Change Management & What No One Tells You About Transformation

Change management is one of the most written-about topics in business leadership and one of the least honestly described. For business owners, executives, and accounting and advisory professionals navigating operational or technology transitions, the real challenge is rarely the change itself. It is leading people through the discomfort of getting there: uncertainty, disagreement, and the moments when the numbers do not look good, but the team still must work the problem.

In this article, Lorin Saavedra, Principal and Head of Client Advisory & Accounting Services at REDW Advisors & CPAs, shares a first-hand account of her team’s technology migration at the end of 2025 and what the experience revealed about calculated risk, team trust, and what responsible change leadership looks like in practice.

Change is messy. Leadership is too.

As I sit here writing this, it honestly feels a little hard to put my thoughts on paper.

Maybe that’s fitting, because if I’m being real, the whole point I want to get across is that change management is messy. Leadership is messy. Growth is messy. And in the CPA profession — where we are trained to value accuracy, consistency, and control — that messiness can feel especially uncomfortable. Most of the time, the real work does not happen when everything is calm, organized, and tied up in a neat little bow.

In fact, as I’m writing this, I’m sitting in my car, not at a beautiful desk, not in the perfect environment, and definitely not waiting for the perfect moment. But it feels fitting, because if I waited for the perfect time to write this, it probably would never happen.

This feels like the perfect parallel to how we’ve approached leading and growing our CAS practice — and how we are developing our next generation of leaders too.

I want to be honest about what change really looks like.

At the beginning of this year, I set a goal for myself. I wanted to find a way to better articulate just how messy life and change management really are.

People are balancing a lot. Teams are learning in real time. Leaders are making decisions without having every answer. Some people are ready to move, some are more hesitant, and some need to talk it through several times before they can fully get on board.

That doesn’t mean the work is broken. It means the work is real.

But avoiding that discomfort does not eliminate risk. Sometimes it just delays it.

At the end of last year, I got a front-row seat to that reality.

How do you lead a team through rapid change?

Late in 2025, our team faced an accelerated deadline to move out of our previous system.

We were faced with a big change, fast.

I remember that day really clearly because I kept going back and forth in my head between, “Sure, we can do that” and “There’s no way that can be done.”

Honestly, both thoughts felt true depending on the moment you caught me in.

But when I stepped back and looked at how this fit into our firm’s North Star, it was directly aligned. At the same time, we had been struggling to fully adopt our new project management software. Part of me thought: what better way to get us on track than to take away the safety net of the old system?

Sometimes that’s what it takes.

Not because it’s comfortable, but because as long as the old way is still available, people will naturally keep reaching for it.

So, we launched the new system and began shutting down the previous one.

Why does honest pushback matter during organizational change?

Honest pushback improves change decisions because it helps leaders identify risks before implementation.

One thing I’m very lucky about is that I work with a really strong group of leaders. And when I say leaders, I mean leaders at every level. Leadership is not about position or title; it’s about a person’s mindset, attitude, and their willingness to move things forward no matter how scary it might be.

I wasn’t surrounded by ‘yes’ people—and that was a good thing.

My team gave me their honest opinions. Some told me exactly why they thought this was not a good idea. Some were all in. Some were somewhere in the middle. Not everyone agreed, but they still gave me their support and their trust to move forward.

That mattered.

We did not need blind agreement. We needed honest challenge. In our profession, that kind of pushback is not a roadblock — it is part of how good decisions get made. It helped us pressure-test the decision from multiple angles.

I can still remember talking to two team members about it.

One said, “Okay, we’ve got this,” and then called me back the next day and basically said, “Are you sure? Because if we do this, that means communication and training need to start next week.”

Another said, “Let’s talk this out,” and we went back and forth on all the reasons we could do it and all the reasons we maybe couldn’t.

Those conversations mattered because they were real. No pretending. No fake confidence. Just honest discussion about what this would take.

Ultimately, we moved forward together.

What helps a team shift from resistance to action?

Once we committed, the energy shifted.

The biggest change was our mindset.

The conversation went from “Can we do this?” to “How are we going to do this?”

That was the turning point.

• Did people still have concerns? Absolutely.
• Were there moments of confusion? Yes.
• Did we have some moments of real anxiety? Also, yes.

With such a quick turnaround, there were times when people got nervous, mixed up timing, or felt completely overwhelmed by how fast things were moving.

But we had committed. From that moment on, we started moving in the same direction: forward, toward our North Star.

I remember saying more than once, “What’s the worst that’s going to happen?”

I didn’t mean that in a careless way. I meant it in a practical way.

How can leaders separate urgency from panic?

My husband is a first responder, and when I get really stressed about a decision, he has a way of grounding me fast. He’ll ask, “Is anyone going to die by making this decision?”

It’s a simple question, but it puts things into perspective immediately.

In his world, some decisions truly are life or death. In mine, the stakes are real, but they are different. That question reminds me to take a breath, step back, and separate urgency from panic.
So when I was asking myself what the worst-case scenario was, I was trying to do exactly that.

• Maybe we would have to make some entries to clean up the financials.
• Maybe we would have to fix things after the fact.
• Maybe some things would not go perfectly the first time.

