August 18, 2026
Episode 201: Why Your Team’s Resistance Isn’t a Bad Thing: The Neuroscience of Leading Through Change with Travis Hahler
On this episode of The Future of Teamwork, Dane Groeneveld interviews Travis Hahler, founder of The Neurological Nomad, Senior Director of Global Strategy & Transformation at Salesforce, and author of Rethink Resistance: Embracing Neuroscience to Lead Transformational Change. Travis shares how his background in psychology, neuroscience, business, and organizational transformation led him to rethink one of the biggest challenges leaders face: why people resist change, even when the change might be good for them.
Travis explains from a neuroscience perspective why people resist change, and how leaders can stop taking it personally and lead more effectively through it. Travis and Dane explore why it’s so important to stop and acknowledge what team members lose in change, and how leaders can make their teams feel seen, valued, and supported.
Travis and Dane also dig into why it’s important to create psychological safety for the team members who express dissent – and how celebrating people who ask uncomfortable questions can help make candor and innovation part of your culture.
Finally, Travis breaks down the six neurological barriers to change, and how leaders can become “resistance fortune tellers” by learning to recognize the behavioral signals that point to different barriers.
Every organization navigates change and transformation at some point. This episode will give you practical tools to effectively lead your people through it.
🔗 Connect with Travis Hahler on his website and LinkedIn
🔗 Get your copy of Rethink Resistance: Embracing Neuroscience to Lead Transformational Change
Why Your Team’s Resistance Isn’t a Bad Thing: The Neuroscience of Leading Through Change with Travis Hahler
Guest Bio
TRAVIS D. HAHLER transforms how Fortune 500 companies navigate change by revealing a startling truth: Resistance isnt rebellion—it’s biology. As Senior Director of Global Strategy and Transformation at Salesforce, and Founder of The Neurological Nomad, Hahler brings an unprecedented fusion of neuroscience and business acumen to organizational transformation. His unique journey conducting EEG research in Denmark, studying neuropsychology at Harvard, earning an MBA, and leading change at Google, Salesforce, and others, makes him a unique transformation expert who can explain why your amygdala sabotages your strategic plan and why you can blame everything on your basal ganglia. Over fifteen years, Hahler has guided more than one hundred companies through successful transformations, earning him the nickname Resistance Fortune Teller for his uncanny ability to predict where change efforts will fail. His signature keynote, The Neuroscience of Change, has reached over 25,000 leaders across 150 global events, consistently delivering that aha moment when executives finally understand why 70 percent of transformations fail to achieve their goals. And, more importantly, how they can join the successful 30 percent. Rethink Resistance represents Hahler’s continued mission to democratize neuroscience for business leaders. Helping them to remove ego and embrace neuroscience to lead transformational change. Hahler lives with his husband, Brian, son, Lachlan, and dog, Burton, while working toward a future where understanding neural wiring leads to putting people back at the center of change.
Key Takeaways
00:00 Welcome to the Future of Teamwork Podcast
00:30 Meet Travis Hahler
01:09 From Neuroscience to Business
03:34 Resistance Is Biology
07:11 Loss Behind Change
10:44 Leaders Need Tools
16:10 Real Work Bonds Teams
18:53 Building Safety for Dissent
23:20 Six Barriers to Change
28:11 Energy and Threat
31:15 Reading Resistance Tells
35:35 Learning Time and Sleep
40:54 AI for Human-Centered Change
46:58 Where to Find Travis
48:33 Closing Disclaimer
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