Leading Change without Burnout

Pace Matters More Than Perfection: Lessons from a Year of Change in New Zealand Schools

This year has been a powerful reminder of something we often overlook in education: pace matters more than perfection. In New Zealand, we’ve had the challenge of implementing two major curriculum changes, Mathematics and English, while also being introduced to new assessments and reporting formats in the last two weeks of the school year.

Even when changes are well-designed and meant to improve learning outcomes, rolling them out too quickly can create stress, overwhelm, and even disengagement. Teachers are already balancing full workloads, managing classrooms, supporting student wellbeing, and juggling the emotional labour that comes with teaching. When significant reforms land all at once, it’s not about whether the ideas are good, it’s about whether people have the time, space, and confidence to integrate them.

Research in organisational psychology supports this. Kurt Lewin, a foundational theorist in change management, noted that people need time to unfreeze, change, and refreeze for new practices to take hold effectively. A 2020 meta-analysis in the Journal of Organizational Change Management found that employees exposed to rapid, consecutive changes were more likely to disengage or resist further change, even when those changes were positive. Simply put, too much too fast can be counterproductive.

Systems Don’t Feel Stress - People Do

Another important lesson is this: systems themselves don’t feel stress, people do.

Policies, frameworks, and new assessment tools are abstract until they land in classrooms. Every change lands on teachers who must adapt their planning, teaching, and reporting, often without enough time to process it. When multiple reforms arrive in quick succession, stress compounds, confidence drops, and the risk of burnout increases.

This is why any curriculum reform no matter how carefully crafted must account for the human experience. Without attention to the people implementing the change, even excellent systems can fail to achieve their goals.

Supporting Teachers Through Rapid Change

So, what can school leaders, teams, and policymakers do to make change manageable and sustainable?

1. Respect the human timeline. Give staff time to understand, integrate, and feel confident with new approaches.

2. Communicate early and clearly. Transparency about changes, timelines, and expectations reduces uncertainty and stress.

3. Prioritise support over speed. Professional learning, coaching, and practical tools help teachers implement change successfully.

4. Monitor wellbeing, not just compliance. Recognise the emotional and cognitive load of change, and provide space for feedback and adjustment.

   
   

From my perspective as a principal, change management isn’t just about introducing new ideas, it’s about protecting people from overwhelm. Leaders have a responsibility to gate keep where possible, smoothing the flow of new initiatives so that staff aren’t overloaded. Teachers are in front of children from 8:30 am to 3:15 pm, and the only time they realistically have for professional learning or preparation is either side of the workday. Adding too much, too fast, risks stress, disengagement, and burnout, no matter how good the initiative.

A Final Thought

Ultimately, the most effective systems are those that recognise their greatest asset: the people within them. Change can be positive, necessary, and exciting, but only when the pace honours human capacity, and leaders actively protect staff from unnecessary pressure.

When we focus on pace over perfection and remember that people, not systems, feel stress, we create environments where change can succeed, sustainably, thoughtfully, and with confidence.