Making Change Stick: How HR Leaders Build Trust, Alignment, and Adoption
Hosts: Mervyn Dinnen
Guest: Amanda Arrowsmith, Executive Director of People and Culture at the Royal British Legion
Summary
In this episode of HR Means Business, Mervyn is joined by Amanda Arrowsmith to explore what it takes to lead meaningful organizational change.
Amanda shares why successful transformation starts by connecting every initiative back to organizational purpose and strategy. She also explains why organizations sometimes need to do less, slow down, and create stronger foundations before moving forward. Rather than measuring success simply by whether a project launches on schedule, leaders need to consider whether people can actually adopt the change and whether it improves how work gets done. A major part of that process is the role of managers. Amanda describes managers as the “secret sauce” of successful change because they are the people translating organizational decisions into everyday conversations with employees. Giving managers early information, practical tools, space to ask difficult questions, and a clear understanding of the “why” helps them communicate change in ways that make sense for their individual teams.
The conversation also explores employee voice, change fatigue, resistance, and the importance of allowing employees to make sense of change for themselves rather than telling them how they should feel about it. Amanda explains that leaders need to recognize the potential loss of agency and identity that can accompany even positive changes and create space for people to work through those reactions.
Key Takeaways
- Turning long-term organizational strategy into manageable stages of change
- Why successful transformation requires prioritization and organizational capacity
- Building alignment between strategy, leaders, teams, and everyday work
- Creating meaningful employee voice without requiring consensus on every decision
- Recognizing and responding to change fatigue and resistance
- Measuring change through both business outcomes and employee behavior
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