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The Copy Minimalist

Change management is dumb.

Published about 2 months ago • 1 min read

the edit | #1

The first edition of The Edit is live (announcement about what this is about here), and this one's for anyone leading a creative team through a tool change, a process shift, or any kind of "we're doing things differently now" moment.

(Also for those who are affected by change, I suppose!)

The short version: when new tools arrive, it's usually your strongest people who go quiet first.

Not because they're resistant. Because their competence is their identity.

And being a beginner again, in front of people who look up to them, is a specific kind of uncomfortable that most change frameworks completely miss.

This essay is about what's actually happening in those moments — and what good leaders do about it.

A few things I get into:

  • Why "resistance" is usually a rational response to a status threat, not a character flaw.
  • What it means to create named safety instead of assumed safety for your team.
  • The difference between principled skepticism and avoidance — and why good leaders know how to tell them apart.

Read it here: https://www.thecopyminimalist.com/p/leading-creative-teams-through-change​

As always, if something lands or something doesn't, hit reply. I read them all!

Matt

P.S. If you're navigating a change like this at the leadership or agency level and want a second set of eyes on how you're approaching it, this is exactly the kind of thing I work through with creative leaders one-on-one. You can tell me a bit about what you're dealing with here: tally.so/r/ZjVV9A

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