CultureClub X · S06 E02
Keeping Teams Engaged Through Constant Change
Most orgs treat change management as a project. Jamy Conrad treats it as a capability. In S06 E02 of CultureClub X, she shares how coaching skill, scenario planning, and real-time feedback work for CHROs navigating uncertainty in 2026.
TL;DR
What you need to know from this episode
- Coaching skill is the engagement multiplier. Leaders who deliver feedback with empathy and precision drive deeper, more durable team engagement than any retention program.
- Change-related turnover is almost always a communication failure. When mid-level managers cannot translate organizational changes into meaningful context, employees disengage - not because of the change itself, but because of the uncertainty it created.
- The biggest gap in leadership readiness is experience, not knowledge. Leaders freeze during uncertainty because they have never practiced navigating it. Scenario planning closes that gap before high-stakes moments arrive.
- Consistent language across the leadership team is non-negotiable. Peer accountability - including real-time course correction mid-meeting - prevents the message fragmentation that destroys employee trust during change.
- Empathy and resilience must be treated as learnable skills, not assumed traits. Organizations that build them systematically outperform those that treat them as innate - especially outside the HR function.
- Real-time feedback dramatically outperforms delayed feedback. One organization saw eNPS scores rise from negative 8 to positive 57 in 18 months by making immediate, respectful feedback a core leadership discipline.
- GenAI tools can accelerate human-centric leadership at scale. Manager nudges and AI coaching assistants help leaders practice empathy and resilience in the daily flow of work - without making leadership less human.
Why leadership during change is the defining HR challenge of 2026
Organizational change is no longer episodic - it is the permanent condition of modern work. Yet most organizations still treat change management as a project, not a capability. The result is predictable: engagement drops, trust erodes, and high performers leave precisely when the organization needs them most.
According to Gallup's 2024 State of the Global Workplace report, only 23% of employees worldwide are engaged at work - and engagement declines sharply during periods of organizational uncertainty.
Meanwhile, McKinsey's 2023 research found that 70% of change initiatives fail - and the primary reason is not strategy. It is people leadership.
Jamy Conrad brings a rare perspective: 25 years of navigating change across manufacturing, healthcare, tech, and now financial services, including leading HR through a pandemic, a corporate acquisition, and a digital transformation at UFCU.
How coaching skill directly drives team engagement during change
The failure of engagement during change follows a predictable pattern. It starts with a leader who cannot deliver feedback in a way that leaves employees feeling capable and motivated - and ends with disengagement, attrition, and eroded organizational trust.
"I remember working for a leader that when I went in for feedback sessions, I always walked away feeling like I was a million dollars," Jamy shared. "And then sometimes it would hit me later - that was more of a negative feedback than a positive. The coaching conversations were so good."
The more that we can encourage our leaders to show up in an empathetic way - that gives the employee a little bit of autonomy in how they receive that feedback and then what they do as a result - can just make all the difference in how that team member shows up the next day.
The telephone game: why mid-level managers are the change management failure point
Most change initiatives fail not at the executive level but at the mid-management layer, where decisions must be translated into daily context for frontline employees. When managers cannot clearly explain how a change affects an employee's role, contribution, and future - the message deteriorates.
"Not being transparent enough with information, leaders not understanding how to correlate the change that's happening into how it's impacting the day-to-day work of that employee - that's where it breaks down," Jamy explained.
See how CultureMonkey surfaces leadership gaps during change
CultureMonkey's continuous listening tools give HR leaders the real-time data to identify where manager coaching is working - and where change communication is breaking down - before it becomes a retention problem.
The Change Readiness Loop: a four-stage framework for sustained engagement
Jamy's experience across industries revealed a consistent pattern: the organizations that sustain engagement through change are not the ones with the best strategies - they are the ones whose leaders have built the muscle to communicate, coach, and course-correct in real time.
She distilled this into what she calls the Change Readiness Loop, a four-stage cycle designed to be repeated continuously rather than deployed once.
The framework is built on a simple premise: change readiness is not a state you achieve. It is a capability you practice. Each stage reinforces the next, creating a self-sustaining loop that strengthens the leadership team's ability to navigate uncertainty with empathy and confidence.
Scenario Planning
Run structured leadership conversations about potential change outcomes before they occur. Build muscle memory for uncertainty so leaders respond with confidence, not improvisation.
Language Alignment
Establish enterprise-level communication frameworks with consistent terminology. Every leader - from executive to frontline manager - uses the same language to describe the change.
Real-Time Feedback
Act in the moment, not at the end of the quarter. When a leader hears something in a meeting, they address it immediately - like a baseball coach on the mound, not reviewing tape after the season.
Peer Accountability
Leadership teams hold each other to agreed language and frameworks in real time - including course correction mid-meeting using a shared safe word protocol.
