Change Saturation Is Not a Communication Problem
CIO, Friday, October 16th, 2026
Lessons from an S/4HANA program: change saturation shows up in delivery signals, and more status meetings make it worse.
Drawing on a major S/4HANA transformation, the author describes functional staff who were supporting the program, doing their day jobs and learning Agile, Jira and new roles at the same time.
Leadership responded to slipping deliverables with more meetings and status updates, which took away the capacity people needed to catch up.
Early warning signs include falling attendance at stand-ups and ceremonies rather than open pushback, and status work crowding out delivery.
The author argues that change saturation is a capacity problem that gets misdiagnosed as a communication gap.