questions for Your Next Change Initiative
To help leaders determine whether their initiative is properly structured for success, Rich and Ben offer two essential diagnostic questions:
Question 1 (Ben’s Diagnostic): “What does success look like?”
If your team defines success as simply “the machine was installed” or “100 employees attended training,” you have only completed technical delivery. True success must be defined by behavioral adoption—whether employees are actively using the tool as intended to add tangible value to the organization and its customers.
Question 2 (Rich’s Diagnostic): “Do you have 5 clear goals for this initiative, and can you name them?”
Without clear, crisp, and communicated goals, organizations suffer from severe “goal sprawl”. When leadership fails to align on unified objectives, different departments end up pulling in opposing directions—one optimizing for speed, another for cost, and another for quality. Change management aligns leaders and stakeholders around a shared vision and clear business outcomes.
Transform Your Next Organizational Change with Harmonious Workplaces
Successful organizational transformation requires balancing technical excellence with human readiness. If your organization is planning a major software rollout, structural shift, or equipment upgrade, do not leave adoption to chance.
At Harmonious Workplaces, we empower leaders and teams to thrive by fostering environments where change drives purpose, growth, and long-term success.
Ready to make change your friend? Contact us today to book a free 30-minute information session with one of our expert change management consultants. Let us help you align your strategy, inspire your people, and unlock the full ROI of your investments.
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