The Professional's Guide to Separating Sense from Nonsense — exposing the pseudoscience, folklore, and fashionable fictions that distort organizational change.
Change Myths occupies ground no book had claimed before.
The first book entirely dedicated to the myths, folklore, and fashionable pseudoscience that make organizational change harder than it needs to be.
The first book to systematically evaluate the quality of evidence behind change management's most widely-used models and axioms — change curves, MBTI, learning styles, burning platforms, and more.
The first book on critical thinking specifically for change professionals — introducing the LIAR model to guide the interplay between logic, intuition, authority, and research.
Change Myths exposes how many of the methods change leaders rely upon as truths are often handed-down pseudoscience; the book shows why change experts have a responsibility to revisit the evidence behind what they recommend.
— Mike Iskandaryan, Workforce Strategist and Agile Change, McKinsey & Co.
Not afraid to revisit some urban myths about how to change? This book is superb at debunking some of the most accepted models. No one is safe, and I like it! Paul and Tricia have added to the field of change, bringing rigor to more scientific backing in management and leadership.
— Yves Van Durme, Global Head of Organizational Transformation, Deloitte
This book is brilliant. It challenged my thinking and beliefs, decades of organizational change practices, and how I interpreted my own experiences — a healthy reconsideration of the "truths" about change that will improve the field of organizational change.
— Wayne Reschke, Former SVP, CHRO, Alliant Energy
The authors call upon leaders to be epistemically virtuous — to take greater responsibility for updating their beliefs about how to act. Armed with LIAR, and a half-dozen other critical thinking tools, leaders can begin to discard management pseudoscience — the catchy, half-baked, often-false models that look good on a PowerPoint slide.
— Kelly Monahan, Ph.D., Future of Work Director, Meta (from the Preface)
Every chapter asks the same question: what does the best available evidence actually say? From grief curves to brain science to burning platforms — no sacred cow survives scrutiny.
The Kübler-Ross grief curve, designed to describe dying patients, became the most-used model in organizational change. This chapter examines how that happened, why it persists, and what the evidence actually says about how people respond to organizational transitions.
Change CurvesAn honest account of how myths become entrenched in a profession, why practitioners reach for comfortable models over contested evidence, and what the cost of pseudoscience is for the people who live through organizational change.
FoundationsIntroduces the LIAR model — a practical framework for navigating the competing claims of gurus, academic experts, intuition, and formal reasoning. The intellectual toolkit for the rest of the book.
LIAR ModelMBTI generates over $2 billion annually in consulting and corporate training. The research evidence for its reliability, validity, and predictive power is examined — rigorously, charitably, and without mercy.
PersonalityWhat behavioral science, complexity theory, and systems thinking actually tell us about how organizations change — and why the popular 8-step models and iceberg diagrams miss most of it.
Behavioral ScienceThe idea that employees "resist change" is one of the field's most durable beliefs — and one of its most damaging. This chapter examines what the evidence says about why people push back, and whether "resistance" is the right frame at all.
ResistanceVisual, auditory, kinesthetic — the learning styles movement has shaped billions in corporate training spend. The research literature is examined, and the conclusion is uncomfortable for most L&D professionals.
L&DKotter's "create urgency" became change management gospel. But what does stress and crisis actually do to human cognition, decision-making, and motivation? The benzodiazepine research offers a surprising answer.
UrgencyA working guide to research quality for non-academics — randomized controlled trials, observational studies, anecdotal evidence, and meta-analyses. How to evaluate what you're reading rather than simply believing it.
EvidencePop neuroscience has given change professionals seductive new language: neuroplasticity, amygdala hijack, left-brain/right-brain. But does the neuroscience of change actually support these models, or is this a new layer of mythology?
NeuroscienceStage-based models, commitment curves, the 70% failure rate that nobody can source — an examination of the second-order myths that have come to define how the field understands itself.
Meta MythsTen questions for detecting bullshit. A practical field guide for evaluating the next consultant, keynote speaker, or LinkedIn thought leader who arrives with a compelling new model and a confident smile.
Critical ThinkingWhat would an evidence-based change profession look like? A constructive, forward-looking vision for change practitioners who want to do better — built on the cognitive biases and emergent principles mapped throughout the book.
Future of the FieldA critical thinking tool for navigating the competing claims that arrive in every change programme — from vendors, from academics, from experience, and from gut instinct.
Gibbons towers above business thinkers in the way that Drucker did in an earlier era. Even Drucker did not bring to business thinking the breadth of scholarship and originality of thought that Gibbons does.
Robert Entenmann · Former Global Head of Markets, ABN AMRO
Available in Kindle and paperback. Book III in the Leading Change in the Digital Age series.
