People don't resist change. They resist loss.

I’ve always found it interesting that organisations spend months designing change strategies, but often only minutes considering how people will emotionally respond to them.

Change is hard. We all know that. So why does some change succeed while other change quietly falls apart?

As someone who has been both on the receiving end and leading change, there is one major theme I have noticed. People (in a general sense) will focus on what is lost first, regardless of how many benefits there are to change.  

I’ve seen this play out in many settings, including with staff whose role was to support clients with behaviour change. Even they struggled when asked to change, despite their qualifications and experience in supporting others to do exactly that. So why is this?

The answer is found in neuroscience: our brains are generally wired to detect loss before opportunity. When people experience change, they don't first ask, "What might I gain?" They unconsciously ask, "but what am I about to lose?"

Here's what's happening in the brain:

1. The brain is designed to minimise threats before maximising rewards

Our brains evolved to keep us alive, not to help us embrace organisational restructures. Thousands of years ago, overlooking a threat could be fatal. Missing an opportunity usually wasn't. So when something changes, our brains naturally scan for what could go wrong before they look for what could go right.

2. Losses are processed more strongly than gains

One of the most replicated findings in behavioural science is Loss Aversion, developed by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. Their research showed that the emotional impact of losing something is typically around twice as powerful as the pleasure of gaining something of equal value. For example, losing a trusted colleague often feels more significant than gaining a new technology that may improve efficiency.

3. Change creates prediction error

Our brains love predictability. Every day we make thousands of unconscious predictions about what tomorrow will look like. Change interrupts those predictions, forcing the brain to work harder while it figures out what this new reality means. That extra mental effort is one reason change can feel exhausting, even when it's ultimately positive.

4. People aren't only losing tangible things

When organisations announce change, employees often experience losses that leaders never intended. These may include loss of certainty, competence, status, identity, routines, relationships, influence and psychological safety.

Even when these losses are only anticipated rather than real, the brain responds as though they matter.

5. Social pain is processed like physical pain

Research has shown that social threats such as exclusion, loss of belonging, or reduced status, activate some of the same neural networks involved in physical pain. This explains why organisational restructures, new reporting lines, or role changes can provoke surprisingly strong emotional responses despite no financial loss.

So now we know why, what can leaders and organisations do differently? The answer goes back to my first observation. We don’t spend long enough considering people’s emotional responses to change. We tend to focus on all the benefits, the ‘why’ the change is needed, and can unintentionally sweep over or completely ignore the feelings of grief and loss our teams may experience. We’ve all heard of trauma-informed practice. We need to take the same approach to change management!

A helpful sequence is:

1.      Anticipate what people may feel they're losing (test your assumptions on this!)

2.      Recognise and validate concerns

3.      Explain what will stay the same.

4.      Then describe what will change/improve and why it matters.

People are far more willing to embrace the future once they feel their losses, whether real or anticipated, have been acknowledged. This idea sits in the work of William Bridges, who argued that every organisational change begins with an ending. Before people can embrace a new beginning, they first need to let go of what they are leaving behind.

Most change doesn’t fail because people don’t understand the new direction. Before we ask people to embrace what comes next, we need to understand what they're being asked to leave behind. So the next time you’re wondering why your team seem to be resistant to a change, remember that people don't resist change itself, they are responding to what they believe they're losing.

So here's the question I'm leaving you with: before your next change initiative, have you spent as much time understanding the human experience of change, as you have planning the change itself?