Nearly two thousand years ago, Ovid recounted in The Metamorphoses how gods, heroes, and humans underwent radical transformations: Daphne became a laurel tree, Narcissus changed into a flower, Arachne into a spider. Tales of loss and rebirth, of identity unraveling only to be reinvented.
Even today, these stories resonate in our professional lives. A reorganization, a career change, or the arrival of artificial intelligence are nothing less than metamorphoses: sometimes brutal passages that shake up our bearings but also open the way to new definitions of ourselves.
Degraded Work Environments: An Issue of Health, Performance, and Corporate Culture
Toxic behaviors at work are not always spectacular, but their effects are lasting: stress, loss of trust, decreased motivation, and premature departures. Identifying these dynamics and knowing how to protect oneself from them has become a major issue for both employees and organizations.
Why Talk About Toxic Behaviors Today?
In a context where attracting and retaining talent are priorities, tolerating destructive behaviors is a risk not only human but also strategic. The consequences are measurable: decreased performance, degraded social climate, increased turnover.
According to the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA), more than one in five European employees reports being exposed to a psychosocial risk related to difficult communication, lack of support, or hostile behaviors.
The consequences can be measured at several levels:
🔵 An Issue of Health: the WHO now recognizes burnout as a work-related syndrome. According to an OpinionWay survey (2023), 41% of French employees report being in a state of psychological distress. Toxic behaviors are often a trigger or an aggravating factor.
🔵 An Issue of Performance: the demotivation caused by a deleterious climate leads to a measurable decrease in productivity. Gallup (2023) estimates that disengagement costs more than $7.8 trillion per year to the global economy.
🔵 An Issue of Culture: tolerating toxic behaviors sends an implicit message: “here, it is accepted.” In the long term, this degrades trust, harms innovation, and weakens the employer's image.
For HR and managers, zero tolerance is not enough: it is about implementing a real prevention and support strategy that combines listening, evaluation tools, and cohesion mechanisms.
Overview of Toxic Behaviors
Toxic behaviors can take various, sometimes subtle forms:
🔵 Contradictory Instructions: when the given instructions oppose each other, creating confusion and guilt.
🔵 Managerial Tyranny: moral harassment, humiliation, excessive pressure.
🔵 Passive-Aggressive: discreet sabotage, constant irony, refusal of overt cooperation.
🔵 Appropriation of Others' Work or systematic rejection of one's own responsibilities.
These behaviors do not only concern isolated individuals; they often reveal organizational dysfunctions: poorly articulated communication, lack of strategic clarity, or a corporate culture that tolerates these attitudes.
The Emotional Experience of Teams: A Group Dynamic to Detect and Understand
Social psychology teaches us that groups react to toxic behaviors through a domino effect: demotivation, isolation of victims, polarization between “allies” and “opponents.” During times of change, these dynamics can amplify, generating an atmosphere of uncertainty and stress.
The Kübler-Ross Grief Curve, applied to the professional world, illustrates this phenomenon well: the shock and anger triggered by toxic behaviors can permanently block teams in a phase of resistance, preventing reconstruction and innovation.
Emotions in the Workplace: A Lever to Recognize
In most organizations, the place of emotions remains delicate. Long perceived as a weakness or a sign of irrationality, they are at the heart of group dynamics. Ignoring their existence allows invisible tensions to settle that undermine trust and cooperation.
Anger, frustration, discouragement, or fear do not disappear because they are silenced: they express themselves in other ways — absenteeism, passivity, latent conflicts. Toxic behaviors often find fertile ground in this collective unspoken.
Creating a secure expression framework for emotions, through workshops, speaking times, or collective rituals, allows this experience to be transformed into a resource. Emotions then become useful signals: they illuminate what works, what blocks, and what needs to evolve.
Key Figures on the Impact of Toxic Behaviors
🔵 According to Harvard Business Review, a toxic employee costs an average of over €12,000 per year to their company in lost productivity and turnover.
🔵 Nearly 50% of employees who left a job report having done so because of a toxic manager or colleague (Gallup, 2023).
🔵 Teams exposed to toxic management see their engagement drop by 30% and their absenteeism increase by 25% (Deloitte, 2023).
