Behavioural Change Toolkit · Advising Senior Leaders

Executive Failure Modes — Interactive

A leader is undermining their own change and you need to name it in a way that lands

Tick what you are actually seeing. The tool names the failure mode, explains why it produces the outcome you are getting, and gives you the words to raise it.

All eight are well-intentioned

Nobody sets out to undermine their own change. These are the natural output of being time-poor, optimistic, and several layers away from where the work happens — which is exactly why naming them constructively is valuable and naming them accusingly is worse than useless.

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Context

What are you seeing?

Tick what you have actually observed, not what you suspect. The earliest signals are the cheapest to act on.

1 The Say–Do Gap

2 Delegating the Change but Not the Authority

3 Declaring Victory Early

4 The Comms Reflex

5 Change Saturation Blindness

6 Consensus Theatre

7 Solving the Wrong Problem Confidently

8 Punishing the Messenger


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Last updated: 11 August 2026