Doing Transformation Backwards

Everything changes in The Intelligence Age. Except, perhaps, the success rate of change programmes.

Most of us have lived through a transformation initiative that left us, well, pretty much where we started.

Despite their best efforts, leaders often fail to effect change in organisations, and hundreds of books have been written on the topic. Most of these focus on managing change rather than leading it, which is part of the issue.

In this article, drawing on decades of helping executives lead change, we offer some reflections on what effective change leadership entails.

The Current State

Change must be grounded. Leaders must begin any change effort by being honest about what’s really going on.

The raw facts, not the interpretation.

• Here are the sales numbers.
• This is the system downtime.
• This is our attrition rate.

Too often leaders slip into a story about the current situation (explanation, justification, rationalisation, etc.) instead of the naked facts. Transparently laying out the facts builds trust, creates an open space where others feel like they can contribute, and forms the basis on which to account for improvements in the future.

The Future Possibility

One reason we say no story is that a common trap teams fall into is taking the present-day facts and creating a narrative around them, defining them as a set of problems.

Being in problem-solution mode, leaders limit the number of future possibilities they can see.

Instead, we help teams to let go of the current state temporarily and imagine future possibilities divorced from the constraints they currently perceive.

Dwelling deeply on the question, “What is possible for this organisation?” can generate a surprisingly wide set of ideas that could not have emerged from a problem-solution mindset.

It’s also important that teams answer the question in the present tense. Not “We’re committed to becoming a customer-led organisation.” Rather:

It’s January 2028, and we have the highest customer satisfaction scores in our industry.

Pull the future into the present.

While ideas are flowing, focus on what, not how. Someone will say, “We could do this!”, and someone else will ask, “Yes, but how?” Notice that reflex and set it aside for now. You’ll get to how later. First, paint the fullest picture you can of what’s possible.

Once leaders have looked at the possibilities generated, their job is to align on a new future based on the most compelling ideas. Only now is it right to look at the potential pathways forward; itself another exploration of possibility.

With a new future direction articulated and some idea of how to get there, we can now link to the current state.

Except we’re not asking, “Does implementing our future vision solve our problems?” Rather, it’s:

Being committed to this new future, how do we best move forward given our current state?

Who Will You Be Being?

And finally, the big question almost no change initiative asks of its leaders:

Who will you be being as a leader that causes this to happen?

This last question is the rub.

This is unfamiliar for most executives. It doesn’t even quite make sense on first reading: who will I be being? Huh?

One translation is: what characteristics would I be bringing to the fore personally to help cause this shift? Does the same version of me showing up now create the future we’ve just described, or will I need to show up differently?

And when a leader does take themselves on this way, their way of being starts to shift as they take on a bigger, bolder game. In fact, people’s families often detect the change first. What starts as business transformation becomes a personal one.

Take Kevin Tang at CEVA Logistics. Kevin had built a career on running what was there, better than anyone. The question of who he was being opened up something else. He went after something that wasn’t then regarded as possible: a land route between China and Europe. And it took direct negotiation with local chieftains along the way! With the new route operational, it became part of a transformation that closed a $400m profit gap and helped clear a path to IPO.

Of course, not everyone is ready to do personal work as part of a business initiative. What matters is critical mass. Enough of the leadership has to be willing to look at themselves, usually including the CEO. When the critical mass is there, the organisation has the pre-conditions for genuine transformation.

Final Thought

So if you’re leading change right now, the question isn’t whether your plan is good enough. It’s:

Is the version of you currently showing up the one that will deliver the change?