Why Past Change Success Doesn’t Always Mean Present Readiness
Understanding why people who’ve survived big changes can still struggle with new ones
One of the most common surprises leaders encounter when using IRVEY¹ is this:
Someone with a low Change Fitness score may have successfully navigated enormous, difficult changes in their past.
At first glance, this seems contradictory. If a person has rebuilt their life, survived adversity, or led major organisational change, shouldn’t they be more ready for change now?
Not necessarily.
And understanding why is one of the most important insights a leader can gain about human capability, resilience, and readiness.
1. Change Fitness measures current capacity, not historical achievement
Change Fitness is not a personality trait. It’s not a fixed attribute. It’s not a summary of someone’s life story.
It is a snapshot of the system right now — how coherent, balanced, and ready a person is to navigate the next wave of change.
Someone may have been highly capable five years ago, or even last year, but:
drift accumulates
load increases
patterns reorganise
trust erodes
clarity fades
fatigue sets in
Past success does not guarantee present readiness.
IRVEY measures the current state of the informational system, not the résumé.
2. People often adapt to big changes through necessity, not readiness
Many people survive major life changes because they had no choice.
They adapted because:
the situation forced them
external structure carried them
someone else provided support
adrenaline and urgency overrode fear
the change unfolded slowly enough to cope
This is reactive adaptation, not readiness‑driven adaptation.
It’s the difference between:
“I grew because I had to.”
“I can grow because I’m ready.”
IRVEY measures the second one.
3. Past change can deplete a person’s system rather than strengthen it
This is the counterintuitive truth most leaders never see.
Big changes can leave behind:
unresolved drift
emotional fatigue
rigid worldview beliefs
reduced trust
protective patterns
cognitive overload
diminished agency
A person may have survived the change — even succeeded through it — but the informational architecture may now be:
brittle
overloaded
defensive
incoherent
exhausted
They adapted, but the adaptation came at a cost.
IRVEY picks up the cost, not the story.
4. Past change may have been supported by scaffolding that no longer exists
People often navigate major change because they had:
a strong partner
a supportive team
a stable environment
a clear structure
a compelling vision
financial security
a mentor or leader
a strong identity
Remove the scaffolding, and the underlying Change Fitness becomes visible.
IRVEY measures the internal system, not the external supports.
5. Change Fitness is about capacity, not biography
This is the simplest way to understand it:
Past change shows what happened. Change Fitness shows what is possible now.
They are not the same thing.
A person’s history may be full of resilience, courage, and achievement — and that matters. But readiness for the next change depends on the current state of:
motivation
agency
trust
balance
insight
vision
worldview beliefs
These are psychological experiences shaped by deeper structural conditions.
The Bottom Line
People don’t struggle with change because they’re weak, unwilling, or incapable. They struggle because their current Change Fitness — their present capacity to navigate uncertainty — has been shaped by the load, drift, and patterns accumulated over time.
This is why IRVEY is so powerful. It doesn’t measure history. It measures readiness.
And when leaders understand this distinction, they stop judging people by their past and start supporting them based on their present, which is where real capability is built.
¹ IRVEY is our proprietary change fitness assessment tool