Beyond Change Fatigue: Fostering a High-Performing Organization

By SIOP Student Yolanda Fraction

It may be the beginning of the year. Many of us celebrated holidays, watched the ball drop, or welcomed 2026 with a toast. Yet for many, this does not feel like a clean slate. Teams are carrying the weight of last year while navigating geopolitical pressures, regulatory shifts, tariffs, and rising costs. Research shows that time, energy, attention, and social support are finite.

As we move into 2026, uncertainty continues to shape how organizations operate and how people experience their work. The saying goes, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” But how do you plan when the future feels unpredictable? Some leaders wait for more data before acting. Others respond by adding more projects and plans in an effort to feel in control. Both approaches can increase strain on already stretched teams.

When the landscape feels unpredictable, doing more can feel like progress. Yet, this may result in teams and leaders experiencing burnout, exhaustion, and weaker results.

A high-performing organization understands that change fatigue is more than an individual resilience problem. It is not simply about improving an individual’s well-being. In practice, it is largely a systems and leadership opportunity. It is about the choices and day-to-day decisions people make across the system or choose not to make. This shows up in what leaders choose to prioritize or deprioritize, the difference between what managers say and what they do, and which behaviors are rewarded or quietly tolerated.

Research reinforces what many see in their organizations. Repeated organizational change, especially when combined with uncertainty and heavy workloads, increases fatigue. Over time, this often surfaces as emotional exhaustion and burnout (de Vries & de Vries, 2021; Bernerth et al., 2011).

What does a shared approach to change fatigue look like?
Executive and senior leaders must lead this work. At the same time, addressing change fatigue is not limited to positional leadership roles. In high-trust environments, people participate by asking questions, clarifying needs, and contributing to solutions.

Here are four ways change fatigue might be addressed in your organization.

1. Create clarity through sensemaking
   Acknowledge and celebrate past wins, successes, and achievements. Then create clarity on what comes next. When people can see a clear beginning and end to change, they are better able to anticipate what is coming and adjust (Rafferty & Griffin, 2006). It also helps to identify what is not changing. This helps teams see where stability remains and it supports continuity.

   Application: Share a change timeline that includes milestones and shows what is changing and what is staying the same.

2. Focus on high-value, high-impact initiatives
   Doing more tasks, initiatives, or programs does not automatically equal a greater impact or outcome. It can, however, create system-wide exhaustion. Exhaustion is often a sign that priorities and workload require attention. People have a finite amount of energy, time, and capacity. Especially during lean seasons, ensure initiatives are high-value and have been mapped to clear outcomes.

   Application: Use Start-Stop-Scale or Value-Priority matrices to regularly review the value of work and protect your team’s ability to focus on strategic priorities.

3. Redefine strategic support from people managers
   Consider your role, or the role of people managers in your organization. Do they manage work, or enable it? People managers are uniquely positioned to partner with their teams, offering strategic support, especially during lean seasons that may heighten change fatigue. When tangible rewards are not feasible, recognition and clear priorities matter.

   Application: Hold consistent team meetings or brief check-ins to discuss priorities, recognize progress, remove barriers, and create space for honest conversations about workload and change.

4. Solve for the root causes, not just the symptoms
   Zoom out, notice where there are clusters of people or teams within your organization experiencing change fatigue. Use a root cause analysis tool such as the 5 Whys to examine and solve the root causes of change fatigue instead of just treating symptoms such as burn out or exhaustion.

   Application: With your team, ask “Why?” five times. Identify the root cause. Then, agree on one action that can be taken as a next step.

How might we address change fatigue?
Change fatigue will not be solved by asking people to do more with less. It will be addressed when leaders work in partnership with their teams to review and redesign how work gets done and what success looks like. The organizations that thrive in 2026 will choose effectiveness over urgency. They will know that everything cannot be high priority. They will strategically achieve their goals while honoring the capacity of their people.

References
Bernerth, J. B., Walker, H. J., & Harris, S. G. (2011). Change fatigue: Development and initial validation of a new measure. Work & Stress, 25(4), 321–337. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2011.634280

de Vries, M. S., & de Vries, M. S. (2021). Repetitive reorganizations, uncertainty, and change fatigue. Public Management Review, 23(11), 1648–1671. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540962.2021.1905258

Rafferty, A. E., & Griffin, M. A. (2006). Perceptions of organizational change: A stress and coping perspective. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(5), 1154–1162. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.5.1154

—

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the Author

Yolanda Fraction is a Senior Organization Development Consultant at Johns Hopkins University and a doctoral student in industrial-organizational psychology. She brings over 19 years of experience across learning, talent, and organizational development, including leadership roles in enterprise learning and people-focused consulting. Her work sits at the intersection of I-O psychology and OD, with a focus on helping organizations design systems that strengthen leadership, culture, and performance. Yolanda is the author of Joyful Workplaces: How People and Systems Create Energy, Resilience, and Results and the host of the Teamwork Sandbox podcast.

—

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology or its affiliates.

If you are interested in submitting an article for Thought Leadership for a Smarter Workplace, email SIOP Senior Brand and Content Strategist Amber Stark at astark@siop.org.