Companies invest in change.
Yet something often slows it down.
New strategies, new processes, new structures. Decisions are made, but they struggle to translate into everyday behaviour: managers handle day-to-day operations and transformation at the same time, initial enthusiasm gives way to fatigue, old habits take over again. When this happens, change risks staying on paper. ImpulsoFuturo supports organisations, teams and leaders in turning these difficulties into opportunities for learning and development. Because change doesn’t happen in written projects: it happens with people, in relationships, in everyday work.
The answers weren’t about processes.
They were about people.
Many changes are carefully designed: strategies, processes, tools and plans receive time and energy. Far less often do we ask how that change will be experienced by those who have to carry it out. In 2025 we asked managers, HR professionals and leaders which aspects of change processes are most underestimated. The answers converged on four directions.
Summary of the reflections gathered in 2025 from managers, HR professionals and leaders
The most frequent answers were not about strategies, processes or tools. They were about the way people experience change.
Not a formula, but a compass for recognising the value of the human side of change. Read the research(in Italian)
We come from decades of experience supporting people, teams and organisations through complex change. The most solid transformations come from the meeting of different perspectives, from listening, from the chance to make sense of things. That is why we don’t offer predefined solutions: we choose to observe, understand and build together. With clients, with professionals whose skills complement ours, with partners chosen to see further. Because change has more value when it is built together.
Yes, very much so. Six times more likely to succeed.
Changing means altering habits, relationships, ways of collaborating and of making sense of what happens: defining a strategy or introducing new processes isn’t enough. According to Prosci, initiatives that apply excellent change management practices are six times more likely to meet their objectives than those where change is neglected. Yet the most important aspects are not always the most visible. Read the research(in Italian)
And that’s where the tension begins.
The pace is often hectic, the goals important, the resources not always sufficient. And alongside managing the day to day, people are asked to embrace a new logic, a new map of skills or values. Here are some signs you may recognise.
Change is clear on paper, less so in behaviour
The decisions have been made, but daily work keeps following established patterns.
Managers don’t keep on top of the change they have accepted
They are asked at the same time to deliver results, support people and lead the transformation: often they can’t manage it.
People take part with little energy
Meetings are attended, processes move forward, but enthusiasm, initiative and involvement seem to fade.
The same difficulties keep coming back
Problems are tackled again and again without producing lasting change. The lack of successes, even small ones, switches people off.
There’s a lot of talk about tools and processes
But little about fears, expectations, meanings and relationships. Little about what really matters to people.
Do you recognise one or more of these signs, or see another one that isn’t here? Let’s talk
A bridge between where people are and what they can become.
Starting change from where people should be means losing energy and involvement from the very beginning. To support them, you start by exploring where they are today. This is what the PONTE Framework (ponte is the Italian word for ‘bridge’) works on, refined over time through different experiences and contexts: the five phases describe the path.
Prepare.
Talk to people, in person. What really scares you about this change? Answers given in private are always different from those given in a group.
Observe.
Listen in meetings, in conversations, in real spaces. Where do people get stuck? Who avoids whom? Which silences weigh heavy?
Name.
Name the elephant in the room. Everything can be said, without pointing the finger. We talk about how we feel, about what we would like.
Test.
Use theory only when it is really needed. Choose a concrete, urgent, important goal together. Practice leads the way.
Extend.
Celebrate the first success together, then repeat it with less and less facilitation.
If the five phases describe the path, the five principles guide how we look at it: they are the beliefs that guide everything we do.
Permission to be afraid.
Fear of change is not an obstacle: it is the honest, concrete place to start from.
Observation in depth.
Reading systemic dynamics, not just symptoms. Not passivity: a more demanding form of presence.
New + established skills.
People who bring experience and people who bring innovation, together. Leaving someone behind is replacement, not transformation.
Transformation in small steps.
Change is built in small, verifiable steps, over 6 to 8 months. Haste is the main enemy.
Evolution that lasts.
Value shows when results last over time. Working ourselves out of a job is not a failure: it is the goal.
Three areas of work, deeply connected.
Leadership
When leading doesn’t mean having all the answers, but creating the conditions for people to give their best.
Feedback, delegation, developing people, managing tensions, the ability to give direction to change and support it. Because change takes shape in the relationships leaders build.
Team
When collaboration slows down, tensions absorb energy and shared goals struggle to find room.
Communication, trust, shared responsibility, conflict, alignment and the quality of working relationships. Because collaboration doesn’t come from the organisation chart, but from the quality of connections.
Future Skills
When the future demands skills for facing complexity, uncertainty and continuous transformation.
Critical thinking, continuous learning, adaptability, collaboration and the ability to read the context. Because the future demands human abilities that cannot be automated.
Different but connected areas of work, which we approach in the same way: starting from where people are, to support them towards what they can become.
When change is about you, first and foremost.
Sometimes the request for change doesn’t come from a company, and the change process isn’t an organisational choice. Sometimes it is the person themselves who feels that the way they have faced their reality until now no longer works. Or that the time has come to evolve.
Find out about coaching for individualsFrequently
asked questions.
How can you improve collaboration in a team that isn’t working?
