Initiative Fatigue

All we ever do is add more stuff in the name of transformation

This image was generated by AI

Thank you for stopping by to read The Common Reality. Every Sunday, I drop a new article on Engineering Management, AI in the workplace, or navigating the corporate world. Engagement with these articles helps me out quite a bit, so if you enjoy what I wrote, please consider liking, commenting, or sharing.

I also wrote a short book on Incident Management, which you can download for free here until August 2025.

In both consulting and internal leadership roles, I’ve consistently seen one of the most potent threats to transformation go unaddressed: initiative fatigue.

It’s an organizational condition that creeps in quietly and spreads widely, affecting all levels, but its sharpest impact is felt by middle management. These are the team leads, senior managers, and directors who sit just below the executive tier. They’re often overlooked in strategic planning, yet they’re the ones accountable for execution.

While they may participate in some strategic discussions, most of their time is spent delivering. This is where initiative fatigue takes root. These managers are rarely asked to stop delivering. Instead, they’re continuously asked to deliver differently. One year it’s Agile, the next it’s scaled Scrum. With every leadership reshuffle comes a fresh mandate, a new framework, and more change to absorb.

What gets lost in this cycle is that the output rarely changes. The posters go up. The training sessions are scheduled. The buzzwords shift. And the people responsible for making it all real are left wondering what, if anything, is actually different.

If your current transformation effort is struggling, try this exercise: chart a ten-year timeline of internal programs and major initiatives. Overlay that with the tenure of your middle managers, not from when they joined the company, but from when they stepped into their first leadership role. If you find multiple waves of transformation layered over a stable group of middle managers, chances are you’re staring directly at initiative fatigue.

What incentive does a manager have to embrace yet another system, when experience tells them it will be replaced next year?

This isn’t to say that transformation isn’t necessary. In many cases, it is. But too often, the default starting point is: what should we add? A new framework. A new operating model. A new set of metrics.

A better starting question might be: what can we stop doing?

Almost no transformation effort begins with subtraction. Few leaders ask what processes, rituals, or systems could be eliminated to create space. Instead, change is positioned as additive; more effort, more tracking, and more vocabulary. But if your organization truly needs transformation, chances are you’re not operating in a clean, greenfield environment. You’re already overloaded.

Here’s an alternative approach: ask every manager to list five to ten activities, requirements, or processes they believe are wasteful, frustrating, or low-value. Identify the recurring themes. If your organization is large, you’ll quickly generate dozens of actionable opportunities for simplification.

Then, empower a small team to start removing them. No pilot programs. No governance frameworks. Just targeted, visible subtraction. Prioritize clarity and speed.

Reject the idea that success requires something new. Your teams aren’t asking for innovation, they’re asking for relief. “New” demands attention and adaptation. “Less” frees up time and energy to do what actually matters.

Most importantly, treat this not as a short-term effort but as the foundation of your operating model. Building a culture of subtraction takes discipline, but it creates the conditions for real transformation: not change for its own sake, but change that sticks.