Project managers can end up aligning with resistance when the pressure is unsustainable.
We’ve seen transformation projects clearly fail due to people's readiness. Chaotic go-lives where the technical team just wants it to end. Project teams are exhausted. And sometimes even project managers quietly align with resistance because the pressure becomes unsustainable.
Yet few people openly say it: many projects struggle because change management was never really part of the decision-making process.
During transformations, negative transitions can have a deep emotional impact that people carry into future projects. This is the normality in many project deliveries today. Change is imposed on employees. They are involved too late, rarely given the opportunity to contribute, never given the chance to shape it.
So what actually stops organizations today from properly embedding change management in the projects they roll out?
It’s unlikely to be a lack of evidence. The cost of low people readiness is already well documented. Most organizations have seen it first-hand anyway.
So the issue sits somewhere deeper.
Change management today still occupies a space similar to the one psychology held decades ago. Everybody knew it was valid, but it didn't quite bring the tangibility people were looking for.
And in that gap, perception forms.
Asking for change management support is still interpreted as a signal that something is not fully under control. Not because it replaces project management, but because it introduces a different lens into decisions that are often already fixed.
That tension — between recognizing its value and not fully embedding it into decision structures — is where change management often gets delayed, diluted, or positioned too late to have full impact.
Change management does not compete with project management. It complements it. While project management drives delivery, change management focuses on how people think, act, and adapt through it.