Change is hard, yet it a common reality. Dr. Ellie Gates, who led the Adobe Check-In redesign that replaced annual performance reviews, says the old change management playbook is dead. Change is now constant, and what organizations need instead is change agility.

In this episode, Dr. Gates breaks down why people resist change even when it makes sense, why leaders and employees go through the same change at completely different times, and what it really took to get rid of annual reviews at a company the size of Adobe.

What you'll get from this episode:

• The 3 levels of resistance to change (I don't get it, I don't like it, I don't like you) and how to address each one
• Why leaders are crossing the finish line of a change just as employees find out there's a race, and what to do about it
• How a pre-mortem helps you anticipate resistance before you launch
• The early signs a change is not landing, and why waiting for those signs means you're already behind
• Which parts of traditional change management still matter, and what has to give way to change agility
• How middle managers can lead a change they didn't choose, while still processing it themselves, by focusing on what is still in their control
• Inside Adobe's Check-In: why they scrapped annual reviews, why they refused to rush a replacement, how they brought the resisters in, and how it saved over 80,000 management hours in a single year
• How one CEO told his team the truth before missing payroll, and lost no more than 10% of his people
• Three things to start this week, including how to diagnose your own resistance to change

About Dr. Ellie Gates

Dr. Ellie C. Gates, DSL, is an Assistant Teaching Professor at CU Boulder's Leeds School of Business and Founder of BusinessTechne and the Human Ingenuity AI Foundation. For over 25 years, she has partnered with C-level executives at Microsoft, Adobe, T-Mobile, Box, and Snowflake on their hardest transformations. At Adobe, she led the Check-In performance redesign that saved 80,000 management hours and cut voluntary turnover by 30 percent. Trained in Strategic Foresight, she reads emerging trends before most leaders know to look. She holds a Doctorate of Strategic Leadership and a Master's in Organizational Leadership and Business Administration. She is a change agent at heart.

Connect with Dr. Ellie Gates:
✅ BusinessTechne: https://www.businesstechne.com
✅ Human Ingenuity AI Foundation: https://www.businesstechne.com/hiai/
✅ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliecgates

Mentioned in this episode:

• Beyond the Wall of Resistance by Rick Maurer
• The ADKAR change model (Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement)
• Mike Robbins, author and speaker on feedback

More from Speak Your Mind Unapologetically:
✅ Free Newsletter: https://assertiveway.com/newsletter/
✅ Take the Quiz 'Do You Speak Like a High-Impact Leader?': https://myassertiveway.outgrow.us/highimpactleader
✅ Follow the show host, Ivna Curi, on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivna-curi-mba-67083b2/