How to Prevent and Act: Tools for Managers and HR
Toxic behaviors do not disappear by chance. They require a clear policy and appropriate tools:
🔵 Skills Assessments: identify individual resources, evaluate managerial behaviors, and provide an objective basis for HR decisions.
🔵 Interpretation Capacity: an assessment alone is not enough — knowing how to read the results, understand weak signals, and set the right action plans is essential.
🔵 Cohesion and Communication Workshops: allow teams to express their feelings, regulate tensions, and rebuild a healthy collective dynamic.
🔵 Internal Communication Strategy: clarify rules, provide common reference points, and promote positive behaviors.
A Strategic Issue for Companies
In terms of recruitment, being able to detect toxic behaviors from the interview is an asset. But it is equally essential to equip teams to recognize and address these behaviors when they appear.
HR and managers should not only be “crisis regulators” but true architects of the internal climate.
Let us conclude that toxic behaviors are an unavoidable reality, but they are not a fatality. By relying on a better understanding of human dynamics, using tools like skills assessments, and investing in cohesion through appropriate workshops, organizations can transform these challenges into opportunities for collective growth.
And you, have you ever identified toxic dynamics in your teams — and how did you address them?
How artificial intelligence is transforming jobs and why skill adaptation is becoming a strategic issue
Artificial intelligence (AI) is already disrupting the world of work. Acceleration of processes, automation of tasks, emergence of new roles: the changes are rapid, profound, and sometimes destabilizing. For organizations as well as for employees, the challenge is clear: adapt skills to turn AI into a lever of opportunities rather than a factor of fracture.
An unprecedented transformation of jobs
AI does not simply replace certain repetitive tasks: it changes the very way of working. Jobs in data, digital, customer relations, health, and industry are directly affected. New functions are emerging (AI specialists, digital ethicists, algorithm supervisors), while others are evolving deeply by integrating an increasing share of automation.
According to the World Economic Forum (Future of Jobs Report, 2023), 44% of current employee skills will need to evolve by 2027. In other words, nearly one in two skills will be impacted by the ongoing revolution.
Most affected sectors: where AI is reshaping jobs
Some industries are particularly concerned by the impact of AI, automation, and process transformation:
🔵 Administrative and support services: according to Goldman Sachs, this sector has the highest automation rate in the United States, with 46% of tasks likely to be automated.
🔵 Industrial manufacturing: it is estimated that around 1.7 million jobs have already disappeared globally due to automation, with robots taking over 44% of repetitive tasks.
🔵 Fields with high human interaction (e.g., health, finance, education, media): while AI is deployed profitably here (diagnostics, optimization, personalization), these jobs are also where human skills remain key, and where support gaps are created.
🔵 Entry-level jobs for young people: a Stanford study shows a decrease of 16% to 20% in jobs held by 22-25 year-olds in vulnerable functions (development, customer service, reception) between the end of 2022 and mid-2025.
This sectoral disparity highlights a continuous and targeted need for skill enhancement, particularly in threatened jobs, and invites a rethink of training in relation to technological transformations.
Opportunities and risks: two sides of the same coin
AI opens up a considerable field of opportunities. It allows for increased productivity, reduces certain thankless tasks, facilitates innovation, and improves service quality. But it also raises legitimate concerns:
🔵 Risk of dequalification: some tasks, once automated, may reduce the perceived value of certain skills;
🔵 Inequalities: employees trained in advanced digital tools progress faster, while others may feel excluded;
🔵 Increased pressure: AI accelerates work rhythms, forcing continuous adaptation.
The challenge for companies is therefore to turn these risks into growth levers, through training and support.
The importance of continuous training
In the face of these rapid changes, training becomes central. The report from the McKinsey Global Institute (2022) estimates that 375 million workers worldwide will need to change jobs or retrain by 2030. The most in-demand skills relate to solving complex problems, creativity, critical thinking, and socio-emotional skills — dimensions that AI cannot replace.
In France, the 2023 Professional Training Barometer (Cegos) indicates that 65% of employees feel the need to develop new digital skills in the next three years.
