The most expensive mistake in organizational transformation is not the technology choice or the budget estimate. It is the assumption that employees understand what is happening and why. The Grossman Group and The Harris Poll found in 2025 that 99% of leaders feel they communicate change well, while only 25% of employees agree the communication they received was adequate. That gap is not a perception problem. It is a leading indicator of failure.
The data that got my attention
Change volume has outpaced the human systems that support it. Gallup’s late-2024 survey of more than 22,000 U.S. workers found 73% experienced significant organizational change in the past year. Prosci’s 2025 benchmark reports 73% of organizations are now at or beyond change saturation. Gartner’s long-term tracking shows employee willingness to support change fell from 74% in 2016 to 38% in 2024.
Against that backdrop, the communication gap is especially dangerous. The Grossman Group’s “The Change Tipping Point” report, fielded with The Harris Poll in June and July 2025, surveyed 905 full-time employees and 256 executives at U.S. for-profit organizations. The headline finding: 99% of leaders believe they communicate change well, yet just one in four employees say communication was adequate.
Why this matters now
Organizations are running more transformations simultaneously than ever. The same Grossman/Harris research found 83% of leaders say they are navigating more major changes now than in the past. Leaders expect employees to absorb three to four major changes per year, while employees say they can realistically handle one to two.
When communication fails, people do not resist change directly. They make sense of it themselves, usually through rumor and interpretation. The Forbes Human Resources Council reported in 2026 that 51% of executives admit their organizations struggle to maintain regular communication during transformations. Prosci’s 2025 benchmark adds that only 34% of transformations have adequate change-management resources. The result is a recurring pattern: leaders announce, employees disengage, and the initiative misses its value target.
What the research actually shows
The numbers point to a single conclusion. Communication is a structural workstream, not a town-hall activity. Leaders who treat it as a one-time announcement leave a vacuum that managers and employees fill with their own stories.
| Signal | Rate | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Leaders who feel they communicate change well | 99% | Grossman Group + Harris Poll, 2025 |
| Employees who feel communication was adequate | 25% | Grossman Group + Harris Poll, 2025 |
| Organizations at or beyond change saturation | 73% | Prosci, 2025 |
| Employee willingness to support change (down from 74% in 2016) | 38% | Gartner, 2024 |
| Transformations with adequate change-management resources | 34% | Prosci, 2025 |
| Executives struggling to maintain regular communication | 51% | Forbes HRC, 2026 |
The table is not a collection of isolated statistics. It describes a system under pressure. Leaders overestimate their message. Employees underestimate the organization’s intent. The middle layer, already saturated, stops translating strategy into daily behavior. That is where value is lost.
A practical framework for leaders
Closing the gap requires moving from announcement to dialogue. The following four-step framework gives leadership teams a structure they can apply before the next transformation launch.
- Map the change portfolio. List every active or planned initiative and its audience impact. If the total exceeds two major changes per employee per year, something must be paused or sequenced.
- Assign communication owners. Every initiative needs a named communicator, a cadence, and a feedback channel. Town halls without follow-up create the same silence as no communication at all.
- Train managers to translate. Employees trust their direct manager more than the C-suite. Give managers the talking points, FAQs, and permission to say “I do not know yet” when appropriate.
- Measure understanding, not reach. Track whether employees can explain the change in their own words and identify what they need to do differently. Reach metrics such as email opens do not prove comprehension.
This framework does not require a large program. It can start with one pilot initiative, a single team, and a 30-day communication rhythm.
The bottom line
Transformation failure is rarely a strategy failure. Most initiatives fail because the people responsible for execution never fully understood what was expected of them. The 99% versus 25% gap is the warning light. Leaders who close it do not need to announce louder; they need to listen more often and translate strategy into the language of daily work.
Where to go from here
Communication during change is a leadership skill, not a public-relations task. Teams that learn to deliver clear, consistent messages while collecting feedback are the ones that keep transformations on track. Explore a change communication workshop →
