By Will Grenier, Operations Manager, Barrett & Co.
“Will – Hope is not a plan.”
This five-word phrase, shared with me by a former mentor and leader at Amazon during a morning standup, echoes in mind every time I hear “Hope” used to describe a plan or action item.
In accounting firms today, change is no longer a rare disruption. It’s an everyday reality. New technologies, new roles, shifting client demands, updated reporting expectations and regulatory changes seem constant. The pace isn’t slowing. If anything, it’s accelerating.
When change happens without structure and hope is the plan, even smart initiatives create confusion. The team loses clarity. Execution slows. Trust erodes. Resistance grows.
That’s why every firm, regardless of size, needs a repeatable, values-aligned change process. One that reduces ambiguity, creates predictability, and builds trust across the firm. A process that doesn’t manage tasks but manages the team, their psychology, emotions, and sense of safety.
When done right, change becomes less of a disruption and more of a competitive advantage.
Resistance to Change Is Not a Problem – It’s a Signal
Let’s get one thing out of the way: resistance to change is not irrational. It’s deeply human.
Even the best-designed improvements often encounter friction. That’s not because the team dislikes progress. It’s because change threatens the psychological safety of the known.
As leaders, we need to stop framing resistance as defiance. It’s not about being “difficult.” It’s about how our brain is wired.
Why teams push back:
- Loss Aversion – Losses feel more painful than equivalent gains feel rewarding. When we change processes, the team may feel they’re losing mastery, status or control, even if the outcome is positive.
- Status Quo Bias – Familiarity feels safer than efficiency. Even outdated processes feel “comfortable” because they’re known quantities.
- Reactance – When the team feels they weren’t part of the decision, they resist not because of the change itself, but to preserve their autonomy.
- Uncertainty – Lack of clarity about what’s changing and why creates stress. The team will attempt to fill in the blanks, most often with worst-case scenarios.
- Trust Gaps – Poor communication erodes confidence. Silence isn’t neutral; it creates suspicion.
- Emotional Attachment – Tools, routines, even outdated systems carry meaning. Losing them can feel like losing part of one’s identity.
The takeaway: successful change is 50% strategy and 50% psychology. If you ignore the psychology, you could end up solving the right problem in the wrong way.
The Emotional Arc of Change: Leading Through the Dip
Every major change follows a predictable emotional curve. Entrepreneur Alex Hormozi popularized a model of entrepreneurship that captures this perfectly, and I’ve seen it play out time and again across industries and roles:
- Uninformed Optimism – Enthusiasm is high, details are few.
- Informed Pessimism – The reality of the work and complexity sets in.
- The Valley of Despair – Confidence dips, morale falls, resistance peaks.
- Informed Optimism – The team starts to feel competent and see progress.
- Success & Fulfillment – The change is adopted, integrated, and valued.
Here’s the catch: most firms abandon change in the Valley of Despair. They assume the plan (if there even was one) has failed. But the valley isn’t a failure, it’s THE stage to manage.
As leaders, our job is not to avoid the dip. It’s to lead through it. This is when reinforcement of purpose, visible presence, transparency, and support matter most. If you don’t take intentional action, the effort stalls, morale collapses, and the firm cycles back to resistance, eroding trust while wasting time and resources in the process.
Why Every Firm Needs a Change Framework
The pace of change is not slowing. The only question is whether your firm will manage it or be managed by it.
A structured, values-aligned framework provides four critical advantages:
- Clarity – Reduces ambiguity through proactive planning and communication.
- Trust – Builds confidence through transparency and early involvement.
- Speed – Increases adoption by supporting the team emotionally and operationally.
- Consistency – Captures lessons learned to avoid repeat failures and strengthen culture.
Without structure, even the best ideas can and will backfire. With structure, difficult changes can create momentum, engagement, and improved performance.
What an Effective Framework Looks Like
At Barrett & Co., we’ve built a practical framework rooted in our Founding Principles, it’s 100% custom built for us. It’s comprehensive enough to cover the complexities of real-world change, but flexible enough to be repeatable across projects whether it’s a new system, a process overhaul, or a culture shift.
Here’s how it works:
Phase 1: Build the Foundation
- Identify the Need for Change – Tie it to a strategic goal, client need, or growth opportunity. Never change for change’s sake.
- Align with Core Values – If a proposed change doesn’t reflect who we are, it doesn’t move forward.
