All too often, change management starts as a reaction across an organization and is applied when disruption becomes unavoidable. Five years ago, International Motors, LLC* (International) made a proactive choice: to treat change as a core organizational capability, not a situational response.

That decision fundamentally reshaped how International leads, supports and sustains change across the enterprise. Today, change management at International is enabled by a dual-learning framework: Change Leadership and Change Practitioner. This effort is supported by a network of more than 100 certified practitioners who actively coach and lead change on projects across the company.

Dive deeper into International’s five-year change-management journey, including the choices made and lessons learned along the way.

Start With a Custom Framework, Not a Template

International’s journey began with a simple realization: off-the-shelf change frameworks alone would not meet the needs of a complex, industrial organization undergoing continuous transformation.

We partnered with a consulting firm to co-create a custom change-management framework tailored to our culture, operating realities and leadership expectations. This early work focused on three foundational elements:

• Clear frameworks that leaders and practitioners could easily understand and apply
• Common toolsets embedded in real project work for change practitioners
• Shared language for discussing change across functions and levels

Rather than positioning change management as a specialized function, we intentionally designed the framework to be accessible and practical, reinforcing that effective change is everyone’s responsibility, especially leaders.

This foundational work allowed us to move beyond theory and begin embedding change management into how work gets done.

Design Distinct but Connected Learning Paths

As our transformation agenda accelerated, it became clear that one size would not fit all. Leaders and practitioners experience and influence change differently, and they require different skills, mindsets and support.

In partnership with a learning vendor and Change Catalysts, creators of the CQ® for Developing Change Intelligence®**, we designed two complementary programs:

1. Change Leadership: Leading Self First

Change Leadership is designed for leaders at every level who are navigating change while simultaneously delivering results. The program is grounded in two core principles:

1. Leading self through change before leading others
2. Understanding the neuroscience of change and how the brain responds to uncertainty, loss and transition

Using Change Catalysts’ CQ® Assessment**, leaders gain insight into the kind of change leader they are, how they show up under pressure and where they may unintentionally create resistance. Leaders consistently identify the assessment as a key takeaway from the program, unlocking immediately applicable, actionable insights that achieve results.

The program emphasizes self-awareness, emotional regulation and intentional leadership behavior. It also acknowledges that how leaders experience change directly influences how others experience it.

2. Change Practitioner: Building Internal Expertise and Credibility

The Change Practitioner program is an internal certification designed for employees who lead or support change initiatives as part of their role. The program goes beyond foundational knowledge and includes:

• Deep application of International’s change framework and tools, which includes the CQ® Assessment** and supporting eLearning course and on-the-job application resources
• A six-week project-based learning lab, where participants apply change methods to real initiatives
• Coaching and feedback to strengthen practical capability, not just conceptual understanding

More than course completion, certification reflects demonstrated competence in leading change-management work inside the organization.

Over time, the program upskilled International employees from every organization to own change management capabilities without relying solely on internal or external consultants.

Creating a Change Community, Not Just Certified Individuals

One of the most important decisions we made was to treat certification as the beginning, not the end.

As the practitioner population grew, we intentionally formed a change community of more than 100 practitioners who:

• Coach project teams and leaders
• Apply change management across diverse initiatives
• Share tools, lessons learned and emerging practices

This community creates consistency without rigidity. Practitioners operate within a shared framework but adopt approaches based on context, project complexity and stakeholder needs.

By 2025, this network supported more than 90 projects across the company, significantly expanding our capacity to lead change effectively.

Measuring What Matters: Engagement and Capability

Like many organizations, we were cautious about exaggerating impact. Change capability is complex, and attribution matters.

However, we did observe meaningful indicators of progress:

• In the second and third years following the program rollout, change-related engagement survey scores increased by 4%.
• Leaders reported greater confidence in navigating change conversations.
• Project teams increasingly requested change support earlier in the lifecycle.

These signals reinforced what we were seeing anecdotally: When leaders and practitioners share a common approach to change, uncertainty decreases and adoption improves.

Five Lessons From Five Years of Change Capability Building

Reflecting on our journey, five lessons stand out:

1. Start with leadership, but don’t stop there: Leadership commitment is essential, but sustainable change requires distributed capability. Practitioners make change real at the project level.
2. Ground change in self-awareness: Understanding how individuals experience change, emotionally and neurologically, creates better leaders and more humane change processes.
3. Build, don’t buy, capability: External expertise accelerates learning, but internal ownership creates sustainability. Certification and coaching build credibility and trust.
4. Create community, not silos: A practitioner’s network fosters learning, consistency and resilience, especially in complex organizations.
5. Treat change as a long-term capability: Change management is not a program with an end date. It is an evolving organizational muscle that strengthens with practice.

Looking Ahead

Five years in, our work continues. Change at International is not an exception; it is constant. Our focus is on deepening capability, strengthening leader effectiveness and continuing to evolve our tools and learning experiences as the organization evolves. In addition, International’s framework and change leadership program has been expanded globally across four TRATON brands.

For organizations early in their change journey, our experience reinforces a simple truth: When change capability is built intentionally, it becomes a competitive advantage — not just a survival skill.

*International Motors, LLC d/b/a International Motors USA LLC in Illinois and Ohio.

**Change Intelligence^®, Change Quotient^®, and CQ^® are registered trademarks in the U.S. and other countries of Barbara A. Trautlein, PhD. All rights reserved.