When skilled people struggle to collaborate, the cause is rarely just technical.
Organisational factors (such as roles that are not entirely clear, processes that are not aligned or goals that are seen differently) often come into play, together with relational dynamics such as trust, communication or psychological safety.
Typical signs include meetings with little participation, difficulty in bringing forward new ideas, working in silos, or struggling to share problems and mistakes.
Addressing these situations requires a systemic approach: understanding the dynamics at play, working with leaders, creating spaces for discussion and building working agreements that can be put into practice day to day.
A few facilitation meetings and follow-ups are usually needed to consolidate the change.
What is the difference between team coaching and team building?
Although they can be complementary, team building and team coaching follow different logics.
- Team building: a short experience (from half a day to two days) that helps people get to know each other and supports the quality of relationships. It is useful when a team is starting out, going through change or consolidating.
- Team coaching: a programme that develops over time and works on the dynamics that influence collective performance: communication, decisions, conflicts, collaboration and alignment. The aim is to support the team in improving results in a sustainable way.
A team coaching programme can include moments of team building; its main focus remains improving the team’s effectiveness and business results.
How do you manage generational conflict in a company?
So-called generational conflicts rarely depend on age alone. More often they reflect differences in expectations, language, ways of working and the criteria by which professional value is recognised.
In many contexts, established experience and emerging skills live side by side, but risk being seen as alternatives rather than as complementary. On one side there may be people with great experience and knowledge of the organisation; on the other, professionals who bring emerging skills, new perspectives and familiarity with tools and contexts that are evolving rapidly.
It therefore becomes useful to create spaces for structured discussion, to make expectations and needs explicit and to build shared working agreements, recognising the value of different contributions.
Depending on the context, facilitation, team coaching or dedicated workshops can be used.
What is psychological safety in a team?
Psychological safety is the shared perception, within a team, that it is possible to express ideas, questions or mistakes without fear of negative consequences for relationships.
The concept was developed by Amy Edmondson and has also been explored by organisational research, including Google’s Project Aristotle, which highlighted it as a recurring element in effective teams.
It doesn’t mean the absence of conflict or feeling good together: it means, precisely, being able to face disagreements openly and constructively.
When it is present, it raises the quality of discussion and increases learning, collaboration and innovation.
How do you measure psychological safety in a team?
The level of psychological safety can be measured with validated tools, such as Amy Edmondson’s 7-item scale.
In a few minutes, the survey gives an indication of the average level the team perceives and of how much the answers vary within the team, to see how similarly or differently the people in the team experience it.
The tool is not a conclusive diagnosis. It is rather a starting point for a structured conversation in the team and with leaders, and for monitoring how things evolve over time.
How can I increase psychological safety in my team?
Psychological safety is built over time through consistent behaviour, above all from the people who lead the team.
Some important levers are:
- clarify context and expectations
- encourage everyone to take part
- set an example through openness and transparency
- treat mistakes as an opportunity to learn
- recognise contributions explicitly
People watch a leader’s behaviour more than they listen to their recommendations: if the leader doesn’t speak up, the team is unlikely to. Conversely, if people experience that this behaviour is useful and not penalised, they are more willing to put themselves forward.
Psychological safety and performance: is there really a measurable link?
Yes, and the evidence is strong. Google’s multi-year research (Project Aristotle) on the factors that make work groups effective analysed more than 180 internal teams and identified 5 factors that predict performance. Psychological safety is the first and the most important: the other 4 (dependability, structure/clarity, meaning, impact) work fully only when there is a solid foundation of psychological safety.
Other research (Edmondson, Harvard 2018) has linked psychological safety to lower turnover, greater capacity for innovation, a reduction in errors reported in time, and better quality of decisions in complex contexts. In medical and aerospace settings there is also evidence of fewer serious incidents.
What is the PONTE Framework and what is it for?
The PONTE Framework (ponte is the Italian word for ‘bridge’) is ImpulsoFuturo’s proprietary method for supporting sustainable organisational change.
It combines hands-on experience, organisational neuroscience and a systemic approach to develop change in five steps:
- Prepare the ground
- Observe without judging
- Name the unspoken
- Test in practice
- Extend and consolidate
The process also rests on a few cross-cutting principles linked to learning, transformation in small steps and consolidation over time.
A PONTE programme lasts 4 to 8 months on average and aims to make the organisation autonomous in practising change every day.
What are the 5 phases of sustainable organisational change?
The 5 phases of the PONTE Framework describe a structured path for supporting organisational change that can last over time.
- Prepare the ground: create the conditions for change by listening to people and understanding expectations, fears and constraints before the work begins.
- Observe without judging: gather information from the organisational context, distinguishing between the explicit problem and the underlying dynamics that influence it.
- Name the unspoken: bring to light tensions, difficulties or things left unsaid that affect collaboration and results, and turn them into something to work on.
- Test in practice: experiment with new behaviours and ways of working in real situations, with concrete, gradual steps.
- Extend and consolidate: make change more stable over time by transferring skills, strengthening practices and setting up internal ways to keep on top of the change.
Why do many change management projects fail?
