What NOT to Do During Organizational Change: A Handy Self-Sabotage Guide

It is a truth universally acknowledged that every organization throughout history has flawlessly managed change.

Employees deeply understand what’s changing and why. They’re fully invested. Empowered. Eager to enact the change and drive results.

If only that fantasy was true.

In reality, a 2023 study from WTW found that just 43% of employees say their organization is good at managing change. Only 25% believe senior leaders are any good at it.

Change has become one of those workplace buzzwords—right up there with “unprecedented” circa 2020. According to the Institute of Internal Communication’s Future of the Profession report (2025), 56% of internal communicators are seeing a rise in change-related duties. So yes, change is everywhere. But our ability to navigate it? Still catching up.

Then again, why break with tradition when we’ve practically perfected getting it wrong?

Here are some time-tested ways to sabotage your organization’s next big change. Let’s see if we can limbo under that WTW 43%. How low can we go?

Tip One: Keep Communication in Closed-Door Meetings

A CEO once told me during a meeting to discuss an upcoming restructuring, “I’m bored with this. I think we all understand the change. Let’s move on.”

Our planned internal communication campaign? Kiboshed.

The CEO got it, so surely everyone else did too, right? Absolutely. That’s why the questions we received during town halls focused on getting clarity around the change and what it actually meant for employees.

Mission accomplished.

Tip Two: Foster Collective Stupidity

The Harvard Business Review notes that successful organizational intelligence relies on three things: clarity around decision-making, breaking down silos, and leadership from intelligence professionals.

Ignore that backwater hoo-ha.

Instead, take a page from Dr. Karl Albrechtand create the conditions for collective stupidity to thrive. Teach employees that they aren’t authorized to think, and help them truly believe it. Construct systems that make creative thought impossible.

Organizational rules, norms, and rituals should actively punish independent thinking. That’s how you get your change over the finish line—while ensuring no one questions where the finish line actually is.

Tip Three: Lay a False Trail of Information

During World War II, a top-secret unit of American artists, designers, and sound engineers—known unofficially as the “Ghost Army”—created elaborate deceptions to mislead German forces. Inflatable tanks. Fake radio chatter. Full-on performance art.

Steal their playbook.

Employees may say they want clarity and transparency, but what they really want is to be lulled into a false sense of security while you put on a good show. Inflatable deliverables. Smoke-and-mirrors metrics. Maybe even paid actors to hang around the watercooler muttering scripted optimism.

Bonus points if the set design involves branded mugs and a change mascot.

Tip Four: Play Into the Fear of Loss

People make decisions based on emotion—especially fear. We’re wired to be more sensitive to losses than to gains. This is known as loss aversion.

Fear hijacks rational thinking. Use that to your advantage.

If any communication about the change accidentally escapes the executive suite, make sure it emphasizes everything employees stand to lose. Don’t mention benefits, growth, or development. That’s too hopeful.

Fear-mongering is far more effective at paralyzing action and sowing confusion.

Tip Five: Use Nudge Theory with Malicious Intent
In 2008, Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler introduced the concept of “nudging”—gentle interventions meant to steer people toward decisions that benefit them.

Forget that.

Use nudges to drive outcomes that benefit you.

Imagine a pop-up that appears as someone tries to send an email:“Want to know the top three ways our digital transformation will crush your spirit? Click now!”

Nudges should be simple to dismiss. Just enough to unsettle. Not enough to explain.

That’s the sweet spot.

Final Takeaway: Let’s Keep the Bar Low

Look, managing organizational change well is complicated. It takes effort, empathy, transparency, and a commitment to actual dialogue.

Or, you can just keep doing what many have mastered: Performative communication. Confusing direction. Poor timing. Top-down mandates served with a side of fear.

Change will still happen. It just won’t go well.

So whether you’re angling for chaos or aiming to beat your company’s previous record for employee disengagement, this self-sabotage guide is here to help.

Because if we’re going to fumble change anyway… might as well go all in.