How do we get middle managers to lead change instead of blocking it?

Middle managers are not blocking change. They are optimizing for survival in a system that is asking them to do something risky without adequate support.

Consider what change looks like from a middle manager's position. Senior leadership announces a transformation. The manager is told to drive adoption in their team. But their performance metrics have not changed. Their workload has not decreased. They have not been given practice time with the new approach. Their peers are taking a wait-and-see posture. And the last three change programs were quietly abandoned after six months.

A COM-B diagnosis of the middle manager's behavior reveals compound barriers.

Capability: they know about the change but have not practiced leading it.

Opportunity, physical: their calendar does not have space for the additional conversations required.

Opportunity, social: their peer managers are not visibly leading the change either.

Motivation, reflective: they are uncertain the organization will follow through.

Motivation, automatic: under pressure, they default to their established management routines.

Interventions that work: "Revise Professional Roles" to explicitly redefine the manager's role in the change and reallocate workload accordingly. "Form a Coalition" of managers who support each other through the transition and create social proof among peers. "Enable Peer-to-Peer Teaching" so managers learn from colleagues who have successfully navigated the transition rather than from consultants or training decks. "Slowly Increase Difficulty" so they start with one small behavioral change in their team before scaling up.

The mistake is treating manager resistance as an attitude problem and responding with more persuasion. The fix is treating it as a system problem and redesigning the conditions around the manager's role.