Limbo — Why Teams Give Up on a Change Before It Ever Arrives

Leading Through the Middle of a Change Programme: what a team needs between the announcement and the reality

Russell Harvey has coached leaders to board level for more than 6,000 hours, and the change programmes that fail rarely fail at the decision. They fail in the months after the announcement, while people wait to find out what it means for them and quietly decide it will never happen. Most organisations treat that gap as a communications problem and fill it with updates, when what the team is actually asking is whether anyone is still holding the plan. Drawing on 18 years leading organisations through change, from the NHS to Novartis and Kerry Group, he sets out what a leader owes people in that waiting period and what it costs to skip it. Listeners leave able to spot the point where their own change effort went quiet, and what to say to restart it.

About Russell Harvey

Russell Harvey, podcast guest

The Resilience Coach | Resilient Leadership Expert

100,000+ People positively affected6,000+ Executive coaching hours£12M+ ROI delivered by RWE npower leadership programme20+ years Learning, leadership and organisational development

Russell Harvey is The Resilience Coach - a resilient leadership expert, executive coach, facilitator and keynote speaker who helps leaders and organisations perform at their best when the world refuses to stand still.

With more than 20 years in Learning, Leadership and Organisational Development, 6,000+ hours of executive coaching and over 70 published podcast appearances, Russell is an experienced and engaging voice on resilience, leadership and navigating persistent change. He has worked with leaders across organisations including Novartis, the NHS, AB World Foods, Kerry Group and The Co-operative Group.

Russell’s work goes beyond helping people simply cope with pressure. He believes true resilience isn’t about “bouncing back”, being tougher or pretending everything is fine - it’s about springing forward with learning and becoming better equipped to lead because of the challenges you’ve faced.

His approach connects the human side of leadership directly to what matters to organisations: engaged people, stronger cultures, better decisions and improved performance. His work has delivered measurable results, including a leadership programme that returned £12 million to the business and a Resilient Leader Programme that achieved more than 1,100% ROI.

In August 2025, Russell achieved his long-held purpose of positively affecting 100,000 people.

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