The Workplace Communication Podcast
#141 - The Human Cost of Change and How Leaders Can Do Better with Myriane Ouellette
Change at work is often treated like a checklist: new strategy, new structure, new expectations. But what rarely gets named is what people are actually losing along the way: certainty, identity, trust, and sometimes even a sense of belonging. When leaders move too fast and skip the human side of organizational change, the cost shows up quietly through employee burnout, disengagement, and resistance that feels hard to explain.
That’s where Myriane Ouellette comes in.
As a leadership strategist at O Strategies, she helps leaders across sectors navigate complex change management while supporting their teams’ well-being and resilience. Drawing from deeply personal experiences and years of supporting organizations through transformation, Myriane reminds us that change is never just technical - it’s emotional, relational, and human-centered.
On this episode of The Workplace Communication Podcast, we’re talking with Myriane Ouellette, Owner and CEO at O Strategies, about why so many change initiatives fail when leaders ignore the human experience behind them. Join us as we learn how grief and loss show up at work, why “resistance” is often a signal rather than a problem, and how shifting from control to stewardship helps teams adapt more sustainably.
Leadership tips you won’t want to miss:
🎙️ Recognizing resistance as unacknowledged loss, not lack of commitment
🎙️ Slowing down to build real buy-in and capacity before pushing for results
🎙️ Shifting from command-and-control leadership to stewardship and care
🎙️ Creating space for honest dialogue instead of avoiding hard conversations
🎙️ Treating burnout as a system-level signal, not an individual failure
Myriane Ouellette is a leadership strategist, speaker, and founder of O Strategies, specializing in strategic planning and organizational resilience. Her work helps teams rethink how they lead and navigate change with clarity, courage, and humanity.
If you’re looking to lead change in a way that protects both results and people, then this episode is for you.
If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please be sure to subscribe and leave a review.
🎧 Listen to the episode here: https://lindsaylapaquette.com/podcast/
For a full written transcript of the episode, please see the show notes at the link above.
Guest’s contact information:
Lindsay’s contact information:
Free e-course: Free Yourself from Workplace Confrontation and Conflict