Supporting practitioner wellbeing through change
In this engaging and informal virtual event, three experienced professionals come together to explore the often-overlooked topic of practitioner wellbeing in the context of change.
Designed for Change Management Practitioners, this session offers practical, relatable strategies to help you care for yourself while supporting others.
Join us as:
- Sue Morris shares candid reflections from her career in change, highlighting the dynamics that shape wellbeing in the workplace
- Sergey Helmer addresses the emotional challenges and isolation practitioners may face, offering coaching tools for resilience and self-management
- Emilia Padraic brings a neurophysiological lens to wellbeing, unpacking the impact of stress and change on brain health and cognitive function
The conversation begins with a simple question that becomes central to practitioner wellbeing: “How are you?” In New Zealand, this question is often used as a greeting before moving on with the day. For Raffaela, coming from Italy, it is a genuine question. That difference becomes the starting point for exploring wellbeing for Change Managers, because while Change Managers often support everyone else through uncertainty, pressure and transition, it is just as important to ask who is supporting them.
Why wellbeing matters for Change Managers
Change Management work often means looking after others. Change Managers hold the hands of teams, leaders, stakeholders and impacted groups as they navigate uncertainty. That role can be rewarding, but it can also be lonely, emotionally demanding and easy to carry too heavily.
Wellbeing is connected to the working environment, personal life, state of mind and ability to function. It does not take much to tip the balance. Juggling professional demands with personal responsibilities can create an unintended mismatch, and maintaining that balance requires deliberate attention.
The key message is clear: Change Managers need support systems, boundaries, personal reflection and practical tools that help them continue doing good work without losing themselves in the process.
Do not work in isolation
One of the strongest wellbeing practices is not working in isolation.
This does not necessarily mean having a formal project team around you. It can mean creating a group of like-minded people who can become your network, your sounding board and your informal influencers across the business.
These people do not need to be Change Practitioners. They may simply have influence in the workspace, understand parts of the business, or be able to help you test your thinking. Sometimes they may not even know they are “on your team”, but they become valuable people to connect with, especially when you are not familiar with every element of the business or project environment.
For Change Managers, this kind of informal coalition can reduce isolation, strengthen confidence and provide practical perspective when the work becomes complex.
Understand the brief from a values perspective
Change Managers are used to asking about the business case, the case for change and the reasons for a project. But wellbeing also requires a more personal question: does this work align with my values?
If a piece of work does not feel right, or there is a persistent rub, it is worth taking a step back. The aim is not to avoid difficult work. It is to understand whether there are ways to navigate the work so you can feel comfortable, safe and aligned in the space.
A values-based approach matters because working on something that does not align with your values creates pressure. It can make the work feel harder and less sustainable. Sometimes this requires courage, but being clear about values helps protect wellbeing across the life of a project.
Remember that you do not own the change
Change Managers support change, but they do not own it.
When Change Management was a newer discipline in project environments, there was sometimes a view that bringing in a Change Manager meant they would “do the change”. That can lead Change Practitioners to front the change themselves, carry too much responsibility, and take on pressure that belongs with the business.
The business owns the change. Leaders need to be visible and active in leading it. Change Managers may need to step in at times, but the ownership should stay with the business.
This distinction protects wellbeing. When criticism arises or progress is difficult, it becomes easier not to take it personally. The Change Manager is helping the business lead the change, not personally carrying responsibility for everything that happens.
Never assume people understand the change
A useful principle is: never assume.
Do not assume people know what you think they know. Do not assume a newsletter has been read. Do not assume a town hall has created understanding. Do not assume that because the change has been discussed, people can explain what it means.
The important check is whether the message you want out in the business is the message people can articulate back to you.
This matters for change outcomes, but it also matters for wellbeing. Assumptions create rework, frustration and confusion. Checking understanding early helps reduce pressure later.
Celebrate the wins and bury the ego
Change Management can be a lonely space, and recognition does not always come directly.
The leaders and teams being supported may be the ones recognised for progress, a strong presentation or a successful milestone. Behind that success sits the Change Manager’s preparation, planning, briefing, support and legwork.
That means it is important to celebrate what goes well, even if the recognition is quiet. Pat yourself on the back. Acknowledge that the outcome would not have happened without the work that created the platform.
When recognition does come, take it. Accept it. Let it land.
Do not take shortcuts
When pressure builds, it can be tempting to skip steps.
The project manager may be pushing. The finance team may want things done. The endpoint may be approaching quickly. It can feel easier to move on without all the briefing meetings, end-user sessions or planned activities.
But shortcuts catch up with you.
The impact often appears later, when success measures show a team lagging or not catching up. The practical advice is to stick to the process, while staying flexible and firm. Once the plan is in place, trust the activities that need to happen and manage them around the noise.
Protect your personal space
Workplace wellbeing is only one part of the picture. Personal space matters just as much.
A key lesson is not to carry regret. If a personal event is important, prioritise it. You may not be remembered in the workplace for attending a meeting, but your family will remember that you were present. Those moments cannot be recovered.
This is especially important for Change Managers who are used to being reliable, responsive and available. Meetings reoccur. Work can often be caught up. Firsts, successes and celebrations in personal life do not always come around again.
Connection is a major part of resilience. Being able to speak with other Change Professionals can provide reassurance that the challenges and frustrations are not yours alone.
Other personal wellbeing practices include:
- Avoid taking work home where possible
- Create a ritual to switch from work space into home or personal space
- If something is waking you at night, do something about it
- Talk to someone when an issue is weighing on you
- Maintain sleep, exercise and interests outside work
- Stay connected personally and professionally
Lighten the load by resisting the advice monster
Change Managers care. They want to help, support, educate and make the right thing happen. But that desire to help can lead to carrying too much of the load.