Skills assessments and support tools: anticipate rather than suffer
In this context, I support professionals and companies in overcoming resistance, particularly in the face of AI, to make it a true lever for evolution rather than a source of concern. My approach is based on concrete and proven tools:
🔵 Skills assessments to identify strengths, spot gaps between current and future skills, and build tailored pathways;
🔵 PNL sessions to strengthen confidence, manage resistance, and develop an adaptive posture;
🔵 Collective workshops to promote collaborative intelligence and integrate AI as a shared tool rather than as a threat;
🔵 A clear communication strategy to give meaning, ease concerns, and value efforts in skill enhancement.
These levers allow employees to better navigate transitions, and companies to secure their transformation projects by betting on human intelligence as much as on technological innovation.
Towards an augmented work future
AI is not an end in itself, but a tool. Organizations that can combine technology and human intelligence will build a sustainable competitive advantage. The future of work is not just about automation: it relies on teams capable of collaborating with machines, cultivating their uniqueness, and innovating within a renewed framework.
AI reshuffles the cards, but it is humans who will write the next chapter. Investing in skills is transforming uncertainty into opportunity.
Stress, anxiety, burnout: how companies move from prevention to active support
Mental health at work is no longer a marginal issue: it has become a strategic challenge for organizations. Chronic stress, anxiety, and burnout affect a growing number of employees, with direct consequences on performance, retention, and social climate.
Why mental health is a business issue
Long considered an individual matter, the psychological health of employees now stands out as a factor of collective performance.
🔵 WHO: Depression and anxiety lead to $1 trillion in productivity losses worldwide each year.
🔵 In Europe: Nearly one in five employees reports suffering from work-related stress (European Agency for Safety and Health at Work).
🔵 In France: According to the Empreinte Humaine barometer (2023), 44% of employees report experiencing psychological distress.
The post-COVID situation in France: a lasting psychological fragility
The pandemic has not only disrupted organizations: it has profoundly affected the mental health of French workers.
🔵 During the lockdown: the CoviPrev survey from Public Health France reveals a notable increase in anxious and depressive states, with young people particularly exposed.
🔵 Since then: psychological distress still affects 44% of employees (Empreinte Humaine, 2020), with a higher incidence among women.
🔵 Today: more than 61% of workers report being stressed at least once a week (People At Work barometer 2024), an increase of 2 points compared to 2023.
The effects persist: sleep disorders, persistent anxiety, lasting exhaustion — all signs that the collective crisis is transforming into lasting psychological fragility.
High human and economic costs
The impacts of poor mental health at work are multiple:
🔵 Absenteeism: employees experiencing burnout are absent on average 2.5 times more than others (Sapiens Institute, 2023).
🔵 Turnover: 1 in 3 employees considers leaving their position due to a deteriorated psychological climate (Deloitte, 2023).
🔵 Decreased performance: stressed employees are 60% less focused and twice as likely to make mistakes (Harvard Business Review, 2022).
From taboo to action: the evolution of companies
The good news is that mental health is gradually coming out of the taboo. Companies are moving from a logic of passive prevention (raising awareness, informing) to more active measures (supporting, accompanying, transforming managerial practices).
Three levers are particularly decisive:
🔵 Internal communication: openly discussing mental health issues, establishing channels for expression, reducing stigma.
🔵 The role of frontline managers: trained to spot weak signals (exhaustion, isolation, changes in behavior), they are the first points of support.
🔵 Support measures: listening cells, psychological support programs, collective stress regulation workshops, and team cohesion.
The benefits of active support
Going beyond prevention means providing employees with concrete resources to navigate difficult times. In my support for professionals and organizations, I use proven approaches that promote individual and collective resilience:
🔵 Sessions of NLP to learn to manage emotions, strengthen confidence, and develop resilience strategies;
🔵 Skills assessments to help employees clarify their professional priorities and regain meaning in their trajectory;
🔵 Well-being and cohesion workshops to collectively regulate stress and strengthen team dynamics;
🔵 A clear and empathetic managerial communication that acknowledges difficulties and proposes suitable solutions.
These levers not only help reduce psychosocial risks but also foster a calmer work environment conducive to engagement and sustainable performance.
