The Challenge
A mid-sized financial services organization faced an unsustainable 27% annual turnover rate across their three regional offices, significantly exceeding the industry average of 18%. This translated to approximately $4.1 million in annual losses through recruitment, training, and productivity costs. Despite implementing traditional engagement initiatives—team building, compensation adjustments, and superficial wellness programs—minimal improvements resulted.
Human Resources identified a fundamental issue: a pervasive culture of emotional suppression where employees felt unable to express concerns or negative emotions, particularly regarding workload and client interactions.
Our Approach
Working with leadership, we implemented a structured emotion education program based on the Change Triangle methodology:
Executive Leadership Training: A six-week program where leaders learned to identify defensive states during challenging conversations and practiced reconnecting with core emotions.
Department-Level Workshops: Teams explored how defensive behaviors manifested in their specific contexts, differentiating between inhibitory emotions (anxiety, shame, guilt) and core emotions (anger, sadness, fear, joy, excitement).
Operational Integration: Meeting structures were modified to incorporate brief emotional check-ins, normalizing emotional awareness within daily operations.
Implementation Timeline
The program followed a strategic three-phase implementation over 18 months:
Foundation Phase (Months 1-3): Executive team training focusing on personal emotional awareness before organizational change, addressing resistance through neurobiological education.
Expansion Phase (Months 4-9): Department-level workshops tailored to specific emotional challenges, with customer-facing teams focusing on emotional labor management while back-office teams addressed inhibitory emotions around performance.
Integration Phase (Months 10-18): Embedding emotional awareness practices into daily operations through restructured meeting formats, revised performance reviews, and communication protocols.
Measurable Results
After 18 months, the organization documented:
- 38% reduction in annual turnover (from 27% to 16.7%)
- 42% improvement in employee engagement scores
- 34% increase in internal promotions
- $1.2 million in estimated cost savings
- 23% improvement in client satisfaction scores
As their Chief Financial Officer noted: “The Change Triangle framework gave our leadership team practical language for addressing workplace dynamics that were previously invisible. By creating systems that acknowledge emotions without judgment, we’ve built an environment where employees bring their authentic selves to work—directly improving decision quality and strengthening client relationships.”