We all handle change differently. Some of us adapt quickly; others dig in their heels. But here’s what leaders often miss: change doesn’t fail because of the change itself. It fails because of how it was communicated.

As the leader, you need a simple, repeatable method for helping your team move through change. Kurt Lewin’s classic change model gives us three phases — Unfreeze, Change, Re-Freeze — but getting a team through each phase is harder than it sounds. What makes the difference is what you give them before you ask them to move.

We call these the three ingredients for communicating change: the Need, the Way, and the Means.

The Need — does your audience see why they should change?

Think about the last time you made a trip to a crowded store. You didn’t go for the experience. You went because you recognized a gap — you needed something you didn’t have. The need was clear, and it motivated you to act.

Audiences are no different. If they don’t see a real need to change, they will stay exactly where they are.

Some leaders try to solve this by sounding an alarm — treating the situation as a crisis to jolt the team into action. This approach carries two risks worth considering. First, if the urgency feels real to you but not to the audience, the alarm can damage trust and rapport you’ve worked hard to build. Second, even when urgency is warranted, crisis-based motivation tends to be short-lived. Once the emergency passes, people often drift back to the old way of doing things, making lasting change harder to achieve.

A more sustainable approach: paint a picture of a future that is noticeably better than the present. Show people the gap between where they are and where they could be — in a way that makes the current state feel insufficient. When the need is made visible and real, people will move toward it.

The Way — does your audience see the path?

Once people see the need, they need to know how to get there. The path forward is the second ingredient — and the absence of it is one of the fastest ways to generate resistance and anxiety.

If your team already knows the path, they almost certainly have opinions about it. They may see it as difficult, discouraging, or even impossible. In those moments, your job is encouragement and support. Leaders who are navigating the most challenging journeys know that this is where stories of people overcoming tremendous odds have the most power. Show the team what’s possible.

If the team does not yet know the path, expect instant resistance — not because they’re unwilling, but because uncertainty is uncomfortable. This is where two things are required from you. First, they need to know you’ll be there to provide the resources and support they’ll require. Second, they need to know you believe it’s possible and that you believe in them. As John Maxwell has said, people rise and fall to the level of expectation set for them. Set it high, and mean it.

The Means — does your audience know what resources they’ll have?

People can handle the truth about limited resources. What they struggle with is uncertainty about resources. As the leader, be specific about what your team will have available, what they’ll need to do without, and where they may need to be creative.

This isn’t a moment for vague reassurance. Telling your team “we’ll figure it out” when budgets are tight or tools are limited does not inspire confidence — it erodes it. Honesty about constraints, paired with genuine belief in the team’s ability to work within them, is far more motivating than an incomplete picture.

One final thing to remember

Every ingredient — the Need, the Way, and the Means — will generate the same underlying question in your audience’s mind: “Why?”

Why do we need to change? Why this path? Why can’t we have more resources?

Prepare to answer the “why” for each one. Not defensively, but clearly and honestly. The leaders who do this earn something far more valuable than compliance — they earn commitment.

Russ

Russ Peterson Jr. is the co-founder and President of iSpeak, Inc., an award-winning professional development training company. He delivers workshops, keynotes, and coaching to business professionals across the U.S. and internationally.