We carried out a study in a large North American company in the mortgage industry that was going through a major strategic transformation and experiencing significant variability in employees’ responses to a change initiative intended to foster a more innovative culture. We explored team leader behaviors and characteristics that might account for these differences. We found that team leader mindfulness appears to play a crucial mediating role in the change management process. Here’s why that is and how managers can apply insights from our study.

Why Organizational Change Is So Challenging

Even though leaders often place a heavy emphasis on communication around change, it’s rarely possible to articulate precisely what’s to come, given that what lies ahead is going to be unfamiliar territory. Consequently, a strategic change will, by its nature, trigger a great deal of ambiguity, since managers must simultaneously figure out how to execute on new objectives and rally teams to move in a new direction.

The latter point — motivating employees — is complicated by individuals’ tendency to hunker down self-protectively when change is in the air. That response means that they are less likely to engage in exploratory behaviors, which are essential to accepting and implementing change. Ambiguity in the early stages of change may leave individuals without concrete objectives or distinct targets toward which to steer. Lacking sufficient direction and experiencing hard-to-manage emotions, employees may focus on shielding themselves from their discomfort with the unknown by preserving the status quo.

This response to ambiguity originates deep in the primal mammalian brain, in the limbic system, where our emotions reside and prioritize survival in the short term and avoidance of discomfort and any perceived threats.