I recently went hiking in British Columbia, Canada, and just outside the town of Squamish, I saw a bear. Big deal – everyone knows Canada has bears. I did as well, except I didn’t. I theoretically knew that bears live in the wilderness in Canada, but I hadn’t registered that I might see an actual bear while out hiking, and I had no idea what to do. Sometimes, it seems, you can hold two beliefs simultaneously: that something exists but that it’s irrelevant to you.
This adage applies to so many things, but it perfectly applies to big change events.
My reluctance to recognise that when hiking in the woods and mountains of British Columbia, my chances of seeing a bear were high was influenced by two things. Firstly, I live in New Zealand, where there are a ton of birds, but absolutely no bears. And secondly, my lack of interest in reading the introductory chapter to the hiking book I bought. This had a lot to do with the fact that it was a lengthy introduction, and I just wanted to get straight to the trials. If I had diligently read the five-page introduction, I would have found that three pages in, there was a sentence about experiencing snow at high altitude even in Spring (yep, came across this as well) and an overview of the local wildlife, including bears.
If I lived in BC, nobody would need to remind me about my bear etiquette or to pack my bear spray. I would have absorbed it by osmosis as part of the local culture. It would be like saying to an Aussie, if you hike in the Australian outback, you may come across snakes – so pack your snake bite kit, mate. Or saying to a Kiwi, if you hike in a rural area, you may see sheep. Given woolly four-legged creatures, outnumber humans by five to one in Aotearoa, your chances of not seeing sheep are minimal.
As change communicators, we can sometimes be like the local BC residents. So blasé about how change works, we forget to be surprised by it and provide clear guidance to others. Or we speed through the change process because we think our audience is so change savvy that they don’t need much direction anymore. Maybe we’re confusing fatigue at the volume of change with savviness?
However, it doesn’t mean being patronising, as people are not stupid; they’re just less experienced with this topic and sometimes less interested. And many are emotionally exhausted by relentless change. So, it’s not a case of warning people that there are bears, but what to do if you accidentally meet one.
Helping people to identify what to focus on is a key navigating skill managers need to exhibit. According to a 2023 HBR article, “Employees Are Losing Patience with Change Initiatives,” employees are yearning for managers to better identify the priority change initiatives they should zero in on, and employees also want to be more involved in planning and implementing change initiatives, not just at the receiving end of a big sell campaign.
So, in my bear scenario, it would look like BC tourism, hiking guidebooks and outdoor equipment stores highlighting that if you haven’t hiked in the area before, your number one priority is to ‘bear aware’ and to carry spray.
In a corporate scenario, it’s a manager using their deeper institutional knowledge, experience and information to guide their team, providing clear instructions so people feel prepared to deal with the change and well supported. And not confusing a change project with a marketing campaign.
Incidentally, the hiking around the town of Squamish was awesome and incredibly varied, from lakes to cedar forests and snow-covered mountains. I’ll definitely return to BC but next time I’ll know to buy bear spray before I set out on the trail.
Reference
O’Morain, C. & Aykens, P., 2023. Employees are losing patience with change initiatives. Harvard Business Review, 9 May. Available at: https://hbr.org/2023/05/employees-are-losing-patience-with-change-initiatives (Accessed 5 July 2025).