Several studies, including analyses by McKinsey that are often cited, indicate that a significant share of change programmes do not fully achieve the expected results.
The most frequent causes are not so much technical as organisational and cultural. Among the most recurrent:
- change is sometimes treated as an ‘on/off switch’, without adequate work on the context and on the people involved;
- an alignment is assumed that, in practice, has not yet been built;
- the effort focuses mainly on classroom training, without enough support in day-to-day operations;
- fears about changes of role, status, job security or professional identity are not always addressed explicitly;
- there is a tendency to measure mainly perceptions and statements, rather than the behaviour actually shown in daily work.
When these aspects are not considered systematically, old organisational patterns may tend to reassert themselves, even after structured change programmes.
Is coaching only for managers, or is it for anyone?
Coaching often begins in organisations, but it isn’t reserved for managers. In fact, it can be useful to anyone going through any kind of change, or who simply feels the need to stop and reflect more clearly on a phase of their life.
Many people come to coaching because they are taking on new responsibilities, have an important decision to make, want to find their balance again, or feel that the way they have handled certain situations so far needs to evolve.
It isn’t the role that makes the difference. It’s the willingness to understand better what is happening and to choose how to face it.
What is the difference between coaching and psychotherapy?
Coaching and psychotherapy have different goals and areas of work.
Psychotherapy deals with a person’s psychological wellbeing, with emotional difficulties and suffering that may require clinical treatment.
Coaching, on the other hand, supports people who want to develop greater awareness, face a change, make decisions or reach personal and professional goals.
If, during the first introductory meeting, a situation comes up that requires a different kind of support, we will say so clearly. We believe respect for the person comes before everything else.
How do I know if I need a coach?
There is no specific reason or moment to look for a coach’s support.
It can be useful when you feel that carrying on doing things the way you always have no longer helps you.
Perhaps you have a difficult decision to make. Perhaps you are going through an important change. Or you simply want to talk with someone who helps you look at the situation from different perspectives, without telling you what to do.
If you recognise yourself in one of these situations, a first meeting can help you understand whether coaching is the most suitable tool, and whether you are talking to the right person to support you on this path.
How confidential is a coaching programme?
Confidentiality is a fundamental principle of coaching.
Everything that comes up during the meetings stays strictly confidential.
This lets you speak freely and explore doubts, fears, ideas and decisions in a protected space, without worrying that what you share will be passed on to others.
Can coaching be done online?
Yes.
Many programmes take place online and allow you to work with the same depth as face-to-face meetings.
The format is chosen together, based on the person’s needs and the goals of the programme. In some situations it is possible to alternate online and face-to-face meetings.
How does the first meeting work?
The first meeting is a chance to get to know each other.
Its purpose is to understand the situation you are in and the goals you want to reach, and to assess together whether coaching is the most suitable path.
It is just as important for the coach to understand whether they can really be useful to you. If another professional is better suited, we will tell you openly.
What is executive coaching and who is it for?
Executive coaching is a one-to-one programme of support for leaders, managers and members of the C-suite who work in contexts that are highly complex and constantly changing.
It isn’t based on ready-made solutions, but supports the ability to read situations, explore alternatives and make decisions that are consistent with a person’s own vision.
Through dialogue, reflection and experimenting with new behaviours, coaching encourages an evolution of leadership that can generate results that are sustainable over time.
A programme generally involves 6 to 10 sessions spread over at least six months.
How long does an executive coaching programme last and how much does it cost?
An executive coaching programme generally lasts 6 to 10 months, depending on the goals, the professional context and the needs of the person or the organisation.
Sessions last between 60 and 120 minutes and normally take place every fortnight or once a month. In some cases shorter programmes can also be designed, when the goals are limited in scope.
The investment varies according to the length of the programme, the number of sessions, the management level involved and any additional services.
For this reason, a first introductory conversation is always included, to help define a proposal that fits the context and the goals.
Coaching vs mentoring vs consultancy: what are the differences?
These are three distinct approaches, each useful in different situations.
- Consultancy: the consultant analyses a situation and proposes solutions based on their own expertise and experience. It is particularly useful when technical knowledge or operational guidance is needed.
- Mentoring: the mentor shares their own experience in a specific area, offering guidance and perspectives built up over time. The focus is on passing on experience.
- Coaching: the coach supports a process of learning and change. Through observation and analysis, dialogue and experimentation, they help develop decision-making, relational and organisational capability.
Coaching is particularly useful when the challenges concern leadership, relationships, change or complex decisions. When specific technical skills are needed instead, the support of a consultant or an industry expert may be more appropriate.
What is neuroscience-based coaching?
Neuroscience-based coaching combines the coaching method with the evidence from neuroscience on how the brain, decision-making and learning work.
It helps to understand how factors such as stress, attention, emotions and the perception of safety influence individual and collective behaviour.
This makes it possible to read the dynamics that emerge in organisational contexts with greater awareness, and to design approaches that are more consistent with the way people learn and make decisions.
The aim is to use this evidence to support leadership, collaboration, learning and performance in a sustainable way.
Take 30 minutes
with an expert.
An exploratory call to see whether there is common ground. No obligation, no selling. Just an honest conversation about what is holding you back.