About 30% of mid-to-senior level business leaders say their most recent transformation achieved healthy change adoption, according to a survey by Gartner. That’s just one in three leaders seeing success — not because change isn’t happening, but because employees aren't adapting in a sustainable way.

Healthy adoption, as Gartner explained, means employees act on change initiatives on time and without harming performance, engagement, or well-being. The cost of falling short is high: companies with stronger change adoption see double the year-over-year revenue growth, which, for large companies, could mean an additional $2.2 Billion USD annually.

Why traditional approaches aren’t working

“Changes today are continuous, stacked on top of one another, highly interdependent and often driven by factors external to the organisation,” said Kayla Velnoskey, director in the Gartner HR practice. “The nature of change today has made it ungovernable,” she added.

This ungovernability has eroded trust. In April 2025, Gartner surveyed 2,850 employees and found that at least 79% of employees had low trust in organisational change efforts. A separate survey of 141 HR leaders showed that companies experiencing "ungovernable change" are 1.6x less likely to achieve high levels of employee trust.

Traditional approaches relying on vision and inspiration are no longer enough. Gartner found that when change trust is low, only 25% of changes led by inspirational leaders achieve healthy adoption.

Routinising change: A new leadership model

Instead of attempting to motivate through vision alone, Gartner recommended leaders routinise change — treating it as a regular, reflexive part of how the business operates.

“When leaders routinise change, our model predicts that employees are three times more likely to adopt changes on time and in a healthy way even though they have low change trust,” Velnoskey pointed out.

To help make this shift, Gartner recommended three HR interventions:

1. Clarify leaders’ change role

Leaders must drive ongoing change, not just during big rollouts. “HR can help by showing business leaders that acknowledging the change journey is not more work,” suggested Ingrid Laman, VP at Gartner. “It requires them to apply the skills they already have in new ways.”

2. Equip leaders with emotion regulation tools

Change is emotionally taxing. Without tools to manage discomfort, leaders and employees can become resistant or disengaged. HR must provide resources to help them cope with emotional reactions to change.

3. Build change reflexes

Employees must practice core change skills during everyday work. This builds intuitive responses to disruption, making transformation part of the culture.

Leadership failure drives turnover

In Australia, the inability of managers to lead change has been a significant factor contributing to employee dissatisfaction, said Neal Woolrich, director at Gartner. “Manager quality was the top reason employees left their employers over the past year.”

For HR leaders, this signals an urgent need to coach managers not just on operations, but on sustaining change in a human-centered way.

Where change is coming from

According to Accenture, AI acceleration will be the next major source of change creating conflict in the workplace. In its 2025 Pulse of Change report, Accenture said that at least 86% of executives plan to increase their investment in generative AI, with about 60% expecting to scale it across their organisation, up from 36% in 2024.

Yet enthusiasm is uneven. While at least 83% of executives saw increased potential for AI’s positive impact, only 70% of employees agreed, revealing a perception and preparedness gap, it said.

Change success will increasingly depend on how leaders bridge this divide, through transparency, training, and integration with human workflows, not just by deploying tools.

On the other hand, Deloitte’s 2025 Chief Transformation Officer study shows that transformation is central to business strategy, no longer optional but essential.

“Disruption is the new normal,” said Anne Kwan, principal at Monitor Deloitte. “Companies are taking a more deliberate approach to transformation, dedicating more resources and appointing experienced leaders to ensure these programmes meet or exceed their goals.”

The Deloitte study outlines six key trends shaping modern transformation:

1. Budgets are expanding rapidly: Executives have increased transformation budgets by up to 2.5x in the last two years. These investments span technology, processes, and people, reflecting the scale and urgency of change. Yet the financial pressure is growing. As one leader put it, “The financial objectives are getting bigger, and the timelines are getting shorter.”
2. More internal talent is driving change: Over 50% of transformation team members are now full-time internal employees. This shift favors organisational memory, culture alignment, and long-term success. “Transformation roles... can be three to five-year roles that become integrated into the company,” said a digital transformation leader at a major energy firm.
3. Experienced leaders are essential: About 90% of transformation leaders have led three or more programmes, and many hold full-time Chief Transformation Officer (CTrO) roles. These leaders often bring cross-functional expertise — spanning strategy, technology, and operations.
4. Talent and change management are underfunded: Despite their importance, change management and communications receive the least funding. If given the chance to rebalance budgets, 42% of CTrOs would invest more in talent, and at least 33% in change communications.
5. Execution is the biggest challenge: Three of the top five transformation challenges relate to execution, securing the right people, sustaining engagement, and delivering on plans. This highlights a recurring truth: change often fails not at the vision stage, but in the "getting things done" phase.
6. Success is increasing, but focus remains internal: More than 80% of transformation programmes are on track to meet or exceed goals, up from 75% in 2022. However, many of these gains are internal, such as efficiency and cost savings, while market share and revenue growth still lag. This may indicate a reliance on lagging indicators like Net Promoter Score over forward-looking metrics like customer acquisition cost or market penetration.

The new imperative: Make change a core capability

Taken together, insights from the various experts reveal a new playbook for leading the change:

• Embed change into the culture, rather than treat it as a project.
• Balance tech investment with emotional preparedness and human support.
• Measure transformation holistically, with both internal and market-facing indicators.
• Prioritise people, communication, and leadership continuity.

While at least 72% of executives expect less change in 2025 compared to 2024, the long-term trajectory remains clear: disruption is constant, and transformation must become a scalable, repeatable competency.

As Gartner’s Velnoskey concluded: “The best change leaders make transformation a reflex. Not a reaction.”