In 2025, the biggest threat to change isn’t how fast it’s moving. It’s that people at all levels aren’t ready to lead it.

According to Gartner’s 2025 CHRO Talent Strategy Guide, employees today are facing five times more enterprise-wide change than they were just eight years ago. At the same time, there’s been a 41% drop in willingness to support it. 

That shift is reflected in how organizations are using our own change simulation, ExperienceChange^Ⓡ. Eight years ago, it primarily served executives and leaders. Today, it helps our clients roll out org-wide capability, indicating that change leadership is no longer reserved for those with senior titles. Regardless of role, seniority or function, leading change is everyone’s job.

“Traditionally, leaders have been expected to drive change, while employees were left simply to cope with it,” explains our co-founder James Chisholm. “But change is not a spectator sport. True change agility emerges from high-trust environments, where everyone is empowered—and equipped—to actively participate in shaping the outcome.”

We’re seeing that shift play out firsthand. Demand for our change leadership training is at an all-time high. Over the past two years, organizational use of our ExperienceChange^® workshop have doubled, as organizations seek to equip their people with the skills and tools necessary to lead change in their everyday work, rather than merely react to it.

That shift toward workforce-wide change capability and resilience is already well underway among many of our clients. Here’s how three organizations are making it happen:

Overcoming customer resistance with change leadership training

At an American aerospace company, leaders recognized that their sales team was facing growing resistance from clients. New contract terms—introduced to manage the impact of inflation and tariffs—were creating friction and often escalating conversations to the senior leadership level.

They had tried negotiation training before, but the 8-hour-long session was too long, disconnected from real work and left people feeling drained. Many participants even admitted to rushing through or finding ways to shortcut the experience. 

Looking for a more practical and engaging approach, the team turned to our 2-hour change workshop, Real Change Starts Here^TM, to help sales reps build change capability by working through their actual client challenges. Instead of generic role plays, participants used a structured framework to unpack the resistance they were actively facing—and left with clear strategies they could use right away.

Building a culture of change resilience at a growing government agency

In just a few years, a self-sustaining quasi-government agency had more than doubled in size and their marketing team was feeling the strain. Roles had shifted, silos were forming and many team members were struggling to work together.

Leaders realized it was time to start operating with the agility of a modern business and that meant giving everyone the tools to actively lead change, not just react to it.

To kick off a week-long team event, they brought in Real Change Starts Here^TM to help the team make sense of the changes around them. For many, it was their first time meeting in person. The experience gave them a chance to problem-solve eight real challenges, while building trust and strengthening their ability to lead change together.

Participants were then tasked to prototype those ideas in ExperienceInnovation™ | Aware, a 2-hour design thinking workshop designed to inspire collaboration and creativity. The team walked away with eight tangible action plans and a stronger sense of connection and confidence in what’s next.

Equipping senior leaders with change capability to lead a major systems implementation

At a global market research company, a major systems overhaul was on the horizon. The organization was preparing to implement a new enterprise-wide data strategy—an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system—that would touch every team and process. And while the technical plan was in place, past experience had shown that successful adoption wouldn’t come from strategy alone. It would require strong leadership at every level of the business.

They partnered with ExperiencePoint to deliver Real Change Starts Here^TM to 80 senior leaders—ranging from the C-suite to VPs—through a series of virtual sessions. The program gave participants a practical toolkit for leading through change, helping others embrace new ideas and minimizing resistance in the process.

As one executive sponsor shared in a company-wide announcement, the training was designed to:

1. Create alignment
2. Empower leaders, and;
3. Deliver measurable business outcomes 

And that was just the start. The initiative culminated in a full-day, in-person simulation experience, with plans to trickle this change leadership training down to directors, middle managers and individual contributors across the business to achieve a culture of resilience and change-readiness. 

Why change leadership training can’t wait

Although they differ in goals, challenges and starting point, all three organizations above share one thing in common: a recognition that successful change doesn’t happen from the top down—it happens when everyone is equipped to lead it.

Whether it’s rolling out a new system, navigating growth or responding to shifting customer expectations, building change capability across the workforce is no longer nice-to-have. It’s essential.

Because when people feel confident leading change—not just coping with it—organizations become more resilient, agile and better prepared for whatever comes next.