We’ve compiled 100 motivational quotes on change management from some of the work of most inspiring and popular change leaders.
Many successful CEOs, leaders, mangers have authored about the change and their quotes are in fact their experiences.
These quotes will motivate you to think about changes that are necessary for expanding your organisation, whether you’re starting your own business or managing a team at an established institution.
We’ve categorised different themes of change management and arrange the motivational quotes in those categories.
Change
- “The rate of change is not going to slow down anytime soon. If anything, competition in most industries will probably speed up even more in the next few decades.“ — John P. Kotter
- “I cannot say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is they must change if they are to get better.“ — Georg C. Lichtenberg
- “Every successful organization has to make the transition from a world defined primarily by repetition to one primarily defined by change. This is the biggest transformation in the structure of how humans work together since the Agricultural Revolution.” — Bill Drayton
- “Companies that change may survive, but companies that transform thrive. Change brings incremental or small-scale adaptations, while transformation brings great improvements that ripple through the future of an organization.“ — Nick Candito
- “If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.“ — Jim Rohn
- “Change is the law of life and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” —John F. Kennedy
- “The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.” — Charles Kettering
- “The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence—it is to act with yesterday’s logic.” —Peter Drucker
- “Change your thoughts and you change your world.“ — Norman Vincent Peale
- “Change your opinions, keep to your principles; change your leaves, keep intact your roots.“ — Victor Hugo
- “If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.“ — Lao Tzu
- “Every day the clock resets. Your wins don’t matter. Your failures don’t matter. Don’t stress on what was, fight for what could be.“ — Sean Higgins
Change management process
13. “Change Management: The process of paying outsiders to create the pain that will motivate insiders to change, thereby transferring the change from the company’s coffers into those of the consultants.”— Eileen Shapiro
14. “If anything is certain, it is that change is certain. The world we are planning for today will not exist in this form tomorrow.” — Philip Crosby
15. “You can’t move so fast that you try to change the [norms] faster than people can accept it. That doesn’t mean you do nothing, but it means that you do the things that need to be done according to priority“.— Eleanor Roosevel
16. “It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change“. – Charles Darwin
17. Continuity gives us roots; change gives us branches, letting us stretch and grow and reach new heights“.– Pauline R. Kezer
18. “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change“. – Charles Darwin
19. “You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.“ – Amelia Earhart
20. “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often“. – Winston Churchill
21. “Whatever got you here may well prevent you from getting there“. – Marshall Goldsmith
22. “Change is inevitable. Change for the better is a full-time job“. – Adlai E. Stevenson
23. “Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle“.– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Change management strategy
24. “A change of heart is the essence of all other change and it is brought about by a re-education of the mind.” — Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence
25. “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new“.– Socrate
26. “Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.“ –John Kenneth Galbrait
27. “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete“. – Buckminster Fulle
28. “All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward“ –Ellen Glasgow
29. “Expecting things to change without putting in any effort, is like waiting for a ship at the airport.“– Bright Vibes.
30. “It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg“. –C. S. Lewis
31. “Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes“. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
32. “For changes to be of any true value, they’ve got to be lasting and consistent“–Tony Robbins
33. “One must change one’s tactics every ten years if one wishes to maintain one’s superiority“. –Napoleon Bonaparte
Resistance to change
34. “Change is hard because people overestimate the value of what they have and underestimate the value of what they may gain by giving that up.“ — James Belasco and Ralph Staye
35. ”The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” — Alan Watts
36. “Slowness to change usually means fear of the new.” — Philip Crosby
37. The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance“.
-Nathaniel Branden
38. “People don’t resist change. They resist being changed!“ — Peter Senge
39. “The art of acceptance is the art of making someone who has just done you a small favor wish that he might have done you a greater one.“
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
40. “The most difficult thing is the decision to act; the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do.“ — Amelia Earhart
41. ”Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.” — James Baldwin
42. “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.“ — Maya Angelo
43. “Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful, it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful, it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident, it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better.“ — King Whitney Jr.
44. ”I’m always willing to accept change, just as long as it isn’t change for the sake of change. If that change will result in a better way of doing things, then I’m all for it” — James Van Fleet
45. "The key to change is to let go of fear.” — Rosanne Cash
Change Readiness
46. “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.“ — Barack Obama
47. “Your life does not get better by chance. It gets better by change.” — Jim Rohn
48. “Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.“ — Joel A. Barker
49. “Change before you have to.“ — Jack Welch
50. “The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change [their] future by merely changing [their] attitude“ –Oprah Winfrey
51. “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.“ — Leo Tolstoy
52. “They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.“ — Andy Warhol
53. “It’s easy to make a buck. It’s a lot tougher to make a difference.” — Tom Brokaw
54. “Your success in life isn’t based on your ability to simply change. It is based on your ability to change faster than your competition, customers and business.“ — Mark Sanborn
55. “Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” — John Wooden
56. “The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” — Albert Einstein
57. “You can’t change the world alone. You will need some help. And to truly get from your starting point to your destination takes friends, colleagues, the goodwill of strangers and a strong coxswain to guide them.“ — William H. McRaven
Organizational culture
58. “Where there are changes, there are always business opportunities.” — Minoru Makihara
59. “The new always carries with it the sense of violation, of sacrilege. What is dead is sacred; what is new, that is, different, is evil, dangerous, or subversive.” — Henry Miller
60. “We cannot become what we need to be, by remaining what we are.” — Max De Pree
61. “Organizations need employees who understand that change is the norm and employees who are prepared to learn continuously.” — Beverly Goldberg
62. “You don’t change a culture by talking, you change it through action.” – Mario Moussa
63. “Culture isn’t just one aspect of the game. It is the game.”
