Lessons About Change: What Moving Taught Me About Leadership, Part 1
PART 1: What We Carry, What We Leave Behind and the Messy Middle
I'm writing this surrounded by boxes. Some are carefully labeled. Some contain things I'm already wondering why we moved at all. Some hold things we need immediately, although naturally those seem to be buried beneath six other boxes. There are rooms beginning to look like home and others that still look like staging areas for a small warehouse.
Somewhere in the process of packing, moving, unpacking, organizing, reorganizing, measuring, troubleshooting and asking, “Where on earth did we put that?” it occurred to me:
Moving has a lot to teach us about change.
We talk about organizational change as though it is something we manage. We create implementation plans, establish timelines, assign responsibilities, communicate expectations and identify deliverables. All of that matters.
But moving has reminded me that change looks very different when you're the person actually living inside it, adapting in real time and navigating things not aligning with the plan.
Change requires decisions about what comes with us and what doesn't. It disrupts routines. It creates periods of uncertainty. It exposes things we hadn't noticed before. It demands hundreds of decisions, large and small. And even when the change is something we chose – and something we genuinely wanted – it can still take more out of us than we expected.
Leadership during change requires understanding both sides of that equation: the mechanics of change and the human experience of it.
Here are a few things moving has reminded me about both.
1. What You Carry Forward Matters
Moving forces you to make decisions about what deserves space in the next chapter.
Some decisions are easy. Others involve standing in front of something you haven't used in years thinking, “But we might need this someday.”
Organizations do this too.
We carry forward processes because they've always existed. Meetings remain on calendars long after anyone remembers why they were created. Leaders inherit practices, assumptions and expectations from their predecessors and continue them without consciously deciding whether they still serve the organization.
Change creates an opportunity to ask a question we don't ask often enough: Does this still belong where we're going?
Not everything from the past needs to be discarded. History, experience and institutional knowledge have tremendous value. But carrying something forward should be a decision – not simply a default.
2. There Is a Cost to Carrying Everything
Every box has a cost.
Someone has to pack it, lift it, transport it, find room for it and eventually unpack it.
The same is true in organizations. Every initiative, meeting, report, responsibility, procedure and priority consumes some combination of time, attention and energy.
Individually, each one may seem reasonable. Collectively, they can become an enormous organizational load.
One of the easiest ways to overwhelm people during change is to keep adding the new without removing anything old.
We sometimes talk about leadership development primarily in terms of addition: a new mindset, another skill, another strategy, another responsibility, another tool. But growth also requires subtraction.
Sometimes the most important question isn't “What else should we be doing?” It's “What can we stop carrying?”
3. You Can't Pack and Unpack at the Same Time
There is an awkward stage in every move when the old environment no longer functions and the new one doesn't function yet.
You know where your belongings used to be. You have some idea where they're going. But right now? They're in boxes.
Organizations have their own version of this uncomfortable middle.
The old structure, process or expectation is being dismantled, but the new one hasn't yet become familiar. Roles may be shifting. People are learning new systems. Decisions take longer. Questions emerge that nobody anticipated.
Leaders can become impatient with this stage because they know where the organization is headed. Employees are often experiencing something different: they are living between what they knew and what they don't yet trust.
That space requires more communication, not less. It also requires some tolerance for temporary inefficiency. That’s worth reiterating - it requires A LOT of patience.
Not every sign of confusion means the change is failing. Sometimes it simply means you're still unpacking and reconceptualizing.
4. Beware of the Box Marked “Miscellaneous”
Every move has one.
The box containing batteries, a screwdriver, three picture hooks, an extension cord, something that belongs in the bathroom and an object nobody remembers owning.
It usually exists because, at some point, somebody didn't know where something belonged and decided, “We'll figure it out later.”
Organizations have miscellaneous boxes too: unclear responsibilities, unresolved conflict, tasks that technically belong to everyone and therefore belong to no one, decisions that keep getting postponed or reprioritized and roles that evolved organically but were never clearly defined.
Temporary ambiguity has a remarkable ability to become permanent. Or as I name it, it becomes a part of the fixed furniture.
Effective leadership means periodically opening the organizational “miscellaneous” box and asking: What exactly is this? Who owns it? Where does it belong? And do we even still need it? That too, requires thoughtfulness and patience. It’s not usually the fun stuff to unpack but it does belong.