The decision carried real consequences, but it helped me separate urgency from panic.

So, the real question became:

That was something we could work with.

How does removing the old system affect technology adoption?

We invested significant effort in preparing for the change and checking in with people throughout the process.

We found that once people had to use the new system more consistently, adoption changed.

We began to see a noticeable difference in how our team members engaged with the system—and it felt like a night-and-day difference, honestly.

It wasn’t perfect, but people were in it. And once they were in it, they started giving better feedback. They had suggestions. They had ideas. They could see what was working and what needed to be better.

Going forward, I know I’ll approach change management with this learning in mind: people often don’t fully engage until the change is real.

Not theoretical. Not “coming soon.” Real.

Sometimes team members need the push. Sometimes they need the safety net removed. Sometimes they need to experience the new process before they can really buy into it.

What should leaders do when a change initiative misses expectations?

My peers kept asking me how the transition was going, and I kept saying the same thing:

“Ask me after billing.”

This was the moment I knew would really test us.

Because that’s when we would really know.

And when the January financials came in, we had to live with the results.

And they showed a significant variance from what we expected.

That was hard.

It is hard for me to describe the pit I began to carry in my stomach when the possibility of failure became real. There were moments of panic. And if I’m being honest, I didn’t always live out the words I had been saying so confidently before that about “failure being okay.” I had moments when I felt the pressure in a very real way. Moments when I questioned things. Moments when the weight of the decision hit me all over again.

I think sometimes when people talk about leadership, they make it sound like being a strong leader means being steady and certain all the time.

That hasn’t been my experience.

Sometimes being a leader means you have the panic moments, and then you get up the next day and work the problem. Sometimes it means you hold the line publicly, and then privately talk yourself back into the mindset you know is right. Sometimes it requires you remind yourself that one painful data point is not the whole story.

And this is the part that matters most when we talk about calculated risk: taking a measured risk does not mean pretending the downside is fine. It means facing the results honestly, digging into the root causes, and responding with discipline.

We did not just accept the variance and call it the cost of change. We dug in:

• Offered additional training
• Implemented daily and weekly stand-up meetings
• Helped staff improve project planning and setup
• Continued identifying what was working, what was not, and where we needed to adjust

This is what responsible risk-taking looks like. Not perfection. Not panic. But rather, accountability, problem-solving, and course correction.

What does responsible change look like?

What we keep learning on my team is that change does not have to look polished to be the right move.

• It can be bumpy and still be right.
• It can be stressful and still be necessary.
• It can expose gaps and still move you forward.

The messy part does not mean we failed, although it can feel that way in the moment. A lot of times it means we’re in the middle of learning, adjusting, and building something better.

We’ve witnessed our clients and teams so much of the time wanting things to feel settled before anyone acts.
Wanting the plan to be perfect…
Wanting everyone to agree…
Wanting the timing to be better…

But if we wait for all of the stars to align, we may never move at all.

And in our profession, waiting can have its own cost. Delayed adoption, inefficient workflows, inconsistent processes, and missed opportunities to better serve clients are risks too — they just feel quieter because they are familiar.

There’s something powerful about a firm that holds itself to the same standard it sets for clients. If we’re going to help people change, we have to be willing to change ourselves — even when it’s expensive, even when it’s uncomfortable.

What I want to be able to say out loud:

If any of us leaders are serious about growing our firms and practices, and developing our future leaders, then we have to be more honest about what this work really looks like.

This is the work of real change management.

When starting out or in the midst of change, the question to ask is not, “How do we avoid the mess?”

How can leaders tell when organizational change is taking hold?

While we’re still very much still on the journey, I’ve started to see signs that the change is taking hold.

One of the clearest indicators has been the shift in our team conversations. Early on, many discussions centered on why we were making the change and what challenges it might create. Today, I’m hearing different questions. Team members are talking about how to get more value from the new processes, sharing ideas for improvement, and helping one another navigate the transition. From my perspective, the conversations have begun to shift from resistance toward ownership.

The change is starting to stick.

I’ve also noticed more solutions coming to the table than problems. Instead of escalating every obstacle, our team members are working through issues together and bringing forward recommendations for how to improve the experience. That’s how I know this change is becoming part of our culture rather than just another initiative.

And our work is not done. There will be more adjustments, more lessons learned, and undoubtedly a few more messy moments along the way. But I’m not measuring our progress by perfection. I’m measuring our progress by the growth of a team that is collectively becoming more adaptable, resilient, and willing to embrace what’s next.

I’m looking at this as the first chapter of our transformation, and certainly not the end of the story. The next phase has already brought its own challenges, opportunities, and insights. And if there’s one thing I’m learning so far, it’s that meaningful change is rarely neat, but it is worth it in ways that matter for our clients, team, and firm. Stay tuned.

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If your organization is preparing for a technology, process, or operational transition, contact us for professional guidance. With decades of trusted advisory and firsthand experience, REDW’s Client Advisory & Accounting Services team is here to help you assess your financial and operational considerations, prepare your team, and navigate change with greater clarity.