What a spectacular launch!

A big kickoff event. A fancy new logo. A well-produced leadership video about “embracing transformation.” A dedicated Slack channel, briefly buzzing with excitement.

And then… silence.

No follow-ups. No updates. No sign that anyone outside the project team still remembers this initiative exists.

But inside the project team? Oh, they’re super-busy with endless working sessions, steering committee discussions,  and status reports that are circulated at the highest levels but never shared with the people who actually have to live with the change.

Meanwhile, the organization assumes nothing is happening. Employees move on. New priorities emerge. The Slack channel fades into irrelevance, now occupied by the occasional bot notification and someone accidentally posting in the wrong thread.

Then, months later, the project team comes bursting back onto the scene with a new announcement: “Exciting Updates on Our Change Initiative!”

The reaction?
“Wait… that’s still a thing?”

It’s like a long-lost ex suddenly texting, “Hey, what’s up?” after months of radio silence. Except this time, they want you to change the way you do your job.

Re-engaging an organization after ghosting them is twice as hard as keeping them engaged in the first place. Now, there’s skepticism. Exhaustion. A sense that this is just another project that will fizzle out.

Change doesn’t fail because people resist it. It fails because they forgot why they were supposed to care in the first place.

Welcome to The Friday Confessional. If you know, you know.