Passivity is a Strategy, Not a Problem

PART 1 OF 3

A few weeks ago, I was talking with a transformation leader at a Fortune 500 company. Their organization is going through a major business transformation, and I asked him how things were going.

He told me something that really struck him, especially as someone new to the company: most people were surprisingly passive in response to the transformation.

Instead of jumping in and helping move things forward, employees were hanging back, waiting to be told what to do. They weren’t offering ideas or engaging proactively. They were simply… quiet.

What’s interesting is that this aligns with both my research and my own experience working on change initiatives across different companies. More often than not, the typical response to a new transformation effort is not resistance. It’s passivity.

And this can be incredibly frustrating—especially for executives and change agents who feel urgency, who need to show progress, who believe the transformation is critical. From their perspective, the lack of action can look like indifference or even sabotage.

But before we get frustrated with people who seem passive, it’s worth pausing to ask: Why might this be happening?

Passivity Is Often a Learned Response

For many people, passivity isn’t apathy—it’s self-protection. If they’ve been through failed or painful change efforts in the past, they may have learned that it’s safer not to get too involved. Maybe they saw others speak up, push hard, or lead—and those people ended up out of a job or out of favor.

In that context, keeping your head down isn’t a sign of laziness. It’s a strategy.

People May Be Focused Elsewhere

Another reason for passivity is competing priorities. Some employees are so consumed with the day-to-day demands of their work that they don’t have the bandwidth—or perspective—to engage with the “big picture” vision. They’re not against the transformation; they’re just absorbed in getting through their to-do list.

Information Gaps Create Motivation Gaps

Finally, consider the information gap. As leaders, we often have access to insights others don’t—about the company’s strategy, market forces, or risks. If we haven’t clearly communicated why the change matters, it’s no surprise that others don’t feel the same sense of urgency we do.

So what do we do with all this?

Well, here’s the question I put back to the transformation executive:

If you accept that most people will respond to change with passivity, not resistance or excitement, how does that shift your strategy?

What if we stop trying to change people… and instead start changing the conditions?

That’s where things get interesting.

I’ll be exploring that idea more in the next post. Stay tuned.