The month-three problem

Every change programme has the same shape. Month one is exciting: new names, new plans, a launch event with good coffee. Month two is busy. Month three is where it quietly falls apart.

I have watched this happen in banks, hospitals, retailers and charities. The plan is still sensible. The people are still capable. But the energy that carried the launch has gone, and nothing has replaced it.

Why month three

By month three, three things have happened at once. The novelty has worn off. The extra work of the change has been added on top of the normal work, which never went away. And the results that were promised have not arrived yet, because real results take longer than three months.

So people are doing more, feeling less, and seeing nothing. That is not a motivation problem. It is a fuel problem.

What it looks like from the inside

You will not see a crisis. You will see small things:

• Meetings start late and end early.

• The same three people volunteer for everything.

• Updates get shorter and more cheerful.

• Someone good hands in their notice for a reason that does not quite add up.

When I was running operations at Northbank, I missed all four signs during our merger. I thought the team was fine because nobody was complaining. They were not complaining because they were too tired to.

Plan for it on day one

The fix is not a better launch. It is a plan for month three, made before month one starts. Here is what I ask leadership teams to put in place:

A second launch. Plan a deliberate reset around week ten: a short session where you show what has changed, thank people by name, and cut anything that is not working.

A stop list. For every new thing the change adds, decide what stops. If you cannot name what stops, you are asking people to absorb the change in their evenings.

Early proof. Pick one small result you can show by month three, even if the big result is a year away. People need evidence that the effort is going somewhere.

Talk about it out loud

The most useful thing a leader can do is say, at the start, that month three will be hard. When it arrives, people recognise it instead of feeling that something is wrong with them. Naming it takes away half its power.

I now open many talks by asking the room to put a hand up if they are in month three of something right now. In most rooms, more than half the hands go up. Then I watch the relief on their faces when they realise it is normal.

Change is a long game. Plan for the slow middle, not just the exciting start, and you give your people a fair chance of reaching the end.

One question for your next leadership meeting

If you are planning a change right now, put one item on the agenda of your next leadership meeting: what will we do in week ten? Who will notice that the energy has dropped, what will we cut, and what will we celebrate? Ten minutes on that question now is worth more than another launch slide.