Change isn't coming in waves anymore, it's an operational constant. For leaders in 2026, the challenge isn’t reacting to that disruption, it’s guiding people through it.
Last week, Josh Cardoz, Chief Creative & Learning Officer at Sponge, discussed this ongoing challenge in his webinar '8 Rules for People-Powered Change Management'.
If you're a leader looking for a clear, experience-led ruleset to bolster your people enablement potential, check out his insights and perspective below!
You cannot do real crossing-the-line change without doing it with the people who are going to be most affected by it.
Josh Cardoz
Chief Creative and Learning Officer, Sponge.
8 rules to help you deliver people-powered change management in 2026...
In 2026, “always-on change” is simply how work gets done. Organisations are under constant pressure to move faster, while leaders are expected to provide clarity, energy, and purpose to confront ongoing uncertainty.
In this environment, change unravels in predictable ways. Teams absorb continuous shifts without clear priorities. New ways of working are introduced but rarely reinforced in day-to-day work, and progress relies on explanation rather than repeated practice.
In his webinar last week, Josh Cardoz, Chief Creative and Learning Officer at Sponge, set out eight practical rules to enable people through change, shaped by years of working with organisations under sustained pressure and evolving priorities.
Josh's 8-rules for people-powered change Management were a breath of fresh air... The toll of change on people within our workforce is real, and palpable and yes; it takes its toll on those supporting them, as well.
People Strategy & Leadership Development Consultant
Each rule addressed a specific stage of the change journey, from setting intent, to shaping behaviour, to sustaining momentum as focus shifts elsewhere.
Crucially, these rules enable leaders to:
- Understand why change feels so hard in 2026
- Influence behaviour in the flow of work
- Build routines for new ways of working
- Support people through uncertainty.
The session offered a clear, experience-led point of view on how people enablement happens in practice, alongside a disciplined set of rules that bring focus and rigour to enablement design and you can watch it above.
However, if you’re looking to strengthen your people-powered change capabilities further, we've got you covered. During the session, Josh made reference to a previous Sponge webinar which complements these eight bold rules. You can explore these insights in the article, People-Powered Change Management for the Modern Organisation.
Additionally, if you want to better understand the nature of change and how it's shifted over the last decade, find out more in this blog from Learning Experience Consultant, Callum Goodwilliam, What a decade has taught us about global transformation.
Enabling people to create lasting change.
Our whitepaper, Mobilising Generation Numb - with insights featured in Fortune, Business Insider, Forbes, and Quartz - examines how today’s workforce dynamics are quietly undermining transformation, and how genuine people-powered change can restore momentum.
Explore more
of our webinar series.
In this high-impact webinar, Josh Cardoz, CCLO of Sponge Group, explores strategies to transform change management into sustainable adoption.
In this webinar Tina Reuter and Callum Goodwilliam, Learning Experience Consultants at Sponge, explore how leading organisations are scaling responsible AI behaviours.
In this webinar, Chloé Priestley, Learning Experience Consultant, shares how to create ethics training that does double duty – keeping you out of trouble while building the workplace culture that drives retention, engagement, and performance.
Catch up on the webinar exploring how Sponge transforms traditional impact mapping into a dynamic tool that adapts to your organisation's unique context and consistently delivers meaningful results.