Scenario planning: the most underrated tool in leadership development
The biggest gap in leadership readiness is not knowledge - it is experience. Leaders who have never navigated major uncertainty tend to freeze when it arrives. The solution is deliberate rehearsal through scenario planning.
Jamy shared a compelling example: a team of new managers about to go through an acquisition the organization could not yet disclose. One scenario planning exercise happened to cover the exact situation - giving those managers a reference point when the real announcement came.
Leaders freeze in the moment or they go completely rogue because they just aren't sure what they're supposed to do. Scenario planning is how you give them at least a couple of tools to turn to.
The eNPS case: what real-time feedback actually does to engagement scores
Internal eNPS scores for one leader's organization rose from negative 8 to positive 57 within 18 months. The single driver: a Chief Revenue Officer who, when an employee said something in a meeting, got on the phone with them right away - not to manage the situation down, but to genuinely understand their perspective.
"The more I could do to feed him the information that he needed from a people standpoint, the stronger he became as their leader," Jamy noted. CultureMonkey's pulse surveys are not reporting mechanisms - they are leadership performance inputs.
Think of it like the coach going on the field in the baseball game and delivering that information to the pitcher right then and there. They're not waiting until the end of the game to make a change on the mound.
What you'll learn from this episode
| # | Topic | What you'll learn | Applicable to |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Coaching skills & engagement | How leader coaching style directly influences whether employees stay engaged - and why empathetic delivery of even negative feedback increases motivation | CHROsPeople ManagersL&D Leads |
| 2 | Change-related turnover | The root causes of turnover during change - and why mid-level manager enablement with consistent language is the most effective intervention | HRBPsHR Directors |
| 3 | Feedback loops during change | How to build proactive feedback channels - office hours, open surveys, rapid town halls - that let leaders course correct before disengagement sets in | People OpsInternal Comms |
| 4 | Scenario planning | A practical approach that builds leadership muscle before crisis arrives - including preparing managers for an acquisition without disclosing confidential information | CHROsTransformation Leaders |
| 5 | Peer accountability | Why consistent language across the leadership team is non-negotiable - and a real example of using a safe word to course correct in live meetings | HR DirectorsExecutive Teams |
| 6 | Scaling empathy with GenAI | How manager nudge tools and AI coaching assistants make human-centric leadership more scalable - without making it less human | CHROsHR Tech Leaders |
| 7 | Continuous feedback & eNPS | How real-time feedback drove an eNPS improvement from negative 8 to positive 57 in 18 months - and the leadership behavior that made it possible | CHROsEngagement Teams |
About the guest
Jamy Conrad
Director of People, UFCU
Jamy Conrad Director of People, UFCU · Austin, Texas Jamy Conrad leads the people strategy at UFCU (University Federal Credit Union) through a major digital transformation. With over 25 years of HR leadership across tech, healthcare, and finance, including TrustRadius, HG Insights, PAM Health, and Travis Medical Sales Corp - she partners with executive teams to solve people problems that create lasting organizational change, not just short-term fixes.
Career highlights include reducing regrettable turnover from over 40% to under 5% in two years, saving nearly half a million dollars annually through benefits strategy optimization, and boosting new manager effectiveness scores by 28% in 12 months. She is a founding member and board advisor to multiple HR industry bodies.
Full episode transcript
Season 06, Episode 02 · Jamy Conrad & Darcy Mehta · ~28 minutes
Frequently asked questions
Why do most change initiatives fail even when the strategy is sound?
The breakdown happens at the mid-management layer, not at the executive level. When managers cannot translate a change into what it means for an employee's day-to-day role, contribution, and future, the message deteriorates like a game of telephone and trust erodes.
What is the Change Readiness Loop?
It is Jamy Conrad's four-stage cycle for sustaining engagement through change: scenario planning, language alignment, real-time feedback, and peer accountability. It is designed to be repeated continuously rather than deployed once, because change readiness is a capability you practice, not a state you achieve.
How does scenario planning help leaders during uncertainty?
Leaders tend to freeze or go rogue in a crisis because they have never practiced navigating one. Rehearsing potential outcomes in advance builds muscle memory, so leaders have a few tools to turn to when the real moment arrives. In one case a scenario exercise happened to mirror an acquisition managers were about to face.
Does empathetic feedback actually move engagement numbers?
Yes. In one organization, eNPS rose from negative 8 to positive 57 within 18 months. The single driver was a leader who responded to employee input in real time to genuinely understand their perspective, rather than waiting until the end of the quarter.
Why does consistent language across the leadership team matter during change?
When every leader from executive to frontline manager uses the same terminology to describe a change, the message stops fragmenting. Jamy's team even used a shared safe word protocol to hold each other accountable and course correct mid-meeting.
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