For a more human and resilient work environment
Mental health at work is no longer a peripheral issue: it is an essential condition for sustainable performance. Organizations that invest in this area see their productivity improve, their attractiveness strengthen, and their social climate calm.
From prevention to action, the challenge is not only to reduce risks but to create an environment where employees feel supported, heard, and able to give their best.
An issue that goes beyond salary and status
The relationship with work has profoundly changed. For many employees, compensation and status are no longer enough to justify lasting commitment. The quest for meaning has become a requirement that directly influences recruitment, retention, and employer branding.
The numbers that speak
According to the Deloitte Global Survey (2024), 62% of young workers would choose an employer aligned with their values over better compensation. In France, the Cegos barometer (2023) indicates that 70% of employees state that the meaning of work is their primary source of motivation, ahead of compensation.
The phenomenon is accelerating: a McKinsey (2022) study reveals that nearly 2 out of 3 employees are considering leaving their jobs if they do not find meaning in their tasks. These figures highlight that the quest for meaning is not a passing trend, but a lasting wave.
A universal need, amplified by crises
Work psychologists emphasize that the need for meaning is deeply rooted in intrinsic motivation: feeling useful, contributing to a project greater than oneself, having coherence between personal values and company values. The COVID-19 pandemic, followed by waves of economic and geopolitical uncertainty, has acted as a revealer: many have reevaluated their relationship with work and now reject the "emptiness of meaning."
This questioning is particularly pronounced among younger generations, but it also affects experienced executives seeking coherence or career change. It is therefore not a generational whim, but a global movement that redefines the relationship with work.
When meaning is lacking: the shockwave of departures
Since the pandemic, many employees have made the radical choice to leave their jobs to reinvent themselves. This phenomenon, sometimes dubbed "the great resignation" or compared to the dream of becoming shepherd in Larzac, reflects a desire to break away from environments deemed devoid of meaning.
In France, according to Dares (2022), nearly 520,000 resignations were recorded in the first quarter of 2022 — a historically high level. For its part, the think tank Institut Sapiens estimates that nearly 1 in 5 workers has considered a career change towards jobs perceived as more meaningful, often related to nature, craftsmanship, or human support.
While not everyone takes the plunge, this trend illustrates the depth of the current quest: meaning sometimes takes precedence over security or compensation, and companies must take this into account if they want to sustainably retain their teams.
Quest for meaning and collective dynamics
The quest for meaning is not only individual. It also impacts collective dynamics: a team motivated by shared values is more engaged, more creative, and more resilient. Conversely, the absence of meaning leads to disengagement, turnover, and a deteriorating social climate. According to Gallup (2023), disengagement related to lack of meaning costs over $7.8 trillion per year to the global economy.
This observation explains why the question of meaning has become a HR and strategic priority. It affects the definition of missions, managerial communication, and the way to support professional trajectories.
The challenges for companies
Meeting this demand for meaning poses several concrete challenges for organizations:
🔵Alignment between discourse and reality: employees quickly detect the gap between stated values and actual practices.
🔵Clarity of missions: an employee needs to understand how their role contributes to the overall collective project.
🔵Spaces for dialogue: providing places where everyone can express their aspirations and co-construct their path.
🔵Managerial adaptation: training managers to give meaning to daily activities through feedback, recognition, and transparency.
My support: transforming the quest for meaning into a lever for well-being at work
I support professionals and companies in going beyond discourse to embody the quest for meaning in daily life. Specifically, this involves:
🔵Skills assessments to help employees clarify their aspirations, identify their resources, and align their trajectory with their values;
🔵PNL sessions to work on motivation, strengthen confidence, and transform doubt into constructive energy;
🔵Collective workshops to bring forth a shared vision, strengthen cohesion, and connect daily missions to a common project;
🔵An internal communication strategy to ensure coherence between stated values and lived practices.
These approaches allow for transforming an individual requirement into a collective and strategic asset for the company.
Towards meaningful work
The quest for meaning is neither a myth nor a luxury, but a condition for well-being and sustainable engagement. Organizations that can respond to it will attract and retain talent while cultivating a culture of trust, performance, and loyalty.
