A company migrates to cloud. Another adopts AI across its workflows. A third consolidates three legacy CRMs into one platform. A fourth restructures its engineering org around product teams instead of functional silos.
These look like four different events. They are not.
The underlying structure is always the same. A new way of working is introduced. People have to stop doing something the old way and start doing it a new way. Some people are close to the change and adapt quickly. Others are far from it and struggle. The organization moves through the transition at an uneven pace, with some departments ahead, some behind, and some not yet aware that the change has already started.
This is juggling. Every time. The pattern is always a cascade.
Why the pattern looks different every time
The cascade in juggling is three balls, two hands, one repeating arc. The same structure runs whether you are throwing tennis balls, stage balls, rubber balls, or beanbags. What varies is the weight and bounce of each prop, which changes the timing slightly and the effort required. The pattern is the same. The experience of running it is not.
Organizational change works identically.
The underlying cascade - introduce something new, surface the friction, build the new habit, stabilize at a higher capability - is the same whether the change is a cloud migration or a company-wide agile transformation. The executive team runs a familiar cascade. The frontline teams run the same cascade. But each team is holding a different prop, and each prop requires different effort, different technique, different time to learn.
The three props and what they mean
A change programme at full speed is a single juggler running all three props at once: a ball, a club, a ring, each in the air simultaneously, each requiring different handling. Three types of departmental experience running in parallel under the same pattern.
Balls are the prop closest to the change. Forgiving, self-correcting, the throw is familiar. In a cloud migration, the infrastructure team is throwing balls. The work asks for motions they have already been practicing. The change is still real - they have to learn new patterns, new tools, new rhythms - but the fundamental body language is recognizable.
Clubs require a different kind of handling. They have to be thrown with a specific spin, caught at the right point in the rotation, held with a different grip. In a cloud migration, the security team starts throwing clubs. The change asks for rapid rotational response, high escalation throws, precise handoffs. Their existing skills are not irrelevant - but the change amplifies and transforms them in ways they have to practice from near-zero.
Rings require a completely different arc. They have to be kept vertical throughout the flight or they wobble unpredictably. They follow a continuous loop rather than a peak-and-fall. In a cloud migration, the finance team and the compliance team are throwing rings. The change asks for a broad, smooth, ongoing orientation - not the quick rotational energy of a club throw, but the sustained, measured flow of something that has to maintain its alignment across a long arc.
The same change, experienced three ways
| Juggling | Cloud Migration |
|---|---|
| Tech/infrastructure holds balls - motion already familiar, learning is acceleration | Comfortable with CLI, cloud concepts, architecture thinking - the change is fast, not foreign |
| Security holds clubs - precision required, new rotational timing, drop rate higher initially | New threat models, shared responsibility, cloud-native tooling - existing skills transfer but need relearning in new context |
| Finance/compliance holds rings - continuous loop, must maintain orientation, smooth arc over long cycle | New billing models, compliance frameworks, audit trails for cloud - the motion is steady but the shape is entirely new |
| Sales/marketing receives the output - not yet throwing, still reading the pattern | The change affects their tools and workflows indirectly - they experience the change through other departments' dropped throws |
The change does not feel the same to all of them. Not because any department is more committed or more capable than another. Because each is holding a different prop. The cascade is the same. The prop determines the experience.
Why this matters for the people running the change
Most change programmes are designed as if everyone is holding the same prop.
The communication plan uses the same language for all departments. The training rollout runs on the same timeline. Success is measured by the same milestones. And then, predictably, some departments move through the change on schedule while others fall behind and the question asked is usually some version of “why aren’t they as committed as the tech team?”
The answer is not commitment. The answer is props.
Reading the pattern before you design the change
Before designing a change programme, the most useful question is not “what are we changing?” It is “who is holding which prop, and how far is each department from familiar motion?”
The answer shapes everything: the pace of rollout, the design of training, the milestones that make sense at each stage, the communication that will land versus the communication that will bounce. A department holding balls needs a different kind of support than a department holding rings. Both need support. Neither is failing.
From the centre of a change programme at full speed, everything is moving. Every prop is different. The person in the middle is maintaining the pattern.
That is the job.
Read next: Which Prop Are You Holding? - how to read the departmental prop map in any change.