• 73% of teams say they aspire to operate as strategic consultancies.
• Only 18% believe they’ve achieved that.
• Nearly 1 in 5 still describe themselves as a reactive service desk.

That’s not a small perception gap. It’s structural.

The report shows that teams with a codified, socialized strategy are:

• 4x more likely to operate as strategic partners
• 3.5x more likely to report increased engagement
• Significantly better at reducing perceived risk

Strategy that lives in someone’s head isn’t strategy.
It’s intention.

And intention doesn’t reduce burnout, overload or trust erosion.

Change management communication was ranked the #1 critical skill for the year ahead.

And yet:

• 61% of teams do not have a formal change communications approach.

This is the paradox.

We say change is constant.
We say it’s business as usual.
But we haven’t built the infrastructure to support it.

Without a defined narrative, governance and measurement model for adoption (not just activity), teams default to “backfoot comms” — reacting to change instead of shaping it.

That’s exhausting.
For us.
And for employees.

The data is blunt:

When communication volume shifts from medium to high:

• Leader trust risk increases by 30%
• Burnout risk increases by 24%
• Information overload increases by 16%

More communication ≠ more clarity.

In fact, high strategy volume correlates with an increased perception of lack of direction.

Read that again.

When we over-communicate strategy without coherence or targeting, we unintentionally create confusion.

The teams who mitigate this best?
Those with high human-centric capability — segmentation, relevance, tone agility.

In other words: less broadcast. More design.

Only 15% of organizations report having an active, socialized EVP.
Over a third have none at all.

Yet EVP activation is repeatedly cited as foundational to alignment and retention — especially in frontline-heavy sectors.

We talk about belonging.
We talk about purpose.
But without a lived, operational EVP, the narrative fractures.

An EVP isn’t a campaign.
It’s connective tissue.

AI usage is almost universal for drafting and summarising.

But high-maturity teams use AI differently.

They use it to:

• Generate insights
• Measure sentiment
• Support strategy
• Automate journeys

Low-maturity teams use it to draft faster.

AI doesn’t create maturity.
It amplifies whatever maturity already exists.

And here’s the kicker:

Only 36% feel confident they have the literacy and critical thinking skills required to use AI effectively.
That rises to 61% when governance and structure are in place.

Governance isn’t bureaucracy.
It’s enablement.

• 87% say manager capability is a significant risk.
• Only 21% provide manager toolkits.

We rely on managers as the final mile.

But we don’t consistently design for their reality:

• Time poor
• Varied capability
• Competing priorities

Manager effectiveness doesn’t improve through expectation.
It improves through enablement.

One of the most interesting findings:

As organizations grow beyond 500 employees:

• Communicator-to-employee capacity drops dramatically.
• Perceived risk increases.
• Strategic maturity dips.

Scaling isn’t just operational.
It’s communicative.

And many mid-sized organizations hit a capability cliff just as complexity accelerates.

What Does “Readiness” Actually Mean?

The report defines readiness not as prediction — but as:

Building informed confidence and resilience to handle whatever the future throws at you.

The four levers that define success:

1. Clarity & direction – A socialized, active strategy
2. Workforce readiness – Skills for continuous change
3. Operational enablement – Governance, measurement, structure
4. Human-centric communication – Segmentation, personalization, relevance

What’s striking is that none of these are new ideas.

But the stakes are higher now.