Clarity is one of the simplest ways leaders can reduce unnecessary anxiety and calm the nervous system.
5. What Worked Before Might Not Fit Now
Something can be beautiful, valuable and yet completely wrong for the space you're trying to create now.
Moving furniture has made this painfully obvious. You can love something. It can have worked perfectly in the previous room. You can be completely convinced that you know where it should go.
And then you discover that the wall is six inches too short. You want it to fit and you keep looking for a place and a way to make it relevant. Leadership solutions work the same way.
We become attached to strategies because they worked before. We adopt best practices because another organization succeeded with them. We repeat approaches that fit our personal leadership style. Content and evolution matters.
Before implementing a solution, strong leaders take time to understand the environment they're placing it into. What does this team need? What conditions exist here? What constraints are we working with? What problem are we actually solving?
The goal isn't to force our favorite piece of furniture into the room. The goal is to create a room that works.
6. The New House Doesn't Know Your Old Routine
In the old house, you could probably walk through a dark room without thinking. You knew where the light switch was. You knew which drawer held the scissors. You knew how far to turn the shower handle before the water became too hot.
Then you move. And for me right now, I have to remember there’s a step there, so don’t fall off of it.
Suddenly, ordinary tasks require thought. There is even a little irritability as I observe my own discomfort with missing my old routine.
Environments shape behavior far more than we realize. This is a normal reaction to change - good change can still bring discomfort, so let’s name that.
The same thing happens during organizational change. People who were highly competent in one system can temporarily feel less confident in new system. Familiar routines disappear, informal networks change, decision pathways shift and behaviors that once happened automatically now require conscious attention and intention. It’s a noticeable mental taxation that invades our confident clarity.
We will interpret that discomfort as resistance or a character of irritability and sometimes it is. And sometimes people are simply learning where the light switches are. A real example – after 4 weeks, I’m still turning the kitchen faucet the wrong way to turn it off.
Good leaders distinguish between unwillingness to change and the very normal awkwardness of adapting to a new environment and noticing the people navigating it.
Consider This:
Change can be fascinating.
We spend so much time preparing to get somewhere new that we don't always anticipate what it will feel like once we arrive. We plan, organize, anticipate and make decisions. And then we find ourselves standing in unfamiliar surroundings, trying to remember how to execute basic routines.
Getting to a new destination - physically or a process - is only part of the experience.
In Part 2 of Lessons About Change, I'll share a few more lessons that moving has brought into focus, including the importance of prioritizing, recognizing the limits of our capacity and understanding why arriving somewhere new doesn't necessarily mean the transition is complete.
Leading forward,
Michelle
Bridging The Gap – where insight leads to impact.
A monthly reminder that thinking requires space.
Signal vs. Noise
If there is one thing today’s workforce is not lacking, it’s input.
Emails.
Meetings.
News alerts.
Strategic priorities.
Budget pressures.
Technology updates.
Constant change.
The human brain was designed to notice signals. Yet when the volume of input becomes relentless, everything begins to feel equally important. Signal becomes noise.
This month, consider a different question: What am I treating as urgent that is simply loud?
Notice what immediately comes to mind.
Then ask: What actually deserves my attention right now? Right now.
Clarity often doesn’t emerge from gathering more information.
Sometimes it emerges from reducing the noise long enough to hear what matters.
Be curious.
Because The Heart Of Every Great Organization Still Beats Human.®
-Michelle Ogle, Bridge Executive Coaching
ADVANCED COACHING PROGRAM
Leadership Under Pressure
• Navigating conflict without sacrificing relationships
• Understanding the human dynamics driving performance and resistance
• Strengthen influence and decision-making when the stakes are high
• Build trust, alignment and influence in complex environments
Michelle C. Ogle-Gaglione, M.A., Executive Coach, Organizational Consultant
Human behavior drives every organization.
For more than 30 years, Michelle has studied what captures attention, creates engagement, builds trust, influences decisions and drives behavior. As an executive coach, organizational consultant and Possibility Strategist, she helps leaders apply those insights to strengthen relationships, align teams and lead with greater impact.
Because The Heart Of Every Great Organization Still Beats Human.®
-Michelle C. Ogle-Gaglione, Bridge Executive Coaching