Randy Polito has spent time in addiction recovery facilities, working with treatment programs and digital health initiatives. He's listened to addiction counselors, program directors, and people in recovery talk about what actually works.
The parallels to organizational change are striking.
Recovery isn't about willpower or information. It's about belonging, belief, structure, and the relentless presence of people who've walked the same path and came out the other side.
Most organizational change fails for the same reason most people relapse.
We tell people the new system is better. We train them on the new process. We measure adoption. Then we move on to the next initiative. And people slip back to old behaviors because the hard part—the part that requires showing up, being present, believing this actually matters—never happened.
Here's what recovery work teaches about change that applies everywhere, according to Randy Polito:
Change doesn't stick without community. In recovery, you don't do it alone. You have a sponsor, a group, people checking in. In organizations, we treat change like it's individual—"adopt the new software," "learn the new process." The implementations that stick are the ones with peer networks, champions who show up consistently, and space to struggle together.
Acknowledge the real cost. Recovery doesn't say "this will be easy." It says "this will be hard, and it's worth it." Most organizational change messaging is the opposite: "this will be better, easier, faster." When the hard part hits, people feel lied to. Be honest upfront about what's being asked and why it matters.
Meet people where they are. In recovery, you don't ask someone to commit to five years of sobriety on day one. You ask for today. In organizations, we often ask people to adopt massive change all at once. The ones that work break it into pieces and celebrate movement, even small movement.
Relapse is data, not failure. When someone in recovery relapses, it's not a sign the program failed—it's a signal to adjust. When an organization reverts to old processes because the new one didn't stick, we call it failure. We should call it feedback and ask what needs to change.
Belief compounds. The first person to get sober doesn't just get sober. They become proof to everyone else that it's possible. The first manager to successfully adopt new software doesn't just adopt it; they become the model for their peers. Belief spreads.
The healthcare systems that have pulled off remarkable change—that reduced overdose deaths, that scaled recovery services, that genuinely improved patient outcomes—they understood this. They didn't just implement systems. They built communities of people who believed in what they were doing.
That's the real change management.
— Randy Polito