64. “Culture does not change because we desire to change it. Culture changes when the organization is transformed – the culture reflects the realities of people working together every day“. – Frances Hesselbein
65. “You can’t build an adaptable organization without adaptable people–and individuals change only when they have to, or when they want to” – Gary Hamel
66. “Learn to adjust yourself to the conditions you have to endure, but make a point of trying to alter or correct conditions so that they are most favorable to you“. – William Frederick Book
67. “If you want to change the culture, you will have to start by changing the organization“. – Mary Douglas
68. “If you do not change employee behaviour, you will not get organisational change and performance improvement“ ― Peter F Gallagher
Change Communication
69. “Powerful and sustained change requires constant communication, not only throughout the rollout but after the major elements of the plan are in place. The more kinds of communication employed, the more effective they are.“ —DeAnne Aguirre
70. “Few things are more important during a change event than communication from leaders who can paint a clear and confidence-inspiring vision of the future.“– Sarah Clayton
71. “Communication works for those who work at it.” – John Powell
72. “When people talk listen completely. Most people never listen.”– Ernest Hemingway
73. “To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.” – Tony Robbins
74. “When we change the way we communicate, we change society“. – Clay Shirky
75. “Communication is power. Those who have mastered its effective use can change their own experience of the world and the world’s experience of them. All behavior and feelings find their original roots in some form of communication.” – Tony Robbins
76. “Effective communication helps to keep the team working on the right projects with the right attitude.” – Alex Langer
77. “If people had the right skills and intention to communicate well, there would be no conflict. The better we are at communicating, the better our lives will be.”― Yama Mubtaker
78. “The art of communication is the language of leadership.” – James Humes
79. “Although we live in an information technology age, we often find ourselves in failure to communicate situations.” – Johnny
80. “When the trust account is high, communication is easy, instant, and effective“. – Stephen R. Covey
81. “Effective change communication is at the heart of successful change, it acts like the blood in our bodies, but instead of supplying vital oxygen and nutrients, communication supplies information and motivation to the impacted stakeholders”― Peter F Gallagher
Change leadership
82. “Change cannot be put on people. The best way to instill change is to do it with them. Create it with them.” — Lisa Bodell
83. “The reality is that the only way change comes is when you lead by example.” — Anne Wojcicki
84. “As dealing with change becomes a regular activity, leading it becomes a skill to hone, an internal capacity to master.“ —Arnaud Hennevill
85. “Change hurts. It makes people insecure, confused and angry. People want things to be the same as they’ve always been because that makes life easier. But, if you’re a leader, you can’t let your people hang on to the past.“ — Richard Marcinko
86. “Change is a normal part of our lives, but it’s uncomfortable for the vast majority of people because it makes them feel like they’ve lost control. Do you remember a time when you felt like things were being done to you that you had no control over? That’s how they may feel now. In every way you can, let them know that you can relate to that.” — Mary JoAsmus
87. “If you are entrusted with bringing about change, you likely possess the knowledge needed to advance the organization, and you might have a plan—but knowledge is not enough. You have to bring yourself to each interaction in a deeply authentic way. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” — Doug Conant
88. “Next to doing the right thing, the most important thing is to let people know you are doing the right thing.“ — John D. Rockefeller
89. “Change Leadership is action, not a position” ― Peter F Gallagher
90. “Many leaders get to the top of an organisation with skills less associated to leadership, but more the ability to eliminate greater competition on the way” ― Peter F Gallagher
91. “Organisational change leadership is about effectively and proactively articulating the vision, modelling the new way and intervening to ensure sustainable change” ― Peter F Gallagher
What to anticipate from change
92. “The world changes in direct proportion to the number of people willing to be honest about their lives". – Armistead Maupin
93. “Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change“. – Confucius
94. “Our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time; what we really want is for things to remain the same but get better”. – Sydney J. Harris
95. “When it becomes more difficult to suffer than to change… you will change“. – Robert Anthony
96. “Change has its enemies“ – Robert Kennedy
97. “We cannot change anything until we accept it“. – Carl Jung
98. “In times of rapid change, experience could be your worst enemy.“ – J. Paul Getty
99. “If you can change three lives in 10, three lives in a hundred, that’s got to be good, hasn’t it?“ –Ian Botham
100. “There must be a better way to make the things we want, a way that doesn’t spoil the sky, or the rain or the land.“ – Paul MaCertney
