Hi Reader,

Picture This

You’ve been brought in to help an organization change.

You see the problems. You know what needs to be built. You have the experience, the framework, and a plan to make things better.

Leadership is asking for progress.

But the people you’re there to help aren’t buying in.

They’re polite in meetings. They nod when you speak. They may even tell you they understand the plan.

Then you leave the room, and nothing changes.

What do you do?

Push harder? Escalate the resistance? Refine the implementation plan?

Or do you stop trying to implement long enough to understand why people aren’t ready?

I learned the answer the hard way.

And it took six months.

The Story Behind the Six Months

Many years ago, I stepped into a Director of Training and Development role following an acquisition.

The culture was full of fear. The executives had been doing the work for 25 years, often without the systems, structure, or support needed to make their processes repeatable and scalable.

I arrived with experience working alongside multinational organizations with established systems and processes. I knew what was possible when people had the right infrastructure to do their jobs well.

But this organization operated differently.

People had learned to survive through workarounds. Managers were often experienced individual contributors who had never been properly supported in becoming leaders. Turnover had taken its toll. Trust was fragile.

And I represented change.

Some people saw me as a threat to their jobs. They questioned my intentions and dismissed initiatives I had been brought in to implement.

Meanwhile, my VP expected progress.

I was caught between the pressure to deliver results and the reality that the people responsible for making those results happen didn’t trust the process.

So I changed my approach.

I stopped trying to implement and started listening.

I had conversations with people at every level. I shadowed employees as they worked. I ate lunch in the cafeteria instead of leaving the building. I learned the actual work, the barriers people faced, and the reasons they had developed the habits and workarounds I was being asked to replace.

I needed to understand what was happening before I could determine what needed to change.

We started with the managers. We created space for honest conversations about what they needed, what was missing, and what could realistically be delivered.

And slowly, something shifted.

After six months of investing in relationships, we began to see real traction.

The changes were no longer dependent on my physical presence. Managers were supporting the work. People inside the organization were becoming champions of the culture we were trying to build.

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The implementation became easier because the buy-in was there.

We had stopped treating change as something to deliver to people and started treating it as something to build with them.

That experience fundamentally changed how I think about leadership.

The Data Behind the Story

My experience wasn’t an isolated leadership challenge. It reflects a broader problem organizations continue to face.

Consider these figures from the change-management research cited in this edition’s source material:

• 17% of executives report feeling highly capable of executing their organization’s change-management plans. (KPMG)
• 71% of organizations do not offer senior leaders training specifically tailored to change management. (Forbes)
• 12% of major transformation programs fully achieve or exceed their original ambitions, according to Bain & Company research cited in the material. (Goodhabitz & Marketeffect)
• 41% of reported resistance to change is attributed to a lack of trust in leadership, while 39% is linked to poor or non-transparent communication in the cited research. (Prosci)

These figures point to a problem worth examining.

Organizations invest considerable time in strategy, technology, processes, and implementation plans. Yet the people expected to lead and adopt those changes may not have the preparation, trust, or support required to make them work.

We cannot assume that announcing a change creates readiness for it.

And we cannot interpret every sign of resistance as an unwillingness to improve.

Sometimes people are protecting what they know because nobody has helped them understand what comes next.

Sometimes managers are being held accountable for outcomes they have never been equipped to deliver.

And sometimes leaders are so focused on demonstrating progress that they miss the conditions preventing progress from taking hold.

The implementation plan may be ready long before the people are.​
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The Grounded Leadership Lens: Capacity Before Change

This is where Grounded Leadership comes in.

Leadership capacity isn’t simply about whether you have the knowledge or authority to lead.

It’s also about whether you can remain present, curious, and effective when the people around you are anxious, uncertain, or resistant.

When pressure rises, leaders can fall into two familiar patterns.

The first is pushing harder.

You double down on the plan. You communicate the deadlines again. You ask managers why their teams aren’t getting on board.

You may create activity, but activity isn’t the same as adoption.

The second is stepping back from the change.

