Conversations with Candour: the change edition

Change is never just a line on a project plan. It disrupts routines, rewrites priorities, rewires peoples' brains and stirs up emotions – even when it’s ultimately for the better. At Candour, we know this first-hand. Each of us on the launch team has been navigating our own big shifts this year, while walking alongside clients who are leading their people through restructures, culture resets, the great return to office experiment, the list goes on.

Candour’s launch team Andrew Nunneley (MD), Carryn Dewing (Content & Strategy Director) and Chana Boucher (Change comms & EVP specialist) share their lessons from the frontline of change in 2025.

 

1) What’s the biggest personal or professional change you’ve navigated this year, and what did it teach you about communication?

AN: The most significant change for me was leaving a company after 21 years. It was a huge life event, and it taught me many lessons including that the devil is in the assumptions. The unknown is like a black hole; without deliberate intervention, it becomes an irresistible draw for assumptions. The vacuum of speculation and assumption.

Owning the narrative and providing context is like shining a light into that black hole. It's about being proactive, not reactive. You can’t leave it up to chance, hoping people will land on the right conclusion. You have to communicate clearly and continuously to prevent the gap from being filled with speculation.

CD: Like Andrew, I’ve recently closed off a very long chapter of my career and started a brand-new one. It’s been equal parts thrilling and terrifying, and more emotional than even sentimental old me could’ve imagined. It’s taught me so much, but a real, stand-out lesson is that when someone takes the time to understand and acknowledge how you’re feeling before they chuck facts and figures at you, you open yourself up to what they have to say much more readily.

CB: I returned to Cape Town a few months ago after living in Denmark for just over a year – and realising that it isn’t where my family and I are meant to be.

Aside from a newfound appreciation for receiving (and being surrounded by) communication in a language I understand (including colloquialisms I can relate to), this experience showed me that communication can either help you make sense of what’s happening so you can find your way through the change, or it can make your head spin, leaving you confused and anxious.

The cognitive load you experience during a big change can make it really hard to digest and hold onto important information and messages – it really makes a difference when the communication is clear, simple, memorable and delivered at the time you need it most.

 

2) Why do you think employees so often resist change? And how can leaders reframe communication to reduce fear and build trust?

AN: Resistance to change is almost always rooted in the fear of the unknown. Even when a change is designed to be positive, it's often accompanied by a feeling of a loss of control. Suddenly, employees feel like they're flying blind, unsure about what tomorrow will bring.

The lower the levels of trust are, the more suspicion and fear will thrive. Research by the UK's Institute for Internal Communications has shown that firms where employees rated communication as excellent were significantly more trusting of their leadership and better equipped to manage change. Trust truly is the magic dust. When people trust their leaders, they are more willing to go on the journey with them, even if the path ahead isn't perfectly clear. Leaders can build this trust by being transparent and consistent in their communication, acknowledging the difficulty of the transition, and demonstrating real empathy for their teams.

CD: People are inherently change-averse and, in the past five years, we’ve all dealt with extraordinary levels of disruption and disconnect. We’re all totally change-fatigued! Employers who really want to reconnect with their employees, re-engage and re-energise them, have to take that seriously and equip their people with the tools to help them cope with ongoing change; they have to create safe spaces for employees to voice their concerns and doubts, and ask difficult questions without fear of retribution. And leaders have to get comfortable talking about their own experiences of change, openly and often.

CB: Because they’re human – and as humans we’re wired to avoid change. Our brains perceive change as a threat, triggering all those negative feelings of doubt, fear, scepticism and uncertainty. Life is stressful enough as is without someone coming along every few months trying to change that familiar “as is” into the unknown “to be”.

To get your people on board with the change, you need a strong change story that they believe. It should make clear, in an authentic way, why the change is necessary, how they benefit from it and what the vision for the future looks like.

 

3) If you had to give organisations one golden rule for communicating change in 2025, what would it be?

AN: Be candid and human. People work for people, and trust is built between people. Understanding your audience and meeting them where they are, honestly and openly, is always going to be the best way to build that trust and manage change.

When you speak like a real human being (and listen like one too), everything else becomes so much easier. In an age of automated messages, dozens of tech-driven channels and corporate speak, real humanity stands out. It shows respect and empathy, and it builds the kind of genuine connection that makes people feel valued, not managed.

CD: Don’t underestimate the need for solid, strategic, sustained change communications. Real change is way bigger (and takes much longer) than you think – we’ve seen so many clients over the years make the mistake of thinking a massive transformation can be achieved through a nicely branded campaign that runs on internal channels for a month or two. For change comms to be successful, it requires considerable forward-planning, a deep understanding of your audience, authentic buy-in from your leadership team and ongoing measurement, refinement and repetition.

CB: Communication without trust is just noise. People only act on messages they believe. To earn and keep your organisation’s trust, every piece of communication should be authentic (the real you), empathetic (show you care) and logical (demonstrate sound reasoning and judgement).

Candour’s take on change

 
Change will always stir up uncertainty – that’s the human part. The trick isn’t to eliminate the discomfort, but to acknowledge it and give people something solid to hold onto. We believe the best change comms do three things:

 

• Make it make sense: link the “why” to purpose, not just process.

• Make it human: speak with empathy, human being to human being. Show your face, let your employees hear your voice. People trust people, not long-winded, robotic corporate memos.

• Make it stick: repeat the message, reinforce the why, and show people what it looks like in action.

Change will always be messy.
Communication doesn’t have to be.

 
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