In this special episode of the podcast, we speak to two professionals who work together, hand in glove, to executive changes through businesses. We consider the growing partnership between HR and Change Management, what this means for organizations and what business leaders can apply to changes in their own organizations.

Our guests are Eve McKenzie, GM Change Management at Xero, and Tina Karia, People Experience Business Partner at Xero.

Some of the topics covered include:

• The real meaning of change management and the practicalities involved.
• The long impact of change.
• The interaction between HR and change management.
• The pitfalls of change management and how to avoid them.
• How to deal with resistance to change.
• Measuring the success of a change management initiative.
• The Three S Model applied at Xero: Simple, Safe, Structure.

Rapid-Fire Recommendations

• Software: ChatGPT & Gemini; Slack; Miro

• Book: Neuroscience for Organizational Change: An Evidence-based Practical Guide to Managing Change by Hilary Scarlett

• Podcast: The Diary of a CEO

• Valuable lesson about building a business: Your culture is your business. You can have the best strategy in the world, but if your people don’t feel connected or feel empowered, it won’t work.

  The secret currency of an organization is your relationships.

• • Key takeaways: Change is inevitable but it’s how you plan and execute the change that is important. The people experience is vital to that experience and can make or break the outcome. It’s about involving your people early on, ensuring open and honest communication, and giving room for emotional outlets. Change is hard.
  • Don't forget the number one rule of any change is connecting people to outcomes. How do you do that? How do you get their minds, emotions, and behaviors involved? If you’ve got a strategy that designs for those three components, then you’ve got the greatest likelihood of success.