Copyright forbes
Organizational remission When I was first diagnosed with diabetes, my A1C was 11.7. That got my attention. Over the next few years, I learned that health isn’t something you fix once. It’s something you manage for life. Through the development of new habits, stress management, and exercise, I’ve brought my A1C down to 5.2, and my doctor recently suggested I stop taking medication. The condition hasn’t been “cured.” It’s in remission, a word medicine now prefers because it acknowledges what biology already knows: the patterns that once caused dysfunction never truly disappear. They can only be kept in balance. So, what’s remission? For years, we’ve talked about organizational change, digital transformation, and now AI-driven transformation as if the goal were to reinvent the enterprise once and for all. But what most organizations are really trying to achieve is something closer to organizational remission, the ongoing capacity to regulate old behaviors so they don’t return under stress. In some cases, the term offers a more accurate lens than “change” or “transformation,” because it reflects what actually sustains performance. Change implies a finish line; remission acknowledges that the work is continuous. It’s not the absence of problems that have emerges from years of behavioral patterns, but the presence of active regulation and the deliberate management of those behavioral patterns that once limited health and growth. Why Organizational Remission Is Rare Most corporate transformation efforts fail because they aim for cure instead of remission. They expect permanent transformation when, in fact, the system’s old behavioral “metabolism” remains intact for a long time, maybe forever. McKinsey has long asserted that 70% of transformation initiatives fail. Scholars have debated that statement but there is consensus, from researchers and practitioners alike, that a significant number of these initiatives fail to fully realize the strategic outcomes expected. Whether its 70% or not? That discussion will likely continue. MORE FOR YOU While that precise 70% figure is debated, it curiously shows up in some other spots. For instance, behavior-change research consistently finds that only a minority of individuals maintain new habits long-term: roughly one-in-five people successfully sustain major weight loss, relapse rates for substance-use disorders often exceed 40%. The pattern is strikingly similar: many change efforts don’t become sustainable in the long term. From biology to business, the lesson is consistent: sustaining change requires ongoing regulation. When the conditions that supported healthy behavior fade, old patterns inevitably return. Organizational Remission Requires Keystone Leadership I first saw this dynamic vividly while interviewing a transformational leader who had built an extraordinary culture: collaborative, fast-moving, and purpose-driven. But during our conversation, he kept being pulled away to answer questions, resolve conflicts, make introductions. After a while, I caught myself thinking, He’s busy as a beaver. When the interruptions slowed, he admitted, “I’m afraid that when I leave, everything will go back to the way it was.” He was right to worry. Beavers are keystone species. They create new ecosystems by building dams in streams that form ponds and wetlands. These are quite different than the stream ecosystem. A beaver’s dam isn’t a once-and-done. The beaver can’t retire or even go on vacation! They stay busy maintaining that dam as sticks and other materials wash away. Those ecosystems thrive; but when the beaver does move on, the dam erodes. The pond drains. Life returns to the original stream-based ecosystem. A beaver standing on top of its dam. This leader had achieved a similar feat. He built a thriving organizational ecosystem, but it depended on his constant effort. Without mechanisms for organizational remission with processes that sustain new behavior after the builder leaves, the old patterns will return. Behavioral Memory and Organizational Remission Like organisms, organizations have memory. They remember how decisions are made, how conflict is handled, and which behaviors are rewarded. These memories live in habits, rituals, and informal norms, the epigenetics of culture. When stress rises, those behaviors resurface. Teams revert to command-and-control. Departments stop collaborating. Innovation slows. It’s not usually malice at work. It’s simply metabolism. The system defaults to what’s energy efficient and familiar. Organizational remission means teaching the system to recognize those patterns and self-correct before relapse. Three Biological Lessons for Organizational Remission The biology of remission depends on vigilance, regulation, and renewal. The same is true for organizations. Awareness: Detect Early Warning Signs. In medicine, biomarkers reveal relapse risk. In companies, the equivalent is behavioral diagnostics, tracking patterns of communication, trust, and engagement. People analytics tools help, but so does simple observation. Leaders should notice when tone changes, when meetings shorten, or when feedback dries up. These are cultural biomarkers. As Daniel Goleman notes, self-awareness is foundational to leadership. Organizational self-awareness extends that idea to collective behavior. Feedback: Keep Information Circulating. Healthy bodies circulate oxygen; healthy organizations circulate information. Feedback loops prevent cultural stagnation. Regular retrospectives, peer reviews, and open debriefs keep behavioral data moving. MIT research on team dynamics shows that frequent, balanced communication predicts performance better than any other factor. Feedback keeps the organization in behavioral balance, its form of homeostasis. Rest: Consolidate Change Through Renewal. Biology teaches that recovery is essential to adaptation. Neuroscientific research shows that downtime enhances memory consolidation and refreshes cognitive capacity. In organizations, it stabilizes new cultural pathways. Leaders who build space for reflection, between product cycles, after major change efforts, help the system internalize healthy habits. That’s how organizational remission becomes sustainable rather than situational. From Keystone Leaders to Keystone Systems The true mark of leadership is what happens after you step away. The beaver’s brilliance isn’t its busyness—it’s the enduring shape of the environment it leaves behind. Keystone leaders understand that their job isn’t to be indispensable; it’s to make health self-sustaining. They embed feedback loops, learning cycles, and rituals that regulate behavior long after they’re gone. That’s what keeps the organizational pond full. Organizational Remission Might be the Future of Organizational Health We often equate transformation with reinvention. But lasting change isn’t like rewriting DNA; it’s managing expression and knowing which behaviors to keep active and which to keep suppressed. In biology and in business, remission is not failure. It’s maturity. The healthiest systems aren’t those that never relapse; they’re the ones that notice early, adjust quickly, and recover fully, remaining in a state of organizational remission. The measure of leadership is not the change it sparks but the stability it leaves behind. Editorial StandardsReprints & Permissions
