Communicating Change: Increase Trust and Reduce Fear
Sarah Farmer
Book a demo →from €2,250 for your whole company
Book a demo →from €2,250 for your whole company
Sarah Farmer is a Global Executive Coach, author, and founder of Bright & Brilliant Ltd., a leadership development firm specialising in supporting C-suite executives, leadership teams, emerging senior leaders, and business owners. With a degree in Applied Chemistry and a lifelong interest in psychology and human behaviour—sparked early on by exposure to her mother’s work as a psychologist—Sarah combines analytical rigour with deep insight into what drives people. Her coaching is grounded in a practical understanding of how the brain works, helping leaders manage themselves more effectively and create lasting behavioural change in others.
All sessions by Sarah →When change occurs, communication can either calm people or create panic. Leaders often focus on what is changing rather than on how people emotionally and psychologically experience it. Humans don’t resist change itself; we fear the unknown, triggering protective responses like fight, flight, freeze or fawn.
This reaction can last from seconds to years but improves when core needs - Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness and Fairness - are supported. When communication fails, the brain fills gaps with fear-driven thoughts.
When it succeeds, trust increases, resistance falls and people adapt faster. This masterclass shows how to communicate change clearly and safely.
During the expert session, Sarah Farmer engages the audience through visuals, interactive Q&A, and live polling.
A clear, concise overview of the core psychological needs the brain relies on during uncertainty — and how meeting these needs reduces fear and increases trust.
The common communication pitfalls leaders fall into, why they trigger resistance, and how to avoid them.
A practical communication approach you can use to develop messages that land well, reduce ambiguity and support people through uncertainty.
When change hits, communication can either calm the system… or send people into panic. Most leaders focus on what is changing, but not enough on how people will experience that change emotionally and psychologically.
This is where communication either succeeds - or fails. Humans don’t resist change itself; our brains fear the unknown and crave familiarity, consistency and stability. So when change is on the horizon, the brain instinctively defaults to protective behaviours - fight, flight, freeze or fawn - which block our desire and willingness to accept change.
The good news? This innate response (which can last seconds, weeks, months or even years) can be positively influenced when our core psychological needs are met. These needs are Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness and Fairness.
When communication fails to support these needs, the brain fills the gaps with fear-driven thoughts and questions: “This won’t work.” “We don’t need this.” “Why wasn’t I consulted?” “What does this mean for me?” “Will this affect my bonus?” “Am I losing something?”
But when leaders communicate change in a way that supports psychological safety, trust rises, resistance drops and engagement increases. People adapt faster and the hidden human costs of change fall away.
Confusion, anxiety, disengagement, declines in health and wellbeing, and performance dips dramatically reduce, allowing the organisation to move forward with far less friction.
This practical masterclass shows you exactly how to communicate change clearly, so your messages support employees’ needs, your teams feel more informed and reassured, and the organisation can move forward with momentum rather than costly turbulence.
No prior knowledge is assumed. It is built for a general working audience, and people who already know the subject get the research and the practical side rather than an introduction. What the hour itself covers: When change occurs, communication can either calm people or create panic. Leaders often focus on what is changing rather than on how people emotionally and psychologically experience it.
Sarah Farmer is one of the experts we auditioned ourselves, and we produce every session so we see how each one lands. Participants rate this session 3.9 out of 5, across 28 responses, and rate Sarah personally 4.3 out of 5.
It is interactive, and the block higher up on this page says exactly how for this session. Nobody has to speak up who does not want to: the chat and the polls carry most of it, and the questions can come in anonymously.
It runs 45 min / 15 min: the talk, then live questions. All you do is pick a date. We brief Sarah, produce the session, host and moderate it, run the Q&A, and send you the report within an hour of the end.
A team, a department, an employee network or every single employee at once, with no cap and no per-seat price. It runs inside your own Microsoft Teams, Zoom or Google Meet, or on a branded page we build. No integration, no login, no company device or e-mail.
The session is delivered in English. You can add high accuracy live subtitles in 8, 16 or 24 languages, so everyone follows in their own. That is a paid option, priced by the number of languages you need.
No, and that is by design. There is nothing to install, nothing to integrate and no connection to your systems, so there is nothing for IT to validate: we join your own Teams, Zoom or Meet as a guest speaker, or we host a page and your people open a link. No software, no accounts, and no data of yours that we can reach. It is why hundreds of companies, among them some of the largest technology and financial firms in the world, were able to start within a day.
We never receive or hold personal data about your employees. Because the session runs in your own environment, attendance and identity stay with you, and what we report back is aggregated: numbers, ratings and survey answers, not people. That is also why IT approval usually takes minutes rather than weeks.
You keep the recording and can share it internally. You also get attendance over time, participant ratings for the content and the speaker, the survey answers, and the topics your people asked for next.
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