Reducing the Cognitive Cost of Change to Drive Innovation

Change keeps coming fast. Teams, educators, and leaders are being asked to adopt new tools, behaviors, and priorities at a relentless pace. But many change efforts fail to stick. People feel overwhelmed, disconnected, or left behind. Change does not fail because people resist it. It fails because of how we design and deliver it. This session rethinks change through the lens of learning science. Drawing on research around metacognition, motivation, and cognitive load, we’ll explore why transformation stalls when people can’t see the relevance, can’t experiment safely, or simply can’t keep up.