Change Signal: Modern Change Management that Works

Here’s the revised version with an opening sentence and the three questions bulleted.

This Change Signal conversation with Aidan McCullen asks three practical questions for anyone leading change in a large organization:

What if change isn’t an event?

Where does power really live?

Who needs to win before transformation can move?

Aidan McCullen, host of The Innovation Show and author of Undisruptable, joins me to talk about what it really takes to lead change when reinvention is no longer occasional but permanent.

Aidan brings a useful dose of realism to change management, transformation, and innovation. He argues that the “change muscle” has atrophied, partly because many organizations still treat change like a project with a finish line rather than a capability to build.

We get into the unglamorous but essential work of change leadership: mapping power, understanding resisters, creating small wins, giving other people credit, and getting enough air cover to survive the corporate maze.

There’s also a memorable warning about chasing “chocolate teapots” — the easy wins that look like progress but don’t really move the dial.

For senior leaders responsible for transformation, this is a conversation about stamina, politics, allies, and the quiet discipline of making change real.

Change Signal. Cut through the blather, the BS, and the noise to find the good stuff that works in change. If you’re a transformational leader seeking modern change mastery, you’re in exactly the right place.

***

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This Change Signal conversation with Alex M H Smith asks three sharp questions:

What unique value does your change work create?

Who actually cares about it?

What are you brave enough to remove?

Alex is the author of No Bullsh*t Strategy, and he brings a gloriously skeptical eye to the foggy world of strategy, change management, and transformation. His central challenge is simple: most strategy isn’t strategy at all — it’s goals, optimization, or a vague wish wearing a business suit.

We explore why internal change teams need to understand their own “unique value” to the business, why change needs to be sold through a story people actually care about, and why exhausted organizations may need less addition and more sacrifice.

There’s also a useful poke at inclusive decision-making, charisma, mischief, and the problem of trying to lead change in an era when everyone is already overwhelmed.

If you’re leading transformation inside a large organization, this one may sharpen your thinking — and perhaps your courage.

Change Signal. Cut through the blather, the BS, and the noise to find the good stuff that works in change. If you’re a transformational leader seeking modern change mastery, you’re in exactly the right place.

***

WHEN YOU’RE READY

🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!)

The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly

***

CONNECT

💼Connect on LinkedIn

***

SAY THANKS

💜Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

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Here are three questions from this Change Signal conversation:

What if resistance is right?

Where does change spread without permission?

How close is your transformation work to customers and money?

In this episode, I talk with Clay Parker Jones, author of Hidden Patterns: A Playbook for More Human Workplaces, about why change management often gets stuck — and what might actually help.

Clay’s work is built around the idea of patterns: small, repeatable moves that can change how people work without requiring you to blow up the org chart. We talk about why old patterns are so seductive, how new ones spread, and why the geeks, nerds, and weird ones may be your best allies.

We also get into resistance — not as ignorance or stubbornness, but as useful information about what people are protecting. And Clay makes a sharp case that change leaders need to get closer to customer contact, business outcomes, and the places where the organization can feel the impact.

Change Signal is where transformational change leaders seek and find modern change wisdom.

Change Signal. Cut through the blather, the BS, and the noise to find the good stuff that works in change. If you’re a transformational leader seeking modern change mastery, you’re in exactly the right place.

***

WHEN YOU’RE READY

🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!)

The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly

***

CONNECT

💼Connect on LinkedIn

***

SAY THANKS

💜Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

💚Leave a review on Spotify

Here are three questions from this Change Signal conversation with Greg Satell:

What if change doesn’t move through hierarchy at all?

What if silos are not the problem, but part of the solution?

What if trying to persuade people is actually a warning sign?

In this episode, I talk with Greg Satell about change management, transformation, and why large-scale change is less like a rollout and more like a cascade.

Greg’s argument is wonderfully useful: change spreads through small groups, loosely connected, united by shared purpose. That means the job of a change leader is not to launch bigger, shout louder, or persuade harder — it’s to find where energy already exists, build one concrete success, and let peer networks do their work.

We also dig into why shared purpose needs shared values underneath it, why resistance is often rational, and why identity is the hardest thing to ask people to change.

For senior leaders navigating change fatigue, transformation overload, and the endless pressure to “go big,” this conversation offers a more practical, human, and network-smart way to begin.

Change Signal. Cut through the blather, the BS, and the noise to find the good stuff that works in change. If you’re a transformational leader seeking modern change mastery, you’re in exactly the right place.

***

WHEN YOU’RE READY

🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!)

The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly

***

CONNECT

💼Connect on LinkedIn

***

SAY THANKS

💜Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

💚Leave a review on Spotify

Jennifer Garvey Berger’s three key insights: connectivity matters more than individual talent in complex systems; small experiments beat both over-planning and paralysis; and stories are legitimate measures of change before numbers shift.

If you've ever had a change plan that hasn't quite gone according to plan (and honestly, who hasn't?), this conversation with Jennifer Garvey Berger will shift how you think about leading transformation. She's spent three decades figuring out what actually works when everything feels unpredictable and out of control.

Jennifer challenges the "all-star team" approach most of us default to. Instead, she argues for building networks of diverse perspectives because you can't predict whose viewpoint will matter most until after the fact.

She also makes the case for experiments so small they feel almost trivial — like fancy lunches that generated $10 million in revenue. The key is making them smaller than you think, more fun than traditional initiatives, and designed specifically for learning rather than guaranteed success.

And here's something that might surprise you: Jennifer suggests that rumours and stories are often the first real indicators of change, long before your metrics show anything. In human systems, shifting narratives actually is real change.

This isn't about lighting incense and appreciating each other's light within. It's practical wisdom for navigating complexity without losing your mind.

Change Signal. Where ambitious leaders find modern change mastery. Cut through the blather, the BS, and the noise to find the good stuff that works.

***

WHEN YOU’RE READY

🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!)

The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly

***

CONNECT

💼Connect on LinkedIn

***

SAY THANKS

💜Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

💚Leave a review on Spotify