The Emotional Mechanics of Change
Change takes more than “management”.
Change fails when organizations try to think their way through the emotional: wasting time, burning resources, and creating burnout and stress.
We help leaders work productively with the Emotional Mechanics of Change: the inward and often unconscious processes that everyone moves through when transitioning from an old state into a new one.
Assessments • Workshops • Coaching • Keynotes • Leadership Off-Sites
What are the Emotional Mechanics of Change?
Change brings up powerful emotions: fear, anxiety, frustration, grief, and rage, as well as freedom, exhilaration, and excitement for new possibilities.
These emotions arise predictably, following patterns and laws, just like physics. They occur no matter whether a change is planned or sudden, negative or positive—or whether or not the change “makes logical sense”.
Most organizations treat these emotions as noise to be “managed”. But emotions don’t disappear when you ignore them. They go into the background, producing:
Communication breakdowns
Lack of clarity in roles and responsibilities
Inability to break harmful patterns and be innovative
Politics, gossip, and change resistance
Importantly, emotions affect not just how people feel, but also how they think.
When you work with these mechanics in a precise and productive way, you can rapidly improve resilience, collaboration, and creative problem solving.
why this matters now
“Management” breaks when change snowballs
Change management was designed for one-time change events with a clear beginning, middle, and end. That’s now how the world is anymore.
Still, many organizations continue to waste immense time and resources trying to “manage” the snowball of change upon change. They are looking to old playbooks—like communications plans, incentives, and motivational speakers—as well as cliches like toughness and grit when the real solution lies hidden in the Emotional Mechanics.
Working with the Emotional Mechanics is not a “punishment”. It can actually be the opposite: a powerful liberation that unlocks hope, excitement and creativity for the future. By working with Emotional Mechanics, leaders can learn to:
Lead through continuous change without burning out
Have hard conversations productively
Find innovative and even visionary solutions to complex problems
Speed up how they adapt to the unexpected
Real Results — Emotional Mechanics of Change in Action
A 60-person investment firm was trying to raise capital for $100M fund and stuck at 30%. Investor outreach had dried up. No leads in the pipeline. Internal tension was palpable: engagement scores dropping, young leaders quitting. The managing partners didn’t know what to do.
Our Discovery Assessment revealed a deeper issue. Two of the founding partners were approaching retirement but didn't trust the third partner to lead. They'd avoided this conversation for years, preferring to play nice rather than hurt feelings. Once we helped them put it on the table, they were shocked to realize: he wanted to be an operator, not the CEO. The answer became obvious: bring in a fourth partner to lead alongside the operator.
Years of stuckness were resolved with one direct conversation in under an hour. With careful integration, engagement recovered and the firm closed the $100M raise.
How We Help
We work with leaders and teams to address the emotional dynamics creating real operational problems. Our work is not soft skills training or traditional change management. It’s a much different—and more effective—approach that has been developed over 15 years working with 200+ companies.
Discovery Assessment
Diagnose Blockers to Progress
You've tried the logical solutions. Something else is blocking progress.
Our Discovery Assessment is a 4 week intensive that identifies where the Emotional Mechanics are creating operational problems. Through deep research, we diagnose what's stuck and why— shifting mindsets and create a roadmap for thriving.
Designed for:
Leaders who know something's off but can't pinpoint it. Organizations facing transformation that keeps stalling despite good strategy.
Team Workshops
Equip Your Team With New Tools
Your team needs practical tools to navigate change, communicate authentically, and build resilience.
Our tailored workshops build skills in leadership communications/storytelling, creative problem solving, and employee engagement/effectiveness. With delicate facilitation delivered by Jordan, teams go deeper—and discover groundbreaking solutions.
Designed for:
HR and L&D leaders looking for practical skill-building directly attuned to the changes in the world: communications, trust-building, and innovation.
strategic ADVISORY & COaching
Get Expert, Personalized Guidance
You have a vision to improve yourself or your team, and you need a trusted partner to guide you forward.
Our advisory & coaching focuses on the human dynamics of change—from emotional IQ to storytelling—helping you develop the skills and deliver the narratives that matter. See blindspots, get outside of the box, and build motivation to change.
Designed for:
Visionaries who want expert guidance on navigating the human side of innovation. Thought leaders who want human insight on telling their story to the world.
Storytelling is at the core of our approach.
Storytelling is how humans process and make sense of change. Not by “making up” a bullshit fairy tale, but by reconfiguring belief systems, changing narratives, and sharing their experiences with others who can offer feedback and guidance.
We have been teaching storytelling in business for more than 15 years. We have worked with teams at global companies like Johnson & Johnson, Autodesk, and Rakuten, as well as a broad range of startups, mid-market firms, and government/non-profit agencies across just about every industry vertical.
Our Business Storytelling Workshop is an effective way for teams and leaders to begin working with the Emotional Mechanics of Change. More than presentation skills, team learn how to:
Deepen understanding of stakeholder needs
Strengthen engagement, influence and receptiveness
Foster a culture of creativity and innovation
Boost leadership alignment, stakeholder influence, and customer loyalty
A storytelling workshop creates a focused, and interactive environment for teams to apply storytelling principles to their real use cases, delivering new ideas, facilitating immediate practice and creating both immediate and lasting ROI.
Who We Are
Several years after graduating from business school, Jordan Bower found himself in one of those Quarter Life Crises so common to early millennials. Seeking “something new”, he quit his job and set off a series of global adventures that culminated with a solo walking trip across America.
As he walked down the length of the West Coast from Canada to Mexico, alone, Jordan was forced to rely on the kindness of strangers. This was a time before widespread Internet, back when people still trusted one another. Through long conversations with the strangers he met along the way—including many who invited him to spend the night on their couch—Jordan learned how to listen, how to express himself authentically, and how to empathize with the challenges that other people faced, even when they were different or foreign to his own.
When he finally returned home from his walk, Jordan founded a business to deliver storytelling trainings to leaders. Starting from scratch, he designed programming, developed sales and marketing, and built the business up to acquire more than 200+ organizational clients, including some of the biggest companies in the world.
During the pandemic, when priorities shifted, Jordan took the opportunity to reinvent himself and his business again. Partnering with his long-time mentor, a remarkable personal/emotional consultant named Erwin Pearlman who has delivered 45,000+ 1:1 sessions with clients, Jordan elevated his storytelling business to re-focus on the Emotional Dynamics of Change, developing an innovative suite of tools, frameworks, and other material that help clients work practically with these often taboo subjects.
Jordan has worked across industries: tech, finance, CPG, healthcare, insurance, medical devices, design, consulting, and government. Most clients are in the US, with significant work in Canada and Europe.
who we’ve worked with
Keynotes & Thought Leadership
Jordan speaks about the Emotional Mechanics of Change at conferences and company events.
Topics include:
Why Change Management Fails (And What Actually Works)
The Emotional Infrastructure of Innovation
Leading Through Continuous Uncertainty
Business Storytelling as Resilience Training
