The Secret Currency of Change: Why Most Leaders Fail Before They Start (with John Robertson)

Change initiatives fail 70% of the time. Not because the strategy is wrong. Not because the technology isn't there. They fail because leaders skip the step that matters most: building the relational foundation that makes transformation possible.

John Robertson, change leadership expert and my recent podcast guest, calls this missing ingredient "Relational Currency." It's the invisible asset that determines whether your team shows up ready to tackle uncertainty: or quietly updates their LinkedIn profiles while your reorganization burns.

The Currency You Can't See on a Balance Sheet

Relational Currency isn't about being "nice" or hosting more pizza Fridays. It's the accumulated trust, credibility, and psychological safety you've banked with your team before you ask them to walk into the unknown with you.

Robertson describes it like this: "You can have the best change plan in the world, but if your people don't trust you enough to follow you into discomfort, you're dead in the water before the first all-hands meeting."

Think about the last major change initiative at your organization. Did leadership announce it with fanfare, complete with slick decks and inspirational language about "exciting opportunities"? And did your team respond with... polite silence and a flood of Slack messages in private channels?

That's what happens when you try to spend Relational Currency you never deposited.

Psychosocial Safety: The Real Performance Multiplier

Here's where Robertson's framework connects directly with my ROR (Return on Relationship) approach. Psychosocial safety: the confidence that you won't be punished, humiliated, or marginalized for speaking up, asking questions, or admitting uncertainty: is the foundation of both relational currency and high performance.

In 2026, this isn't a "soft skill" issue. It's a retention, innovation, and revenue issue. Teams without psychosocial safety:

• Withhold critical information that could prevent disasters

• Avoid calculated risks that drive innovation

• Burn out faster because they're managing fear on top of their workload

• Leave for competitors who make them feel safer

Teams with high psychosocial safety? They tell you about problems while they're still small. They experiment. They stay.

Robertson shared a story during our conversation about a manufacturing company that was implementing AI-driven process changes. The leadership team that took six weeks to build relational currency first: holding listening sessions, acknowledging fears, and co-creating solutions: saw 89% adoption within three months.

The division that skipped that step and went straight to rollout? They're still fighting passive resistance eighteen months later, and their AI system is being quietly undermined by workers who found creative ways to work around it.

Faith Over Fear: The Leadership Choice That Changes Everything

One of Robertson's most powerful insights is this: Leaders set the emotional tone for change. When you lead from fear: fear of failure, fear of losing control, fear of looking incompetent: your team feels it. And they mirror it back to you.

Leading from faith (or trust, or vision, depending on your vocabulary) looks different:

Fear-Based Leadership says: "We have to do this or we'll be obsolete. Everyone needs to get on board immediately. No excuses."

Faith-Based Leadership says: "This is challenging and uncertain. I don't have all the answers. But I believe in our ability to figure it out together, and here's what I'm committing to support you."

Guess which one builds Relational Currency? Guess which one people actually follow?

This mirrors the "Awareness-Pause-Reframe" tool I teach in my ROR framework. Before you can lead others through change, you need to get honest with yourself about what you're feeling. Are you leading from scarcity and panic, or from grounded confidence in the relationship you've built with your team?

The 2026 Reality: Younger Workers Are Changing the Rules

Robertson and I spent significant time discussing how Gen Z and younger Millennials are forcing a recalibration in change leadership. These workers, now a significant portion of the workforce, are motivated by fundamentally different currencies than previous generations.

They're not impressed by:

• Hierarchical authority

• "Because I said so" reasoning

• Vague promises of future rewards

They are motivated by:

• Transparent reasoning and decision-making processes

• Alignment between stated values and actual behavior

• Immediate evidence that their contribution matters

• Leaders who admit what they don't know

This isn't entitlement. It's a generation that watched their parents get laid off after decades of loyalty, graduated into multiple recessions, and grew up with instant access to information that exposes corporate BS in real time.

If you're trying to lead them through change using 2010 playbooks, you're going to fail. They'll leave. Or worse, they'll stay and quietly disengage while you wonder why your change initiative has no momentum.

The Practical Play: Engaging the Reluctant and the Resistant

Robertson offered a framework I'm already recommending to my coaching clients. When you're facing team members who are resistant to change, resist the urge to label them as "blockers" or "not team players." Instead, get curious.

Step 1: Acknowledge the Loss

Every change involves loss. Even good changes. The person resisting your new CRM system isn't irrational: they're mourning the expertise they'd built in the old system, the shortcuts they'd mastered, the identity of being "the person who knows how to get things done."

Name the loss. "I know this means letting go of systems you've invested years in mastering. That's a real sacrifice, and I want you to know I see it."

Step 2: Create Space for Questions Without Judgment

Fear lives in silence. Resistance grows in the absence of information. Robertson recommends "question hours" where the explicit agreement is: no question is stupid, no concern is dismissed, and leaders commit to answering honestly: even when the answer is "I don't know yet."

This is Relational Currency in action. You're saying: "Your concerns matter more than my ego or my timeline."

Step 3: Find Their Win

People don't resist change. They resist loss. If you can help someone see what they gain: not just what the company gains: you transform resistance into engagement.

Maybe the reluctant team member gets to be the trainer who helps others adapt. Maybe the change solves a daily frustration they've been complaining about for years. Maybe it positions them for the promotion they want.

You won't know until you ask. And you won't get honest answers until you've built the Relational Currency that makes real conversations possible.

The ROR Connection: It All Comes Back to Relationship

Everything Robertson teaches about navigating change reinforces what I've been saying for years: the quality of your relationships determines the quality of your outcomes.

Your Return on Relationship (ROR) isn't separate from your change management strategy. It is your change management strategy.

When you invest in authentic connection, transparent communication, and psychosocial safety before you need to ask people to do hard things, you're building the foundation that makes transformation possible.

When you skip that step because you're in a hurry or because it feels "soft," you're setting yourself up for the expensive, demoralizing failure that 70% of change initiatives experience.

The leaders who succeed in 2026 and beyond won't be the ones with the slickest decks or the most aggressive timelines. They'll be the ones who understood that change is a relational process, not just a strategic one.

Listen to my full conversation with John Robertson on the Roxanne Derhodge Podcast, where we go deeper into the specific tactics leaders can use to build Relational Currency, create psychosocial safety, and navigate the unique challenges of leading multi-generational teams through uncertainty: https://www.roxannederhodge.com/podcast/episode/9e2034f6/faith-resilience-and-leadership-john-robertson-on-navigating-change-and-relational-currency

Want to dive deeper into building authentic relationships that drive real business outcomes? Explore the ROR (Return on Relationship) framework and discover how trauma-informed leadership practices create the foundation for sustainable change.