You delay difficult conversations. You soften expectations. You quietly reduce the ambition of the initiative because the resistance feels too difficult to navigate.

Both responses can come from the same place: a leader who hasn’t been adequately supported to lead through uncertainty.

Grounded Leadership asks us to take a different approach.

Before asking why people aren’t moving, ask what is making movement difficult.

Before introducing another process, understand the work people are already doing.

Before measuring commitment, examine whether people have the clarity, capability, and trust needed to participate.

And before calling a change successful, look at whether it continues when the person driving it is no longer in the room.

That last point matters.

A change that only works when the external consultant is present isn’t embedded change. It’s temporary compliance.

The goal is to build the understanding, ownership, and leadership capacity that allow the work to continue without you.

Trust Is Part of the Implementation Plan

For a long time, organizations have treated relationship-building as something leaders do alongside the real work.

I see it differently.

Trust is part of the work.

Listening is part of the work.

Understanding why a manager is struggling to lead a team through change is part of the work.

Creating the conditions for people to speak honestly about what’s not working is part of the work.

None of this means avoiding accountability or allowing resistance to dictate every decision.

It means recognizing that sustainable change requires more than a good plan and a deadline.

It requires leaders who can hold the tension between what the organization needs to achieve and what people need to make that achievement possible.

That is the difference between implementing a change and building the capacity to sustain it.

And it is why I believe so strongly in Grounded Leadership.

The framework didn’t emerge from theory alone. It grew from working inside organizations where change was supported, organizations where it was resisted, and situations where I had to learn the difference between being responsible for change and being ready to lead it.

One Move This Week

Think about the change initiative currently taking up the most space in your leadership role.

Before your next meeting about progress, take ten minutes to answer these three questions:

1. What am I assuming people understand that I haven’t actually explained?

2. What might people be protecting, fearing, or struggling with that I haven’t taken the time to understand?

3. What conversation would help us build ownership instead of simply secure compliance? You don’t have to abandon your plan.

You may need to change how you bring people into it.

Start with one conversation. Listen without immediately defending the strategy. Look for the information you would never get from a status report.

Then decide what needs to happen next.

That’s not delaying implementation.

That’s leading it.

The Grounded Question of the Week

Where are you pushing for implementation when what your team needs first is understanding, trust, or support?

Sit with that question.

If you’re a leader caught between executive expectations and the day-to-day realities of your team, I’d love to hear what you’re navigating.

The most useful leadership conversations often begin when we stop pretending the answer is another action plan.

An Invitation: Grounded Leadership in Practice

If this story resonates, I’d like to invite you to explore Grounded Leadership with us.

We’re creating space for leaders who are tired of being handed another framework without the support to put it into practice.

The work is about building the capacity to lead through uncertainty, develop confidence without pretending to have every answer, and create the conditions for people and organizations to move forward together.

Two sessions are coming up this week:

October 14 at 12pm/ 3 pm est

​The Capacity Shift: Know Your Patterns and Make the Shift- Sign Up Here​

We’ll explore what happens when the demands of leadership exceed the capacity available to meet them, and how leaders can begin to recognize and address that gap.

October 15 at 12 pm/ 3 pm est

​Grounded Leadership: Mastering Resilience and Confidence in Uncertain Times​

If you’ve ever been held responsible for implementing change without being given the time, tools, or support to build trust, these conversations are for you.

You don’t have to choose between delivering results and caring about the people who deliver them.

You need a way to lead that makes both possible.

Opening the Loop Forward

In the next edition, we’ll explore what happens when trust is missing from leadership conversations, and why the quietest teams aren’t always the healthiest ones.

Because sometimes the greatest risk isn’t the disagreement you can hear.

It’s the conversation nobody feels safe enough to have.

If this edition made you think of a leader navigating a difficult transition, share it with them.

And if you’re working through a change initiative right now, reply and tell me what part of the process is proving most difficult. I read every response.

Until next time,

Jessy Santana

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​Linkedin | Book a meeting​
Leadership & Culture Change Consultant | Keynote Speaker | Creator of the Grounded Leadership Framework and the 7 Days of Clarity Experience
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