HSBC / Red Hat / Salesforce / Royal DSM: Open-Source Change Management: Engaging Employees as Co-Creators of Change

Overview

Traditional top-down change management is losing its effectiveness. In a world where the average employee endures 10 enterprise changes per year and willingness to change has dropped from 74% to 38% since 2016, organizations need a fundamentally different approach. Open-source change management — where employees co-create decisions, own implementation planning, and engage in honest conversations about change — is emerging as the answer.

This case study synthesizes research from Gartner and profiles from HSBC, Red Hat, Salesforce, and Royal DSM to illustrate how open-source change management works in practice.

The Challenge

Sixty-eight percent of organizations still use top-down change management, where senior leaders make decisions, implement plans, and communicate changes downward. This approach was designed for vertical, hierarchical organizations — but today's reality is different:

• Markets move faster, requiring cross-functional teams and digital transformation
• Workers expect autonomy, understanding, and to feel valued
• 82% of workers say it's important for their organization to see them as a person, not just an employee
• Yet only 17% of organizations use an open-source approach that actively engages employees

The consequence is change fatigue, resistance, and failure. More than half of change management initiatives ultimately fail, and less than one-third are deemed clearly successful.

The Open-Source Approach

Open-source change management makes three fundamental shifts away from top-down strategies:

1. Co-create change decisions with employees instead of deciding for them
2. Shift implementation planning to employees instead of dictating plans from above
3. Refocus communication on open conversations instead of top-down announcements

Outcomes of the Open-Source Approach

Research shows that directly involving the workforce produces powerful results:

• Intent to stay increases up to 19%
• Discretionary effort increases up to 38%
• Enterprise contribution increases up to 22%
• Change fatigue decreases up to 29%
• Sustainable performance increases up to 47%
• Change success is 14 times more likely

Solution Components

1. Engage Employees to Co-Create Change Decisions

Involving employees in co-creating change decisions increases change success by 15%. The key is striking the right balance — avoiding both the "too little, too late" of token feedback sessions and the "opinion overload" of trying to include everyone.

HSBC: Employee-Led Culture Change

HSBC Technology designed a culture change program called the "Big Conversation" that emphasizes employee input:

1. Published the Technology Manifesto 1.0 — an aspirational vision for culture and ways of working that deliberately focused on vision rather than prescriptive next steps, signaling to employees that they have a stake in determining how to achieve the future state
2. Invited employee feedback through "Exchanges" — loosely structured team dialogues that gave employees the opportunity to both process and plan for implementing the change
3. Shared insights publicly — leaders committed to closing gaps and publicly acknowledged both positive feedback and constructive criticism, affirming that employee opinions had real impact

This strategy ensures transparency around how decisions are made. Open decision making works as a meritocracy — the best ideas win, regardless of who they come from.

Red Hat: Open Decision Framework

Red Hat helps leaders determine exactly whom to include in change decisions using targeted selection criteria:

• Who would be surprised by this?
• Who is likely to opt out or reject the solution?
• Who is knowledgeable but may not speak out?
• Are specific demographics or geographies affected?
• Who might care despite not being directly affected?
• Who is outspoken about this?

This selective approach allows leaders to expand their visibility while ensuring the most relevant employees — not just leaders — are involved in change decisions.

2. Shift Implementation Planning to Employees

When employees primarily own implementation planning, change success increases by 24%. Despite this, 68% of leaders report that leaders own the change strategy.

Salesforce: V2MOM Tool

Rather than creating static annual business plans, Salesforce uses its V2MOM (Vision, Values, Methods, Obstacles, and Measures) tool:

1. Employees write their own vision using the organizational vision as a guide
2. Managers review V2MOMs and point out overlooked methods or measures
3. Employees update V2MOMs when organizational or personal objectives shift
4. Teams share and collaborate on V2MOMs, ensuring alignment and execution capability

This approach puts employees in charge of translating organizational change into their own context.

Royal DSM: Culture for a Flotilla Future

Royal DSM, a health and nutrition company with 21,000 employees, took a distinctive approach to culture change:

• Instead of prescribing desired cultural norms, they proscribed undesired ones at the organizational level
• This left room for teams to define the best way to bring culture to life in their own context
• People managers use a macroculture diagnostic focused on common biases (loss aversion, correspondence bias) to identify norms and behaviors blocking the team's ideal culture
• The diagnostic is administered at managers' discretion, preserving team autonomy

3. Refocus Change Communication on Open Conversations

Talk-based communication can increase change success by 32%, employee well-being by 33%, and psychological safety by 46%.

Instead of telling employees what to do and how to feel about change, organizations should engage them in honest conversations throughout the change process.

Nationwide: Employee-Driven Town Halls

Nationwide transformed its executive town halls with a question submission and voting mechanism that lets employees direct the Q&A conversation. The CEO facilitates discussion between multiple executives, demonstrating how leadership's diverse perspectives inform organizational direction.

Results show employees feel Nationwide is more accessible, transparent, and consistent in its executive engagement. Leaders have adapted their communication styles to be more transparent, and the town halls have driven concrete changes like increased workplace flexibility and expanded care resources.

Key Findings

• 82% of workers say it's important to be seen as a person, not just an employee — but only 17% of organizations use an open-source approach
• 68% of leaders own the change strategy, but when employees own implementation planning, change success increases by 24%
• Talking with employees openly — rather than simply giving directives — improves well-being and increases change success

Key Takeaways

• Top-down change is losing efficacy — In an era of constant change, employees who feel change is "done to them" resist rather than adopt
• Co-creation beats communication — Involving employees in decisions increases change success by 15%; involving them in planning increases it by 24%
• Open conversations are not optional — Talk communication increases change success by 32% and psychological safety by 46%
• It's a meritocracy, not a democracy — Open-source change doesn't mean everyone votes on everything; it means the right people are engaged at the right time
• Time invested upfront saves time downstream — More time spent making better decisions with employees translates into substantial time savings in execution