One useful concept is the “advice monster”, drawn from Michael Bungay Stanier’s work in The Advice Trap. The advice monster can appear in three ways:
- Tell it, feeling compelled to tell people what to do and how to do it
- Save it, stepping into the role of hero or saviour and charging forward to rescue the situation
- Control it, feeling the need to get a grip on everything and control the outcome
Advice itself is not the problem. There is a time and place for good advice. The issue is the default habit of giving advice too quickly.
A more useful alternative is to be coach-like: stay curious a little longer and rush to advice more slowly.
Use coaching questions to help others think
When a stakeholder asks for advice, the Change Manager does not need to do all the thinking. A coaching-style conversation can help the other person reflect, expand their thinking and understand the situation more clearly before solutions are offered.
The aim is to create a space where it feels safe for the person to reflect. From there, the conversation can move through awareness, clarity and choice.
Useful questions include:
- What makes figuring this out important to you now?
- What positive outcome would that bring?
- What would be different once this is figured out?
- What else would become possible?
- When you say “lead”, what do you mean by lead?
- What is the real challenge here for you?
- What is the hardest part for you personally?
- What else?
- Based on what we have covered, what is the key question you need to answer for yourself?
- What would you like to see happen?
- What do you need to address first?
- Who else might you need to talk to?
These questions help stakeholders generate their own insights. Their learning becomes deeper, and their motivation can become stronger.
There are important caveats. Not every situation is suited to coaching-style behaviour. Some requests are straightforward tasks. If someone asks for a change plan by the end of the week, responding with “when you say provide, what do you mean by provide?” is not helpful. Use judgement. Use discernment. Coaching-style conversations work best where there is trust, space and a genuine need to explore.
Understand what you can control
Difficult project cultures and dominating personalities can create emotional drain.
A useful place to begin is role clarity. Project teams need to be clear about who is doing what, where responsibilities sit, and where accountability belongs. If strong personalities are cutting across roles, senior support may be needed to help reposition responsibilities and reduce overlap.
It also helps to consider:
- What can I personally control?
- What can I influence?
- What might derail me?
- How can I protect myself?
- What boundaries need to be held?
- What problem are we actually trying to solve?
- How is everyone doing?
These questions support wellbeing because they separate what belongs to the Change Manager from what belongs to the wider system.
Look after the brain that carries the work
Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to reorganise itself. The brain is mouldable through experience, or through the lack of experience. This is how people learn skills, retrain habits, recover function after neurological conditions, and rewire the brain through actions such as meditation.
The brain remains plastic until the day we die. People can keep learning new skills throughout life, although it may take longer with age.
To optimise brain change, the brain needs challenge, relevance and repetition. Adults often make tasks too easy. For the best motor change and learning, success may need to sit closer to 50% rather than 80%. The task needs to be hard enough to drive change.
Salience also matters. The activity must be meaningful and motivating. Whether building a habit, learning a skill or supporting recovery, the brain engages more strongly when the activity matters to the person.
Repetition is also critical. Hundreds of repetitions may be needed to create change.
Use technology and gamification to build habits
Gamification can help build repetition, motivation and engagement.
People may avoid boring exercises after a few days, but they may complete hundreds or thousands of repetitions when an activity is turned into a game. Habit-forming apps, trackers and brain-training tools can all support this process.
Examples include:
- Habit-forming apps with trackers
- Brain games such as Lumosity or Elevate
- Mindfulness and meditation apps such as Calm and Smiling Mind
- Language learning tools such as Duolingo
- Low-tech games, such as cards, when the activity supports the desired function
The message is practical: it is not cheating to lean into technology when forming new habits or learning new skills.
Manage neurological fatigue with the three Ps
Neurological fatigue originates in the central nervous system, the brain and spinal cord. It is different from peripheral fatigue, such as the tiredness after a hard run or gym workout.
Central fatigue can appear in neurological conditions, concussion, chronic fatigue syndrome, long COVID, Parkinson’s, sleep deprivation, extreme stress and anxiety. It can feel like hitting a wall, extreme mental fatigue or brain fog.
The key is the three Ps:
- Pacing
- Prioritisation
- Planning
This may mean avoiding three intense meetings back to back, creating downtime after a demanding session, and preventing the boom-bust cycle where a good day leads to doing too much, followed by crashing the next day.
Mindfulness, relaxation and meditation can also play a significant role, supported by growing evidence.
Move for brain health
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, is described as a fertiliser for the brain. It helps protect and repair the brain and supports neuroplasticity, memory, cognitive health, stress management and many neurological conditions.
Exercise releases BDNF.
It does not require running a marathon. Getting a little short of breath for 30 seconds, three times a week, can release BDNF and have an impact on the brain. This might mean marching on the spot, punching from a chair, walking briskly from pole to pole, or any movement that creates a little huff and puff.
What is good for the heart is good for the brain.
Keep the brain healthy over time
The way people care for their brain in their 30s, 40s and 50s shapes brain health in their 60s, 70s, 80s and beyond.
Important brain health practices include:
- Exercise
- A balanced diet
- Social connection
- Mental workouts
- Stress management
- Sleep
- Protecting the head
- Looking after general health, including blood pressure and cholesterol
The Mediterranean diet and the MIND diet are both referenced as useful areas to explore, particularly in relation to cognitive decline.
Social connection also matters. It does not require going to a party every night. It simply means having meaningful connection with other people.
Start with one change today
Supporting practitioner wellbeing through change begins with small, practical choices.
Build a network. Do not own the change. Check assumptions. Protect personal moments. Resist the urge to carry every answer. Stay curious a little longer. Use questions to help others think. Understand what you can control. Care for your brain through movement, sleep, connection and recovery.
Change Managers spend much of their work helping others move through pressure, uncertainty and transition. Their own wellbeing deserves the same level of attention.
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