The Missing Link with Chris Schmelzer
From Wellbeing Ignites Welldoing by Global Wellbeing Council
June 8, 2026 · 53 min · Season 2 · Episode 16
About this episode
Chris Schmelzer discusses the biological factors affecting organizational change and the insights from his book, The Missing Link.
Chris Schmelzer has spent more than a decade inside some of the most complex organizational transformations in North America, first at Deloitte and ScottMadden, and now as the founder of The ChangeMindset Co. His new book, The Missing Link , offers a radical reframe of why change programs fail, not because of poor strategy or weak communication, but because of something more fundamental: organizations systematically ignore the biological reality of the human nervous system under pressure. Chris’s central thesis is disarmingly clear. For more than a century, we have designed organizations as if humans were interchangeable units of cognition. But the brain’s primary job is prediction, not execution. When sustained change destroys predictability, the prefrontal cortex, the seat of reasoning, creativity, and empathy, goes offline. Survival circuits take over. And no communication campaign, training program, or culture initiative can reach a nervous system that is signaling danger. The correct sequence, Chris argues, is: Regulation, then Coherence, then Mindset, then Behavior. Most organizations begin at step three or four and wonder why nothing sticks. In this episode, we go deep…
People in this episode
Guest: Chris Schmelzer
Topics covered
- organizational change
- human nervous system
- leadership
- biological reality
- change management
Keywords
- organizational transformation
- change programs
- nervous system
- predictability
- lead change
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Deloitte, ScottMadden, The ChangeMindset Co.
Books & works: The Missing Link
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