I have explored two common pitfalls that quietly weaken change. First, when the why is not strong enough and second when we try to change too many things at the same time. Now, I want to close this series with a third and critical one: Expecting new outcomes without being truly willing to pay the price they require.
Most leaders do want the result: better execution, stronger accountability, deeper collaboration, more innovation, and an organization that moves with greater speed and clarity. But wanting those outcomes is not the same as being ready for what they demand.
For instance, it is easy to say we want more ownership; it is much harder to stop compensating for unclear commitments, delayed decisions, or behaviours that no longer serve the organization. This is where many change efforts become uncomfortable: not in the ambition itself, but in the practical consequences of taking that ambition with commitment.
“Understanding something is not sufficient to learn how to do it. Real change begins when understanding becomes practice.”
Fran Cherny, Be The Change
Every new outcome has a price
When we talk about the “price” of change, we often think about budget, resources, time, or headcount. Those things matter, of course. But in my experience, the deeper price is usually not about extra financial resources. It is behavioural.
It is the price of stopping a pattern that has been rewarded for years. The price of having a conversation we have been avoiding. The price of saying no to something good in order to protect what matters most. The price of disappointing people who benefited from the old way. The price of being consistent even when pressure makes the old habit tempting. The price of looking in the mirror and asking: What are the messages that I’m sending and what they are reinforcing?
That is why change is rarely only a strategic challenge. It is also a leadership challenge. Because at some point, the organization starts watching less what leaders say about change, and more what leaders are willing to sacrifice for it. Starting with their own behaviors.
The hidden contract with the old culture
Every organization has a culture, and every culture has a logic. It was created that way for a good reason.
Over time, certain behaviours are rewarded, tolerated, avoided, or repeated under pressure until they become part of the way things are done. This is why new outcomes rarely emerge when the old cultural contract remains untouched.
A company may say it wants more accountability, focus, collaboration, innovation, and empowerment; but if leaders still avoid the conversations that accountability requires, keep adding priorities while asking for focus, celebrate individual heroes over collective progress, punish smart risk, or keep decision-making concentrated at the top, people learn “the real rules” very quickly.
Not the rules written in the strategy deck, your values or the vision, but the rules expressed through what the system protects, rewards, avoids, and tolerates. And if those rules remain the same, the outcomes are likely to remain the same too.
The cost of coherence
Coherence is one of the most underestimated forces in change. People do not only listen to the message; they listen to the pattern. They notice what leaders repeat, what gets escalated, what gets ignored, what is celebrated, and what happens when pressure rises.
That is why the price of change is rarely abstract. It shows up in very concrete leadership choices: whether we stop rescuing people from commitments they made and didn’t deliver, whether we are willing to say no in order to protect focus, whether we involve people in decisions and we hold each other accountable for the roles they plain in , whether we reduce complexity instead of asking teams to absorb it, and whether we create room for learning rather than rewarding how much they know.
None of this is dramatic, but it is demanding. Coherence asks leaders to close the gap between aspiration and behaviour, and that gap is often where the real work lives.
Why leaders avoid paying the price
This is not because leaders are not committed. Many are deeply engaged and supportive. But the price of change often touches something personal.
It may challenge the way we have built credibility. It may require us to stop being the hero who solves everything. It may ask us to tolerate more ambiguity. It may ask us to be more decisive on specific situations. It may ask us to confront someone we value. It may ask us to let go of a habit that made us successful in the past. It may ask us to become beginners again.
And that is challenging for all of us. Because we feel our own identity and ego might be at risk. because understanding something intellectually is not the same as knowing how to live it, practise it, and embody it under pressure.
In change, the test is rarely whether we understand the concept. The test is what we do when the old way would be easier although not very effective.
The question is not just “What do we want?”
Most leadership teams are used to asking: What do we want to achieve? What is our goal? What is the strategy? What are the initiatives? What are the metrics?
Those questions are important. But they are not enough.
The other key question is: “How do we make it happen?”
If we want change to become real, we also need to ask: What will this require from us? What will we need to stop tolerating? What will we need to protect? What conversations can no longer be postponed? What trade-offs are we truly willing to make? What behaviour must become non-negotiable?
Because new outcomes do not come only from new intentions. They come from new ways of working. From creating new habits. And new habits require practice.
A reflection for you and your team
Take 15 minutes with your leadership team and choose one outcome you say you really want this year. Then ask: What is the price of this outcome?
Be specific. In real terms.
What will we need to stop doing? What will we need to start rewarding? What will we need to talk about that we are not today? What will we need to repeat and repeat, especially under pressure? What will feel uncomfortable before it starts feeling natural?
And then ask the hardest question:
Are we truly willing to pay that price?
If the answer is yes, the work becomes clearer. If the answer is no, that is also useful. Because then we can stop pretending that the gap is a communication problem, a motivation problem, or a project management problem.
Sometimes the gap is simpler and harder: We want the result, but we have not yet accepted the effort that it takes to get there.
This is where change becomes real
The good news is that paying the price of change does not usually require one heroic act. More often, it is built through repeated acts of coherence: a better question, a braver conversation, a clearer no, a priority protected when everything feels urgent, or a different reaction when pressure rises. All together, in a coherent and systematic way, repeated over time.
That is how culture begins to shift. Not only through what leaders announce, but through what they practise consistently enough for people to believe that something has truly changed.
If this reflection resonates, share it with your team. It may open a more honest conversation than another update on the change plan. And if you want to go deeper, Be The Change explores how leaders and organizations can move from understanding change to practising it with greater intention, discipline, and humanity.
This post closes the series on the three pitfalls that weaken change and achieve goals. Now, I’m preparing for what comes next.
After more than 20 years working with clients, teams, organizations, and through my own personal journey of change, I will continue sharing more insights, pitfalls and best practices on what helps change come to life.
But I’d also love to hear from you: What challenge are you facing right now? What is getting in the way? What would be useful for us to explore in a future newsletter? Please let me know by comment to this post.