Change is everywhere right now – organisational restructuring, new ways of working, rapid advances in AI, shifting expectations from employees and customers alike. And as Emma Serlin, opened the webinar by noting, change can either bring teams together – or tip them into disengagement, conflict, and exhaustion.
In this webinar, Emma was joined by David Liddle, CEO of TCM Group, and Duncan Battishill, CEO of Altrix Consultants, to explore what it really takes to navigate change well – not just structurally, but humanly.
What followed was a practical, grounded conversation about why change initiatives so often fail, what effective change leadership looks like in practice, and how leaders can balance performance with wellbeing in times of uncertainty.
Where Change Most Commonly Goes Wrong
One of the strongest themes to emerge was that change fails not because the strategy is wrong, but because the human impact is treated as an afterthought.
David shared that, in his work mediating conflict after poorly managed change, people often feel:
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Unheard and undervalued
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As though change is being done to them, not with them
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Reduced to a “resource” rather than recognised as a human being
This creates a powerful sense of loss – of identity, status, connection, and hope – which then shows up as resistance, disengagement, or conflict. Leaders may experience this as “behavioural issues”, but underneath it are unaddressed emotional needs.
Duncan added another critical dimension:
“The success of any intervention depends on the interior condition of the intervener.”
In other words, change often goes wrong when the person leading it hasn’t paused to examine how they themselves are showing up. Anxiety, pressure, or uncertainty at the top tends to ripple through an organisation – whether acknowledged or not.
Good Change vs Change for Change’s Sake
So how do you tell the difference between necessary change and disruptive change for its own sake?
Emma offered a simple but powerful lens: good change works at three levels:
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The individual – Does this help people do their best work and feel able to flourish?
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The collective – Does it improve how teams collaborate and perform together?
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The organisation – Does it genuinely support sustainable performance and purpose?
When change only serves one of these levels – particularly the organisational one – it often breeds fatigue and resistance. Without a clearly communicated why, even well-intentioned change can feel clumsy, exhausting, or pointless.
Duncan reframed the idea of “good” and “bad” change altogether, suggesting that change is constant – the real question is timing, readiness, and proportionality. Leaders often struggle not because the change is wrong, but because it’s too much, too fast, or introduced before people are psychologically prepared.
The Key Pillars of Navigating Change Well
Across the conversation, several consistent pillars emerged.
1. Self-Awareness
Change starts with leaders understanding their own motivations, fears, assumptions, and pressures. As Duncan put it, some people can sense the need for change long before others – but acting too early, or too forcefully, can be just as damaging as acting too late.
2. Psychological Safety
People need spaces where they can voice concerns, doubts, and emotions without fear of judgement or reprisal. Duncan shared a practical example of taking a leadership team out of their usual environment to create a neutral, reflective space – allowing real conversations to happen before decisions were made.
3. Addressing the Hidden Blocks
Before creating vision statements or implementation plans, leaders need to surface what might get in the way:
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Emotional baggage
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Unspoken fears
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Cultural habits that no longer serve
Ignoring these doesn’t make them disappear – it just pushes them underground.
Four Forces Leaders Must Balance During Change
David introduced a practical framework for understanding the competing forces at play in any change process:
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Power, Authority & Control (PAC) – How leaders use (and are aware of) their influence
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Mastery, Autonomy & Purpose (MAP) – What motivates people to engage and do their best work
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Values, Behaviours & Capabilities (VBC) – How culture is lived day-to-day
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Objectives & Key Results (OKRs) – What success actually looks like
Effective change happens not by over-indexing on one of these, but by working in the centre where they align. Listening – genuinely listening – is what allows leaders to understand how these forces are experienced by others.
David also highlighted two underrated leadership skills during change:
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Knowing when to stop talking
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Knowing when to step back and let others lead
And crucially, recognising when change has become business as usual – at which point leadership shifts from driving to supporting.
Performance, Wellbeing, and the Myth of the Trade-Off
A recurring question from the audience was how leaders can balance pressure for results with care for wellbeing.
The panel strongly rejected the idea that this is a trade-off at all. When people feel valued, safe, and included, discretionary effort rises naturally. Work doesn’t feel heavier – it feels more meaningful.
David noted that environments grounded in empathy, curiosity, and trust don’t just feel better; they perform better. Innovation, creativity, and problem-solving all depend on people feeling psychologically secure.
In an AI-enabled world where many tasks can be automated, human value increasingly lies in connection, insight, creativity, and judgement. Leaders who fail to create the conditions for these qualities risk losing talent, trust, and relevance altogether.
Change at Scale Starts Small
Perhaps one of the most reassuring messages of the session was that large-scale change doesn’t always require grand gestures.
David suggested that something as simple as leaders regularly asking:
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“How are you really feeling right now?”
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“What do you need to feel more supported?”
– and truly listening to the answers – can create momentum that spreads organically through an organisation.
Small, high-quality conversations, repeated consistently, can drive profound cultural change.
Final Takeaways
As the session closed, each speaker shared their core message:
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Duncan Battishill:
Intention matters. Create the right environment. -
David Liddle:
Check in with head, heart, and gut – for yourself and for others. -
Emma Serlin:
Compassionate listening and self-awareness are not “soft skills”; they are the foundations of effective change.
In times of rapid transformation, the organisations that thrive won’t be the ones with the slickest change plans – but the ones that remember change is, first and foremost, a human experience.
Ready to Take This Further?
If this conversation has inspired you and you’d like to explore one on one communication coaching, why not Book a free 15-minute Discovery Call with one of our team and see how we could support your communication journey.
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Connect With The Speakers
You can connect with David Liddle here and learn more about his work at TCM Group here.
You can connect with Duncan Battishill here and learn more about his work at Altrix Consultants here.
You can connect with Emma Serlin here and learn more about London Speech Workshop’s Navigating Conflict courses here.
Watch It Back
If this has inspired you and you want to watch the webinar back, you can see it on Youtube here.
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