How small is too small for change management?
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Hey Reader, Have you ever heard a leader say that their business is too small for strategy? I haven’t. Which is why I’m so surprised when leaders of small and even mid-sized organizations say that they’re too small for change management. The Association of Change Management Professionals defines change management as “the practice of applying a structured approach to the transition of an organization from a current state to a future state to achieve expected benefits.” A bit dry, but essentially, change management means designing a strategy to navigate change so that your org and your people move from the status quo to the future state successfully. So when leaders say “we’re too small for change management,” what I hear is “we’re too small to be strategic.” But if that doesn’t apply to other areas of your business, then why should it apply to change? The smallest team I've worked with to design a change strategy was a team of threeThe founder wanted to make a change and also wanted to make sure that they centered their two employees in the process. At first, they considered just doing the thing. As in, they knew what they wanted to do, they were going to tell their team, and then the thing would be done. Or would it? By taking a few steps back, clarifying the founder's actual desired outcome, and designing a strategy that would reach that outcome, we ended up creating a completely different pathway than the founder had originally intended — a strategy that worked better for everyone (and saved the founder a bunch of money and nurtured a culture of trust, care, and open communication). So when leaders ask themselves Is my organization too small for change management? I do my best to show them that that’s not the right question. It's not Is my organization too small? It's how can I scale my strategy? It’s not the size of the organization that matters. It’s about aligning the scale of the strategy to the scale of the challenge so that you end up with the best outcome. So the same concept applies for the size of a change itselfFor decades, change management has been presented as a complicated, expensive process reserved for large enterprises and organization-wide transformations. But organizations of all sizes navigate change every single day, and even small changes have big impacts on your people. When leaders try to choose between “doing change management” or not doing it at all, it creates a pendulum effect. Leaders end up either over-engineering change (micromanagement, red tape, intricate plans that lead to burnout before implementation, etc.) or letting it descend into chaos (no clear purpose or decision-making process, no communication strategy, siloed and disconnected tweaks and updates, etc.). The trick is to scale the strategy, not choose no strategy at allNavigating change of all sizes in a strategic way helps people do their jobs better, increases trust, strengthens your culture, and utilizes resources in the best way possible so that you can redirect time, money, and energy where they matter most: your mission. Any change and organizations of any size can benefit from a structured approach. The key is to have a strategy that works for your specific organization, that is tailored for your org size, and that you can scale up and down based on the size of a change. To scale a strategy, start by exploring three questions: What — Why — Who. The more complex the answers, the more complex the strategy should be.
Remember: the size of the organization doesn't determine whether you "do change management" or notNeither does the size of a change. You always "do change management." You just scale the strategy to match. Happy change-making, Caitlin Caitlin Harper P.S. – I'm chairing Communicating Through Change, Crisis & Uncertainty: Practical Tools for Internal Communication Leaders, a virtual conference, on October 22 & 23, 2025 and I have one guest pass left! If you're a leader, communicator, or change practitioner looking to hear expert insights, proven strategies, and real-world case studies that will help you build trust, manage resistance, and drive impactful communication in times of disruption, reply here and let me know you're available and interested in attending! |