The meaning at work is not decreed: it is built at the intersection of individual aspirations and collective ambitions. And what if your organization made this lever a true engine of growth?
How to create bridges between generations, promote cooperation, and strengthen corporate culture?
Generation Z (born after 1997) is now making a massive entry into the job market. Its expectations, codes, and values sometimes disrupt established practices. Between stereotypes, misunderstandings, and new dynamics, the intergenerational challenge has become a priority for managers and HR.
Generation Z: portrait of a generation in search of meaning
Generation Z is not just "young": it embodies a profoundly renewed relationship with work. Its members are digital natives, attached to flexibility and work-life balance. But above all, they seek coherence between their values and those of their employer.
According to the Deloitte Global Gen Z & Millennial Survey (2024), 75% of Gen Z believe that their employer must have a positive impact on society, and 62% state that they would leave a position if the company's values were not aligned with theirs.
Intergenerational tensions: between stereotypes and misunderstandings
The dialogue between generations can quickly clash with clichés:
🔵 The younger ones perceived as "unstable" or "less committed";
🔵 The more experienced judged as "rigid" or "resistant to change";
🔵 A fracture maintained by these simplistic representations, weakening team cohesion.
A ManpowerGroup (2023) study highlights that 58% of managers find it difficult to reconcile intergenerational expectations. However, these tensions primarily reveal a need for structured dialogue and mutual recognition.
The richness of age diversity in the workplace
Instead of viewing intergenerational issues as a problem, it can be seen as a strategic asset. Age diversity promotes complementarity:
🔵 The experience and organizational memory of older generations;
🔵 The agility and innovation of younger ones, particularly regarding digital usage and new work practices;
🔵 The practice of reverse mentoring: young people share their digital skills, while seniors share their professional expertise and strategic vision.
Companies that value this diversity make it a lever for performance, innovation, and attractiveness.
Three generations at work: guidelines for better collaboration
Understanding generational differences can serve as a powerful lever to promote cohesion and collective effectiveness. Here is a summary of the characteristics of Generation X, Millennials, and Generation Z:
Generation
Behaviors & values
Expectations in the workplace
Generation X
Independent, pragmatic, adaptable; attached to work-life balance.
🔵 Autonomy, clarity of objectives, flexibility without constant supervision.
Millennials (Gen Y)
Collaborative, tech-savvy, in search of meaning and regular feedback.
🔵 Flexibility, continuous professional development, frequent recognition.
Generation Z
"Digital natives", demanding about meaning, more psychologically vulnerable, attached to stability and inclusivity.
🔵 Societal impact, support for mental health, secure work environment.
Recognizing these generational differences allows each employee to feel understood, respected, and useful. Managers and HR can thus adapt their support formats: skills assessments to clarify paths and aspirations, intergenerational workshops to stimulate collective intelligence, and adjusted communication to speak the same language.
Tools to transform differences into synergies
Managers and HR have concrete levers to anticipate tensions and create a true intergenerational culture:
🔵 Skills assessments: identify the expectations and strengths of each generation, and illuminate career or internal mobility choices.
🔵 Intergenerational workshops: spaces for dialogue and collaboration, they promote mutual understanding and strengthen team cohesion.
🔵 Internal communication strategy: value age diversity as a wealth, share testimonials and common successes.
🔵 Inclusive leadership: train managers to welcome the plurality of viewpoints, adapt their style, and create a climate of trust.
Transforming a challenge into an opportunity
Intergenerational cohabitation is a challenge, but also a tremendous opportunity for innovation and cohesion. As a consultant, I help organizations transform these differences into synergies, through skills assessments, cohesion workshops, and tailored communication that values everyone's richness.
The intergenerational challenge is not to erase differences, but to transform them into complementary strengths. A team where experience dialogues with innovation becomes a strategic lever to face the future and meet the challenge.
When the body becomes a mirror of emotions
Emotional intelligence — this ability to recognize, understand, and regulate one's emotions and those of others — is a major asset in daily life as well as in relationships. Dance, and more broadly movement, offers a unique ground to develop this skill: by moving, we give a visible form to our inner world and create a shared language that goes beyond words.