- Develop a Plan – Define scope, who’s impacted, timelines, resources, and success criteria before you start.
- Assess Risks – Identify potential disruptions; systems, people, compliance and build in mitigation strategies.
Phase 2: Execute with Clarity
- Secure Leadership Alignment – Senior and Executive leaders don’t just approve; they safeguard culture and strategy. Their buy-in is non-negotiable.
- Communicate Clearly – Explain the “why” behind the “what.” Tailor messaging by audience, use multiple touchpoints, and encourage dialogue.
- Enable Through Training – Training isn’t an afterthought. It’s how the team will feel prepared, not just informed. Provide job aids, role-specific learning, and real-time support.
- Launch + Support – Launch day is the beginning. Monitor closely, provide support, and address issues quickly.
Phase 3: Sustain and Learn
- Monitor & Measure – Use predefined metrics to validate outcomes. Don’t wait for problems to surface; check in proactively.
- Gather Feedback – Create structured ways to listen. Pulse surveys, post-launch debriefs, anonymous channels. Then act on what you hear.
- Document Lessons Learned – Capture successes, failures, and insights to build “Change Intelligence” over time.
- Close the Process – Formally recognize completion. Resolve outstanding issues. Celebrate contributions.
- Reflect & Improve – Update the framework itself. Change management is a living process, not a static one.
This framework helps turn change into a shared journey rather than a top-down mandate.
Case Study: Redesigning Our Interview Process
On paper, it was functional. In practice, it wasn’t scalable, consistent, or aligned with the values we want embedded in our future.
We asked a simple question: What if the interview process wasn’t just HR administration, but a strategic tool?
That shift led us to reimagine the process with clarity and our values at the center. We built a repeatable model that:
- Uses structured, STAR-based interview questions.
- Incorporates standardized scorecards for consistency.
- Trains every employee who wants to participate, making interviewing inclusive, not exclusive.
- Adds immediate post-interview debriefs, improving accuracy and reducing bias.
- Improves candidate update horizons, we can promise updates in days (sometimes hours), never weeks.
Was it smooth sailing? No.
At first: excitement. “Finally, we’re getting more structure!” Then: frustration. “This takes longer,” “These questions feel too rigid.” That was the Valley. Instead of abandoning the effort, we supported interviewers with additional training, reinforced the “why,” gathered feedback in real time, and involved the team in refining the system.
The result: Drew Barrett, CPA and Managing Partner of Barrett & Co. couldn’t be more excited. “I’ve been in public accounting for almost two decades and have never seen traction of this magnitude. The quality of candidates we’re hiring is incredible. We are seeing stronger hires, faster decisions, better candidate experience, and a playbook replicable for future growth.
The lesson: Operational change, when structured and values-driven, can become strategic change and a competitive advantage.
Leading Change Is a Leadership Imperative
At the end of the day, the most critical factor in change isn’t the plan, the system, or even the framework. It’s leadership.
When Senior and Executive Leaders show up visibly, consistently, and authentically, the team will follow. When we disappear or send mixed signals, adoption collapses.
Your team doesn’t resist change because they dislike progress. They resist because they fear uncertainty. And that’s something we as leaders can directly influence.
Leading through change isn’t about perfection. It’s about presence. It’s about reinforcing the “why,” modeling the new behaviors, listening openly, and celebrating progress; even when it’s incremental.
Your leadership sets the emotional climate of change and when you show up with clarity, confidence, and curiosity, they will follow.
Final Thought: Build Now, Benefit Later
If your firm doesn’t have a formal change management process yet, now is the time to build one. Start small. Anchor it to your values. Involve your team early. Remember to treat change not as a disruption, but as a muscle your firm can strengthen.
Our industry is evolving rapidly. The firms that thrive won’t be the ones that experience the fewest changes, but the ones that lead through change most effectively.
Build the structure now, and you’ll lead through the dip with clarity, trust and confidence.
About the Author
Will Grenier is Operations Manager at Barrett & Co., where he leads operational strategy, team development, and scalable process improvement to support the firm’s growth and client delivery. With over a decade of leadership experience spanning multiple roles across the automotive industry and Amazon, Will brings a strong background in logistics, performance management, and organizational transformation. At Barrett & Co., his focus is building high-performing teams and creating systems that turn complexity into clarity always aligning operational excellence with the firm’s core values.
