57 Change Management Quotes: Wisdom for Leaders & Changemakers

 

Empower yourself and your team to better navigate uncertainties with this collection of insightful change management quotes!

Leading change is a complex endeavor that requires both vision and the ability to inspire others. To equip yourself for this journey, we’ve compiled a list of powerful change management quotes – which offer valuable perspectives on navigating resistance, fostering collaboration, and achieving successful transformations. From building resilience to embracing challenges, these words should provide the wisdom necessary to guide your team through times of uncertainty and emerge stronger on the other side!

(by Jonathan M. Pham)

Highlights

• The list below is categorized to empower leaders and changemakers at all levels. Dive into sections focusing on short, impactful quotes to share during meetings or presentations. Explore the importance of change and its role in growth. Find inspiration from leaders who have championed change, and gain insights on embracing change in the workplace, fostering a positive and adaptable environment.
• Whether you’re seeking personal growth or navigating systemic change, we’ve got you covered! Embrace the disruptive nature of change and take calculated risks with confidence, using the wisdom of these quotes as your guide.

Short Change Management Quotes

1. Be the change you want to see in the world – Gandhi

2. When in doubt, choose change – Lily Leung

3. Change your thoughts and you change your world – Norman Vincent Peale

4. Culture eats strategy for breakfast – Peter Drucker

Quotes on the Importance of Change

5. To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often – Winston Churchill

6. The measure of intelligence is the ability to change – Albert Einstein

7. 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

8. The price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change – Bill Clinton

9. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results – Albert Einstein

Inspiring Change Management Quotes

10. People don’t resist change. They resist being changed! – Peter Senge

11. The key to change … is to let go of fear – Rosanne Cash

12. If you want truly to understand something, try to change it – Kurt Lewin

13. If you’re walking down the right path, and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you will make progress – Barack Obama

Quotes about dealing with change

Quotes About Embracing Change in the Workplace

14. Change is the end result of all true learning – Leo F.Buscaglia

15. However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results – Churchill

16. If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living – Gail Sheehy

17. 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

18. We all have big changes in our lives that are more or less a second chance – Harrison Ford

Change Management Quotes for Business

19. The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new – Socrates

20. Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning – Bill Gates

21. It is not the strongest or the most intelligent that will survive but those that can best manage change – Charles Darwin

Change business quotes

Change Management Quotes for Work

22. Change almost never fails because it’s too early. It almost always fails because it’s too late – Seth Godin

23. We first make our habits, then our habits make us – John Dryden

Change Management Quotes for Employees

24. Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time – Barack Obama

25. Our only security is our ability to change – John Lilly

26. Change before you have to – Jack Welch

27. For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something – Steve Jobs

Read more: 123 Quotes for Employee Motivation

Change Management Process Quotes

28. Change cannot be put on people. The best way to instill change is to do it with them. Create it with them – Lisa Bodell

29. Change your opinions, keep to your principles; change your leaves, keep intact your roots – Victor Hugo

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

Change Management Leadership Quotes

31. It’s only after you’ve stepped outside your comfort zone that you begin to change, grow, and transform – Unknown

32. Leadership is always about change: it’s not about mobilizing people to do what they’ve always done well to continue to do it well – Kotter

Read more: 110 Leadership Quotes to Unlock Greatness

Leading change quotes

Quotes About Transformational Change

33. Yes, your transformation will be hard. Yes, you will feel frightened, messed up, and knocked down. Yes, you’ll want to stop. Yes, it’s the best work you’ll ever do – Robin Sharma

34. The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow – Rupert Murdoch

35. Transformation isn’t sweet and bright. It’s a dark and murky, painful pushing. An unraveling of the untruths you’ve carried in your body – Victoria Erickson

36. Real transformation requires real honesty. If you want to move forward – get real with yourself – Bryant McGill

37. The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity – Amelia Earhart

Read more: Organizational Transformation – An Essential Guide to Successful Implementation

Self-transformation Quotes

38. You and I possess within ourselves at every moment of our lives, under all circumstances, the power to transform the quality of our lives – Werner Erhard

39. When you compete against everyone else, no one wants to help you. But when you compete against yourself, everyone wants to help you – Simon Sinek

40. The wings of transformation are born of patience and struggle – Janet S. Dickens

Read more: Self Leadership – The Art of Leading from Within

Quotes on Transformation and Growth

41. Nothing happens until the pain of remaining the same outweighs the pain of change – Arthur Burt

42. Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality – Nikos Kazantzakis

43. Transformation isn’t a future event. It’s a present-day activity – Jillian Michaels

44. Every negative experience holds the seed of transformation – Alan Cohen

45. Beautiful are those whose brokenness gives birth to transformation and wisdom – John Mark Green

Change management quotes

Systemic Change Quotes

46. To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly – Henri Bergson

47. Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal – Arthur Schopenhauer

48. The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking – Albert Einstein

49. The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance – Alan Watts

Quotes About Change and Disruption

50. The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress – Charles Kettering

51. The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence – it is to act with yesterday’s logic – Peter Drucker

52. In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists – Eric Hoffer

Read more: 60 Learning and Development Quotes

Quotes About Change and Taking Risks

53. Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go – T.S. Eliot

54. Take risks: if you win, you will be happy; if you lose, you will be wise – Unknown

55. The biggest risk is not taking any risk… In a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks – Mark Zuckerberg

56. To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself – Søren Kierkegaard

57. Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing – Warren Buffett

Risk management quotes

Beyond Quotes: Learn to Manage Change with ITD World’s Training Solutions

At ITD World, we understand that true change management expertise requires a deep understanding of the processes, tools, and strategies that drive successful transformations.

That’s why we offer a comprehensive suite of change management training solutions. Our programs are designed for leaders at all levels, equipping you with the skills to:

• Develop a clear vision and communication plan for change initiatives.
• Navigate resistance and build buy-in from stakeholders.
• Implement effective change management processes that minimize disruption and maximize results.
• Foster a culture of continuous learning and adaptation within your organization.
• etc.

Contact ITD World today to discuss how our training solutions can empower you and your team to lead successful change initiatives!

Other resources you might be interested in:

• 44 Organizational Development Quotes to Spark Change
• 43 Leadership Coaching Quotes to Empower Success
• 100 Human Resource Management Quotes