Self-awareness through movement
Every gesture expresses an emotion: a contracted shoulder often translates to tension, a light step evokes joy, a closed posture can signal fear or sadness. In free dance or movement workshops, observing one's gestures allows for awareness of internal states. This is the first step of emotional intelligence: knowing oneself.
Research in movement psychology (Koch et al., 2019) shows that dance helps develop this "embodied self-perception," essential for better identifying and naming one's emotions.
Relational regulation: dancing with the other
Emotional intelligence does not stop at oneself: it also includes the ability to adjust one's behaviors in the relationship. Dance fosters this dimension through collective practices: dancing in mirror, improvising in pairs, adjusting to the rhythm of a group. These bodily experiences develop listening, empathy, and the regulation of interactions.
According to a study published in Frontiers in Psychology (2020), collective dances increase the feeling of social connection and decrease relational stress, by stimulating oxytocin, the bonding hormone.
Concrete practices to develop emotional intelligence through movement
🔵Mirror dance: reproducing a partner's gestures to develop listening and empathy;
🔵Free improvisation: exploring different emotions through movement to better identify and tame them;
🔵Group dance: feeling the collective energy, regulating one's place in the group, and cultivating cooperation.
My support: from movement to better emotional intelligence
I support individuals, both individually and collectively, to explore the language of the body to better know themselves, soothe their emotions, and strengthen their relationships. Through dance therapy and tools from NLP, I offer:
🔵Individual sessions to develop self-awareness and transform emotional blockages into resources;
🔵Collective workshops to cultivate mutual listening, empathy, and relational cohesion;
🔵Simple body rituals to integrate into daily life to strengthen emotional balance.
An embodied path towards more conscious relationships
Developing emotional intelligence through dance means learning to feel before speaking, to adjust before reacting. This path through the body allows not only for better self-understanding but also for building more peaceful and authentic relationships.
What if the next dance step you take also became a step towards a better understanding of yourself and others?
The challenge for companies: balance between flexibility and collective
Remote work, accelerated by the health crisis, has established itself durably in companies. While it brings flexibility and quality of life, it also tests team cohesion and corporate culture. How to recreate connections in this new hybrid environment?
Remote work: an underutilized potential
The OECD estimates that 27% of jobs could be performed remotely, but only 12% actually are. In France, according to Dares (2023), about 30% of employees practice remote work at least one day a week, with significant disparities across sectors (digital, finance, and communication leading).
This gap illustrates a tension: while employees advocate for flexibility, companies still struggle to make it a coherent, inclusive, and sustainable model.
Setback or adjustment: some companies are going back
While remote work is widely adopted, some companies are initiating a partial return to in-person work. According to a Kastle Systems (2024) survey, office occupancy rates in the United States have risen to 50% to 60% on average, compared to less than 30% in 2021. In France, the Malakoff Humanis barometer (2023) shows that 27% of employers have restricted remote work, citing a decline in collective creativity, management difficulties, and a weakening of the sense of belonging.
This phenomenon reflects a strategic challenge: finding the right balance between flexibility and organizational performance.
The risks of a fragmented organization
Remote work and hybridization have obvious advantages (reduction of commuting time, better work-life balance, increased autonomy), but also risks that would be dangerous to underestimate:
🔵Isolation: one in two remote workers reports feeling more isolated than before (Malakoff Humanis Barometer 2023);
🔵Dilution of corporate culture: shared values and rituals lose intensity at a distance
🔵Collective imbalance: tensions between those who work remotely and those present on-site, risks of perceived inequity.
These vulnerabilities directly impact engagement, creativity, and talent retention.
Organizational challenges: beyond the human aspect
Beyond psychological issues, hybridization raises structural challenges for companies:
🔵Reorganization of workspaces: shared offices, flex office, and real estate costs redefine internal logistics;
🔵Digital security and confidentiality: the widespread use of digital tools multiplies cyber risks and requires increased investments;
🔵Equity and performance evaluation: how to ensure fair criteria between employees present on-site and those working remotely?
These organizational dimensions are as strategic as the human aspects to ensure the sustainability of the hybrid model.
