4. Change Management
The Open Ledger
Imposing constraints without burning trust
Use when
Leadership must take something away and still needs commitment
- 1
Price what you took
One page, two columns, dollars per employee per year, read aloud by the CEO. Anything not yet given back is listed as owing, with a date.
- 2
Put bad news first
One weekly forum where red items are heard before anything else. The senior person thanks whoever raises the first problem, and help arrives within 24 hours.
- 3
Pay it back in authority
Checkpoints agreed up front at 30, 60 and 90 days, where teams that deliver win named authority, flexibility, or a local pilot.
“Price what you take, reward the truth, pay trust back with authority.”
How to use it
Do not use inside 90 days of a layoff, or when the real problem is the product. The ledger only works if the pricing is honest enough to be embarrassing; a sanitised ledger reads as spin and costs more trust than saying nothing.
Card details
- Model type
- Sequence
- Origin status
- Original
- Content last reviewed
- 28 July 2026
Origin
OriginalHarsimran Kaur Kapoor, 2026. Lineage named: Denise Rousseau's psychological contract made explicit and priced; Ford's Business Plan Review under Alan Mulally; Sitkin's stretch-goal gates.