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Prepare by separating confirmed facts from assumptions, mapping how the change could affect your work, and asking for the information, training, and support you need. You can take practical steps to adapt, but planning, clear communication, and adequate support are also responsibilities of the organization—not yours alone.
What organizational change can mean for your work
Organizational change is a move from the way an organization currently operates toward a desired future state. It may affect strategy, structure, technology, processes, culture, job responsibilities, reporting relationships, or day-to-day workflows. A new system, for example, may change both the tools you use and the steps required to serve customers or coordinate with colleagues.
Change has a practical side—new systems, processes, or responsibilities—and a people side: employees need to understand what is happening, learn new ways of working, and have a chance to raise concerns. Prosci’s workplace change guidance discusses both the organizational work and the employee impacts involved.
Prepare in six steps
1. Establish what is known
Ask what is changing, why it is happening, when it is expected to happen, and which decisions are final. Keep confirmed information separate from predictions or informal discussion. If an answer is not available yet, ask when and where an update is expected rather than treating uncertainty as confirmation.
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2. Map the likely effects on your work
Write down the parts of your job that could be affected. Consider responsibilities, priorities, reporting relationships, workload, processes, systems, and the colleagues or customers you support. Note what you know, what you expect, and what still needs an answer. This gives your manager a concrete picture of the effects you see instead of a general expression of worry.
3. Turn concerns into specific questions
Uncertainty, changed habits, and possible effects on a job can make a transition stressful. Questions are useful information about what employees need; discomfort does not by itself mean someone is acting in bad faith. Identify the issue behind each concern—such as unclear expectations, timing, workload, or training—so it can be addressed directly.
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4. Find the right person for each answer
Your manager may be the best contact for team priorities and day-to-day responsibilities, while HR may handle employment-policy questions and a project or training contact may know the new system or process. Ask who owns each subject and how to raise concerns. Some details may remain unsettled, so clarify whether an answer is final or provisional.
5. Build knowledge and practice
Identify what you need to learn, request relevant instruction, and ask for a safe opportunity to practise. Prosci’s ADKAR model distinguishes knowledge of what to do from the ability to do it in practice. It is an individual-level framework, not a substitute for an organization’s planning, sponsorship, communication, and follow-through.
6. Check how the change is working after launch
Once the new way of working begins, notice whether the process is usable, whether training prepared you for real tasks, and where feedback should go. Ask when the team will review the transition and how it will assess adoption, use, or proficiency. A launch date does not necessarily mean every issue has been resolved.
Questions to ask your manager
Bring the questions most relevant to your situation; you do not need to wait until you have a complete picture to ask for clarification.
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- What is changing, and what is the reason for it?
- What is the expected timeline, and which dates are firm?
- What has been decided, and what remains open?
- How might my responsibilities, priorities, reporting line, or workload change?
- What skills, training, or practice will I need?
- Who can answer questions about my role, and how should I raise concerns?
- How will we know whether the new way of working is functioning, and when will we review it?
Prosci recommends communicating the need for change, its impact on employees, and the longer-term outlook. The questions above apply those topics to a conversation about an individual role; they are not presented as a verbatim Prosci checklist. See Prosci’s change-management guidance and research summary.
What employees, managers, and leaders each contribute
What you can do
Describe specific effects on your work, ask for information or practice you need, and share feedback through the appropriate channel. Keep track of outstanding questions and return to them when new details emerge; one announcement may not answer every role-specific concern.
What your manager should help with
Managers translate organizational updates for their teams, listen to questions, coach employees, and connect them with support. Ask your manager to clarify what applies to your role and to direct questions they cannot answer to the right contact.
What the organization needs to provide
Visible sponsorship, clear communication, planning, support, and follow-through are organizational responsibilities. Prosci says that “Active and visible sponsorship has been the top contributor to change success in Prosci research since 1998.” That is Prosci’s description of its own research, not a guarantee that sponsorship alone will make a change succeed. Its wider approach describes preparing the change, managing it, and sustaining outcomes.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What Prosci’s reported figures do—and do not—show
Prosci reports associations between change-management practices and project outcomes. These findings describe Prosci-reported project comparisons, not the odds that an individual employee will keep a job, succeed in a new role, or influence a particular change.
- On its workplace guidance page, updated August 7, 2026, Prosci says projects with effective change management are up to seven times more likely to succeed. The page presents this as an association in its research.
- The same page reports that 81% of participants who planned reinforcement met or exceeded project objectives, compared with 15% who did not plan for reinforcement.
- On its change-management-success page, Prosci reports that 79% of projects with extremely effective sponsors met objectives, compared with 27% with extremely ineffective sponsors. It also reports that 59% of participants using a structured methodology achieved good or excellent change-management effectiveness, and that 88% of participants with excellent change management met or exceeded project objectives.
These are Prosci’s reported research figures, not independent estimates of universal outcomes or a promise about any one workplace. They support the practical point that preparation and follow-through matter, while leaving responsibility for organizational planning with the organization.
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