My support: strengthening cohesion in the hybrid
I support professionals and organizations in transforming remote work and hybridization into levers for collective performance, through:
🔵Cohesion and regulation workshops to recreate connections, foster trust, and strengthen team dynamics;
🔵Skills assessments to help each employee clarify their trajectory in a changing context;
🔵PNL sessions to manage resistance and strengthen emotional resilience;
🔵An adapted internal communication to maintain transparency and a sense of belonging.
Towards a new work culture
Remote work and hybridization are not a pause but a lasting transformation. Companies that can combine flexibility and cohesion will build a decisive competitive advantage: attracting and retaining talent while cultivating a vibrant and shared culture.
The question is no longer whether hybrid work will prevail, but how to transform it into a collective opportunity rather than a risk of fragmentation.
Better support for professional transitions
Virginia Satir's 5-phase change model provides a valuable framework for supporting professional transitions: retraining, reorganization, or change management.
Understanding the impact of change with humanity and lucidity
In the professional world, every change—reorganization, retraining, or evolving practices—is a complex emotional journey. It often begins with enthusiasm, but quickly becomes confronted with fear, uncertainty, or mental overload, which slow down the initial momentum.
Virginia Satir, a leading figure in family therapy and NLP, identified five universal phases in any process of change. Understanding them gives you the means to navigate them with clarity and serenity.
The 5 Universal Phases of Change (according to Virginia Satir)
🔵Phase 1: The status quo: the reassuring comfort zone
Every organization relies on its routines and benchmarks. This reassuring framework provides stability, but it can also blind us to opportunities. This "cocoon" is the starting point for the process, but it can become a limitation if it becomes too rigid.
🔵Phase 2: Resistance: Fear of the Unknown
When a change is announced, 37% of employees show resistance , linked to a lack of confidence (41%), uncertainty (38%), or even a feeling of being excluded (23%). This reaction is not a refusal in itself, but a human mechanism aimed at preserving a threatened balance.
🔵Phase 3: Chaos: Loss of bearings
This often-dreaded phase corresponds to the collapse of old landmarks and the onset of a period of disorder. It is uncomfortable, but it also represents a fruitful moment: it is in this chaos that the mourning of the old takes place and new perspectives are born.
🔵Phase 4: Awareness, adaptation and active learning
Little by little, new benchmarks are being built. Teams experiment, test, exchange, and learn. The role of management and internal communication is then crucial : providing meaning, clarifying the steps, listening, and providing support help to allay fears and strengthen collective confidence.
🔵Phase 5: New status quo — stability restored
Once change is integrated, a new equilibrium emerges: more flexible, more agile, better prepared to evolve. This new state is not a simple return to initial stability, but a transformation enriched by lived experience.
Why this model speaks to businesses today
The figures underline the importance of this issue: only 43% of employees believe that their organization knows how to manage change effectively — compared to nearly 60% in 2019. In addition, 70% of transformation initiatives fail , often due to insufficient communication or poorly adapted support.
Added to this is a strong human dimension: 73% of employees affected by a transformation report experiencing moderate to high levels of stress. As for managers, 38% of those from companies with more than 1,000 employees say they would prefer not to have to manage transformations anymore, as "change fatigue" has become a reality.
These data demonstrate how essential it is to combine strategy, understanding of human mechanisms and adapted communication to successfully complete professional transitions.
The benefits of change support
To achieve change successfully, reconciling strategic lucidity and benevolence is not only possible, but essential.
I support professionals and businesses in their transitions using an approach centered on people and collective intelligence:
NLP sessions to calm resistance, restore meaning and strengthen confidence;
Psychometric tests to assess internal state, map strengths and inform strategic decisions;
An adapted communication strategy , based on listening and empathy, combined with workshops promoting cohesion and the development of well-being at work.
If you are going through a phase of change and would like to be supported in these challenges, I will be happy to support you.
Virginia Satir's model reminds us of a truth too often neglected in organizations: change is above all a human journey . Welcoming resistance, revealing resources and charting a course to emerge from chaos, while relying on active and caring communication, allows for the emergence of a reinvented, lasting and profoundly human stability.
What phase of change are you—or your team—in today?
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