Treating followers as active collaborators in the change process is the key to success.

Critical in any change initiative is clear, authentic communication from leaders and listening to followers.

Leaders should empower followers by reducing obstacles and rewarding proactive contributions.

This post was coauthored by Maike Kugler and Ron Riggio

It has been estimated that 70 percent of organizational change initiatives fail or fall short of expectations. Typically, when attempts at organizational transformation fail, there is finger-pointing, and the blame is placed on leadership in the majority of cases, or on the followers who either resisted the change or failed to move forward.

The real problem is that leaders and followers need to work together in all initiatives in the organization, but particularly when there is a need to change direction or implement new initiatives. In our recent article (Kugler & Riggio, 2026), we suggest that research on followers and followership needs to be incorporated into change initiatives in order for them to succeed. This means seeing followers as active........

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