You're at Day 45. This is the hardest part.
The old structures are gone but the new ones aren't fully functional yet. Competence has temporarily decreased. The skeptics are getting louder. The early wins have worn off and the big wins aren't visible yet. You're doubting yourself.
All of this is normal. This guide will get you through.
At Day 45, five predictable phenomena occur simultaneously. Click each to expand:
You've dismantled the old process, but the new system still has bugs. People know the old way doesn't work anymore, but they're not yet fluent in the new way.
Why this is normal: Any transition has a valley between states. The valley is supposed to be uncomfortable—that's how you know you're actually changing.
Your team was expert at the old process. Now they're learning a new system, making mistakes, moving slower than they know they could. That feels terrible, especially for high performers.
Why this is normal: Learning curves are real. Temporary incompetence is the price of building new competence.
At Day 1, they were quiet, waiting to see if this was serious. By Day 45, when problems emerge, they're ready with "I told you so."
Why this is normal: Skeptics wait for evidence. Day 45 provides ammunition. Their volume doesn't mean they're right—it means you're in the messy middle.
The quick improvements you made in Week 2 felt exciting. By Week 7, they're just the new normal. The transformative outcomes you promised won't be fully visible until Week 11 or 12.
Why this is normal: Humans habituate to improvements quickly but need time to see systemic results. This timing gap is predictable.
You're probably feeling: Doubt ("Maybe the skeptics are right"), Exhaustion ("I don't have energy to keep fighting"), Isolation ("I'm the only one who still believes in this"), and Regret ("I should have done this differently").
Why this is normal: You're carrying everyone else's anxiety while managing your own. Leading through uncertainty is depleting. Your feelings are valid—and not reasons to stop.
What to do: Name the messy middle explicitly with your team.
Script: "We're at Day 45, which means we're in the hardest part of this transformation. The old process is gone, the new one isn't fully working yet, and that's creating real friction. This is exactly what I expected to happen at this stage, and it still sucks.
I want to be straight with you about what I know and what I don't know.
What I know: This temporary decrease in performance is normal. Every transformation has this valley. We will get through it. The new system will work better than the old one.
What I don't know: Exactly when we'll hit the upswing. Whether we'll discover new problems we haven't seen yet. How each of you is personally experiencing this transition.
What I need from you: Honest feedback about what's not working. Patience with the learning curve. Trust that we're not going back to the old broken system even though the new one feels hard right now."
Why this works: Acknowledging difficulty without offering false certainty builds trust. People can handle honest uncertainty better than false reassurance.
What to do: Explicitly name progress, even if it feels incremental.
Examples:
Why this works: At Day 45, people need evidence that movement is happening. Small wins prove the system can improve, even if perfection is still weeks away.
Leader self-care checklist (check off as you do them):
Why this works: Your team reads your state. If you're visibly panicking, they panic. If you're visibly exhausted but steady, they trust.
Answer the questions below to determine whether to persist, adapt, or retreat:
If you wrote a letter to yourself at Day 0, now is the time to read it.
At the beginning of this transformation, you had clarity. You knew why this mattered. You knew what you were trying to accomplish. You knew resistance would come.
That version of you—Past You, who wasn't yet exhausted and doubting—wrote down those reasons. Read that letter before you make any decisions about stopping.
If you didn't write a letter at Day 0:
Take 10 minutes right now to write down why you started this transformation. What problem were you solving? What does success look like? Who's counting on you?
The doubt you're feeling is normal. But don't let temporary doubt override the clear-headed reasoning that got you here.
If you do nothing else, do these three things:
Final thought: The organizations that achieve transformation aren't the ones that never hit Day 45 doubt. They're the ones whose leaders knew the doubt was coming, prepared for it, and pushed through it with honesty and humanity.
From On Change: A Velocity Framework Companion by Johan Strömquist