Change Management gone very, very wrong

Overview
Natasha Jaffe shares a candid postmortem of a change management initiative that went dramatically wrong. The article walks through the planning assumptions, execution failures, and the fallout experienced by the team, offering a transparent look at what not to do.

Key Takeaways

• Clear communication and stakeholder alignment are critical before any major change.
• Over-promising timelines without realistic capacity planning leads to burnout.
• Continuous feedback loops can catch issues early, preventing escalation.
• Documentation of decisions and rationales protects the team when things go awry.
• A blameless culture encourages learning rather than finger-pointing.

Who Would Benefit

• Engineering managers overseeing process changes.
• Technical leaders responsible for cross-functional initiatives.
• Product owners planning major releases.
• Anyone interested in postmortem analysis and learning from failure.

Frameworks and Methodologies

• Change Management Principles
• Agile Retrospectives
• Blameless Postmortem Practices