Your Team Isn't Afraid of Change. They're Afraid You Don't Know What Matters to Them.
There's no one-size-fits-all solution for leading teams through mergers, layoffs, or rapid growth. Every organization is different. But after analyzing nearly a million survey responses, we found three values that consistently matter to people working in large American corporations. This article gives you a practical tactic for each one, something you can actually use on Monday morning.
When Salesforce acquired Slack for $27.7 billion in 2021, employee message boards lit up with one question that had nothing to do with stock prices or integration timelines: "Will they make us come into the office?"
That's the thing about organizational disruption. Metaphorically speaking, leaders obsess over synergies and restructuring while employees obsess over whether they can still work from home on Fridays.
If you're leading a team through rapid growth, a merger, an acquisition, or a reduction in force, you're probably doing exactly what you've been trained to do: communicate the vision, explain the strategy, reassure people about the future. And your team is probably still anxious, disengaged, and very likely polishing their LinkedIn profiles.
Here's why: You're not speaking the language they are listening to.
The Data You Didn't Know You Needed
We recently analyzed nearly a million data points comparing people who work in large American corporations to the general population. The study, which meets PhD-level statistical rigor and then some, reveals something most leadership training completely misses.
Your employees aren't a demographic. They're not "millennials in tech" or "Gen X managers" or "remote workers." They're human beings whose decisions, loyalty, and performance are driven by what matters most to them. Their values.
When disruption hits—whether it's scaling from 50 employees to 500, merging two corporate cultures, or cutting 20% of your workforce—the leaders who keep their teams functional are the ones who understand what their people actually need to feel secure, capable, and committed.
The research identified three values that show up consistently among people working in large American organizations. And more importantly, it revealed exactly how these values show up during times of uncertainty.
Fair warning: This is broad-based data. People working on Wall Street will have different nuances than people working in Silicon Valley. But it's a hell of a starting point, and if you want research tailored to your specific industry or organization, that's a different conversation. For now, let's talk about what works for most of the USA workforce, most of the time.
Value #1: Financial Security
What it means to the USA workforce: Having confidence in long-term stability.
During disruption, people who over-index on the value of Financial Security aren't worried about their salary next month. They're worried about whether the ground beneath them is solid in the long term.
Leaders usually respond to this by over-communicating about business performance, market conditions, and strategic pivots. That's not wrong. But it's incomplete.
The Tactic: The "Anchors List" Exercise
Within 48 hours of announcing any major change, gather your team for 15 minutes and create a visible list titled "What's NOT Changing." Write it on a whiteboard, post it in Slack, or send it as a one-pager. Keep it to 5-7 items maximum.
Include things like:
"We still prioritize quality over speed."
"Friday afternoon team syncs stay on the calendar."
"Nobody works weekends unless they volunteer."
"Your PTO requests get approved the same way."
"We still eat lunch together on Wednesday."
"Customer response time stays under 24 hours."
Value #2: Personal Responsibility
What it means to the USA workforce: Doing what needs to be done.
People who value personal responsibility are asking for clarity. During a restructuring or merger, the rules change. Decision rights can become murky, and project or initiative ownership may be less certain.
So, the people who pride themselves on follow-through will freeze. Because they don't know if taking initiative will get them fired.
The Tactic: The "Decision Map" Protocol
Within the first week of any major organizational shift, create a one-page visual document for each team member that answers three questions:
What can you still decide without asking? (List 3-5 specific decisions)
What now needs approval, and from whom? (Name the person, not the title)
What's off your plate entirely? (Be explicit about what they're no longer responsible for)
Real example from a team during a merger:
Sarah (Customer Success Manager):
Still decide: Client communication timing, which tickets to escalate, and your weekly schedule
Now needs approval from Miguel: Discounts over $500, new tool purchases
Off your plate: Monthly reporting (Analytics team owns it now), vendor negotiations
Post this as a PDF in your shared drive and as a physical sheet at their desk. When someone asks, "Can I still do X?" you point to their Decision Map.
The reason this works: People who value Personal Responsibility get anxious when they don't know if following through on something will get them in trouble, and this removes the guessing game. They can still be dependable because they know exactly what "dependable" means right now.
Value #3: Loyalty
What it means to the USA workforce:: Staying committed to the people who matter.
Here's what most leaders miss during organizational change: Your team is making emotional decisions about relationships.
The person who's been getting coffee with the same colleague for three years doesn't care that it makes strategic sense for them to be in different departments. They care that their coffee routine just died.
The Tactic: The "Who Stays With You" Conversation
In the first 72 hours after announcing a major change, have a one-on-one chat with each person if you can, but at least in small groups if your team is large. Ask them to list the 3-5 work relationships that matter most to them. Not just their immediate team. The person in accounting who always fixes their expense reports. The engineer who mentors them. The colleague they've had lunch with for three years.
Write those names down. Then tell them specifically and honestly what's happening with each relationship:
"Mike is staying in your department. Nothing changes there."
"Suzanne is moving to the Austin office but will still be on your project Slack channel."
"The Thursday lunch group can absolutely continue. In fact, next week’s lunch is on me."
"Janet is part of the reduction. I can't change that, but you can stay in touch personally if you want to."
And if an important relationship is being disrupted, the best thing you can do is acknowledge it directly: "I know you and Tom have worked together for five years. That's going to be different now. Let's talk about how to make the transition less jarring."
Why this works: People who value loyalty aren't worried about the organizational chart as much as they are worried about the people. Most leaders spend all their energy explaining reporting structures and workflows. But while your team might pretend to listen intently, what they are really doing is mental math on whether their work friendships survive. Give them clarity on that, and you'll keep them engaged instead of quietly job-hunting because "it's just not the same anymore."
Why This Works When Everything Else Doesn't
Traditional change management focuses on what's logical: the business case, the new structure, the timeline. But people don't make decisions based on what's logical. They make decisions based on whether what you're saying aligns with what matters most to them.
And in this case, for the American Workforce study, the findings are clear. When you frame your message around Financial Security, Personal Responsibility, and Loyalty — when you speak directly to those values — your communication sounds obvious. Straightforward. Like, you actually get it.
The tactics above come from the world's largest database of human values research: nearly a million surveys across 180 countries in 152 languages. We're not guessing about what matters to people. We're measuring it. And then we're translating that data into things you can actually do on Monday morning.
If you're leading through disruption right now, or you are pretty darn sure it's coming, these three tactics won't solve everything. But they'll stop your best people from quietly checking out...which is the last thing you need in the middle of a chaotic time.
If you know what people value, you can change what happens next. Download free tools, data, and reports at www.davidallisoninc.com/resources
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