Is Your Organization Change Allergic? | Anne Gotte | Modern Change Management & Leading Change
Change Signal: Modern Change Management that WorksShow Notes
Three key insights from Anne Gotte: change management is as outdated as "personnel" organizations must diagnose their change allergies before attempting transformation; and leaders need to embrace clumsy imperfection while providing clear direction.
Anne Gotte is SVP Global Talent & Organization Effectiveness at Mondelēz and she brings refreshing honesty to the messy reality of organizational transformation. She's worked at Bumble, Ecolab, and General Mills, collecting scars and wisdom along the way.
This conversation challenges the traditional playbook. Anne argues that "decree change" — where executives design solutions in isolation, announce them broadly, then expect magic — as well and truly reached its expiration date.
Instead, she advocates for building ongoing change capacity rather than managing episodic projects. Her approach starts with uncomfortable questions: Who are we today? What makes any change difficult for us? How do our systems contradict our change story?
The discussion explores why change feels clumsy (spoiler: it's supposed to), how to honour uncertainty while providing clarity, and why slow can actually be fast. Anne's insights about getting comfortable being uncomfortable offer a different path forward for change leaders tired of pretending transformation should feel orderly and predictable.
This is change leadership for grown-ups who've learned that the mess is actually the work.
Change Signal. Cut through the blather, the BS, and the noise to find the good stuff that works in change and transformation.
***
WHEN YOU’RE READY
🎧 A new episode every week (and sometimes two!)
The Change Signal newsletter. Short, practical, weekly
***
CONNECT
💼Connect on LinkedIn
***
SAY THANKS
💜Leave a review on Apple Podcasts
💚Leave a review on Spotify
More from Change Signal: Modern Change Management that Works
Where is change already happening without you? Are you selling ideas before they’ve been tested? And what are we losing as AI makes work more efficient?
Here are three provocative questions that arise from this Change Signal conversation with Damon Centola: What are you mistaking for adoption? Who actually makes change feel normal? And are your change agents too scattered?
Here are three questions that arise from this Change Signal conversation with Amy Edmondson: Are we learning — or just performing success? When should a change project be allowed to fail? And what are we afraid to say when the stakes get high?
Here are three questions this Change Signal conversation asks:
Here’s the revised version with an opening sentence and the three questions bulleted.