What is PeopleAnalyst?

PeopleAnalyst is the front door for people-analytics research: 205+ works indexed and profiled, 40+ citation-grade findings extracted, and peer-reviewed behavioral science translated from academic to actionable — the missing manual for the people analytics you always meant to do.

What is people analytics?

People analytics is not a dashboard. It is behavioral science and statistical inference applied to workforce decisions — a discipline with its own methodology, spanning measurement, organizational design, talent, leadership, and analytics craft.

Why does AI in HR need measurement science?

AI is being deployed in high-stakes people decisions — hiring, performance, attrition — without the measurement science to evaluate whether it works or whom it harms. Construct validity, effect sizes, and criterion validity are the vocabulary for asking an AI vendor the right questions.

How is the research made accessible?

The evidence is indexed and searchable: 205+ works, 40+ citation-grade insight cards, and 8 research arcs, so the right finding reaches the right decision at the right time.

What separates good people measurement from assertion?

Good measurement has a method: construct validity, reliability, and effect-size interpretation are not optional — they are what separates evidence from assertion.

library / libb1860f111f707b1e

The Heart of Change

In a sentence

Large-scale organizational change succeeds when leaders help people SEE compelling truths that touch their FEELINGS, driving the behavior change required to move through eight sequential stages.

Building on Kotter's classic eight-step change model, The Heart of Change draws on interviews with roughly 400 people from 130 organizations to reveal the single most important insight about transformation: people change their behavior less because they are given analysis that shifts their thinking than because they are shown a truth that influences their feelings. Through 34 vivid real-life stories—gloves piled on a boardroom table, a videotaped angry customer, an aircraft that will not move—Kotter and Cohen demonstrate how the 'see-feel-change' dynamic beats 'analysis-think-change' at every one of the eight stages, from raising urgency to making change stick in culture. Practical, story-driven, and refreshingly candid about why smart people fail, the book equips anyone at any level to lead change in a turbulent world.

The four lenses

Science
Statistics
Systems
Strategy

The model

A causal model in which change leaders deploy dramatic, visible demonstrations (design levers) that shift employees' emotions (psychological states), which alter behavior across eight sequential stages, producing successful large-scale organizational transformation.

Dramatic Visible Demonstrationdesign lever

Concrete, eye-catching, emotionally compelling shows leaders create so others can literally see a problem or solution (gloves, videos, an unmoving plane), rather than delivering abstract analysis.

Analysis-Think Approachdesign lever

The reliance on formal data gathering, financial analysis, reports, and presentations aimed at changing thinking in order to change behavior, contrasted with see-feel-change.

Facilitating Emotionspsychological state

Feelings that motivate and enable change including urgency, faith, trust, optimism, reality-based pride, passion, excitement, hope, and enthusiasm that leaders seek to enhance.

Undermining Emotionspsychological state

Feelings that block change including complacency, fear, anger, arrogance, false pride, pessimism, cynicism, panic, exhaustion, insecurity, and anxiety that leaders seek to reduce.

Behavior Changebehavioral pattern

The actual shift in what people do—acting less complacently, buying into vision, removing obstacles, producing wins—which the book identifies as the central challenge in every step of change.

Sense of Urgencypsychological state

On-your-toes behavior in which sufficient people look for opportunities and problems and say 'we must do something,' the first-step foundation that energizes the launch of change.

Guiding Team Effectivenessbehavioral pattern

The presence of the right people—with skills, credibility, connections, authority—operating with trust and emotional commitment to guide the difficult change process.

Vision and Strategy Qualitydesign lever

The clarity, boldness, emotional appeal, and sensibility of the change vision and its supporting strategies, capable of being stated in one minute or on one page.

Communication Buy-Inpsychological state

The degree to which the vision and strategies are communicated simply and heartfeltly through clear channels to produce understanding and gut-level commitment reflected in how people act.

Empowerment (Barrier Removal)contextual condition

The removal of obstacles—disempowering bosses, misaligned systems, information gaps, self-confidence barriers—that block people who have embraced the vision from acting on it.

Short-Term Winsoutcome metric

Visible, timely, unambiguous, and meaningful victories produced by empowered people that build faith, reward effort, defuse cynics, and generate momentum.

Sustained Momentum (Don't Let Up)behavioral pattern

The continuation of wave after wave of change—keeping urgency high, tackling difficult problems, and eliminating exhausting work—rather than declaring victory prematurely.

Culture Anchoringcontextual condition

The embedding of new behaviors in group norms and shared values through orientation, promotions, and emotion so change persists despite the pull of tradition.

Successful Large-Scale Transformationoutcome metric

The end outcome in which an organization adopts new ways of operating and leaps into a better future—winning in a turbulent world—by completing all eight steps successfully.

How they connect

dramatic visible demonstration → influences facilitating emotions
dramatic visible demonstration − influences undermining emotions
analysis think approach → influences behavior change
facilitating emotions → predicts behavior change
undermining emotions − predicts behavior change
behavior change → predicts sense of urgency
sense of urgency → influences guiding team effectiveness
guiding team effectiveness → influences vision quality
vision quality → influences communication buy in
communication buy in → influences empowerment
empowerment → influences short term wins
short term wins → influences sustained momentum
sustained momentum → influences culture anchoring
culture anchoring → predicts successful transformation
dramatic visible demonstration → mediates behavior change
guiding team effectiveness → moderates successful transformation

A candidate measure

The Heart of Change — derived measurement candidates