7 Key Principles for Driving Change the Right Way

In the life sciences sector, change isn’t the exception, it’s the norm. From scaling new teams to integrating acquisitions, evolving pipelines, or navigating leadership transitions, companies are constantly in motion.

But here’s the catch: most change efforts fail to deliver on their promise, not because the ideas are bad, but because the execution is flawed. Real transformation doesn’t just depend on strategy or structure. It lives or dies in the way change is led.

Over the past three decades, we've led transformations as a CEOs, advisors, and coaches. We've helped organizations reinvent themselves and watched others falter despite the best of intentions. Through that experience, we’ve found that successful change always reflects the same core truth:

Change is not a one-time initiative. It’s a leadership competency.

If you want your next change effort to succeed, not just on paper, but in culture, behavior, and outcomes—these seven principles are your foundation.

1. Clarity First: Know Your “Why”

Every meaningful change effort starts with a compelling answer to the question: Why are we doing this?

Too often, organizations focus on the what (a new strategy, system, or org chart) without clearly defining the why. That leaves teams confused, skeptical, or disengaged. Clarity builds conviction. When people understand why change is necessary, how it connects to the organization’s mission, values, and future, they’re far more likely to lean in.

Leader takeaway: Make sure every executive can explain the “why” in plain language. If you can’t distill it into one sentence, you’re not ready to lead it.

2. Align at the Top

Change starts with leadership, but not just one leader. The most common failure point I see is misalignment at the top.

Your leadership team must share a unified understanding of the goals, message, and urgency of the change. If executives are sending mixed signals or quietly resisting, you’re already in trouble. Alignment isn’t just about agreement, it’s about consistency in what leaders say, how they behave, and what they prioritize.

Leader takeaway: Before launching change, ask: Are we truly aligned? Do we have shared ownership? Will we hold each other accountable for reinforcing this change?

3. Anticipate Resistance, And Embrace It

Change feels personal. It often brings uncertainty, loss, or fear. So when you encounter resistance, don’t dismiss it, it’s a signal.

People resist for many reasons: lack of clarity, past change fatigue, fear of failure, or feeling left out of the process. Great leaders welcome resistance—not because it’s comfortable, but because it’s data. Engaging resistance early can improve your plan, surface unseen risks, and build trust.

Leader takeaway: Don’t ask “How do we eliminate resistance?” Ask, “What’s this telling us—and how do we respond with empathy and clarity?”

4. Engage People Early and Often

No one wants change done to them. The earlier you involve people, the more likely they are to feel ownership, and the better your change will land.

This is especially true for middle managers and frontline teams, who often understand the operational reality better than senior leaders. Their input can sharpen your strategy and accelerate adoption.

Leader takeaway: Involve key voices from across the organization. Don’t just inform, co-create. And don’t assume silence equals support.

5. Over-communicate with Purpose

Most change efforts suffer from an information vacuum. Teams are left to fill in the blanks, and in the absence of clarity, people assume the worst.

Change communication needs to be consistent, multi-channel, and emotionally intelligent. That means sharing not just the facts, but the story: where we’re going, why it matters, how we’ll get there, and what it means for you. And remember, once is not enough. People need to hear the same message, from multiple voices, over time.

Leader takeaway: Build a structured communication plan with multiple touch points. Include space for Q&A, feedback, and dialogue, not just announcements.

6. Focus on Behaviors, Not Just Structures

A new org chart won’t drive change. A new tool won’t transform culture. For change to stick, people need to behave differently, and that takes intention.

That means identifying the specific behaviors that must start, stop, or scale. It also means ensuring leaders model those behaviors consistently. (If they don’t, no one else will.). This is where many change efforts stall: they focus on systems and structures, but ignore how people actually act day to day.

Leader takeaway: Define the critical few behaviors that drive your strategy—and embed them into hiring, feedback, recognition, and leadership practices.

7. Measure Progress—and Stay Flexible

Change is a dynamic process. What works in the first 30 days may need to evolve in the next 90. Leaders who treat the change plan as static will miss what’s emerging on the ground.

Track both hard metrics (like timelines, milestones, adoption rates) and soft signals (like morale, engagement, trust). Pay attention to what your teams are saying—formally and informally. And when the signals say it’s time to adjust...adjust.

Leader takeaway: Build feedback loops. Hold regular check-ins. Ask, “What’s working? What’s not? And what needs to change in how we’re leading this?”

Final Thought:

Change isn’t about control, it’s about leadership.

The best change leaders aren’t the loudest or most forceful. They’re the ones who are clear, aligned, emotionally intelligent, and deeply committed to making the organization stronger, not just different. If your organization is facing a strategic inflection point, remember: change doesn’t fail because people can’t handle it. It fails because leaders don’t lead it well.

Get these seven principles right, and you’ll not only survive change, you’ll build a team that knows how to thrive through it.