Emotional aspects of a planned intervention left behind: Revisiting Change Laboratory as a methodology for change

Abstract

This article demonstrates how a planned intervention project using the Change Laboratory—a participatory intervention methodology designed to help organizations identify and resolve contradictions in their activity systems through collective analysis and the development of new practices—serves as a way to foster transformation and promote organizational learning by nurturing emotional aspects within change processes. This insight is based on empirical data from 26 hours of intervention sessions aimed at reducing waste in a Brazilian hospital, conducted in 2018 before the COVID-19 pandemic. A closer look at the data from the intervention process highlights how emotional aspects can uncover learning opportunities. This is achieved through concepts of learning derived from tensions and passions, which were not initially considered part of the change implementation. The contribution is to demonstrate how addressing emotional aspects within a learning culture that embraces mistakes enhances organizational learning. This approach is especially relevant in the post-pandemic era, where recent evidence shows that emotional intelligence becomes particularly valuable under high-stress conditions, with emotionally intelligent leaders better equipped to implement participatory strategies and foster psychological safety during organizational change. In addition, the study highlights opportunities to expand the Change Laboratory methodology to incorporate emotions more explicitly.