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Adaptive Organisations

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Leadership is what enables strategy and transformation to work. Adaptive Organisations is a platform exploring how organisations navigate rapid disruption while delivering tangible value.The writing spans two inseparable areas:1. Strategy & Transformation — how organisations adapt their business models, operating structures, and capabilities in response to technological, market, and systemic change.2. Leadership & Decision-Making — how leaders think, decide, and navigate uncertainty, both within organisations and personally.The aim is simple: to decode how successful organisations and leaders adapt, perform, and endure.Follow for the latest updates.

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Hello, I'm Diana.I work at the intersection of strategy, sustainability, and transformation.Through Adaptive Organisations, I explore how leaders navigate disruption and build organisations that adapt, align, and perform in a changing environment.Let's start a conversation.

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When Change Becomes Transformation

19th March 2026We live in an era of high uncertainty, rapid change, and increasing complexity.As such, organisations are facing a constant battle to stay competitive, valuable, and relevant.At the same time, the ability to adapt to new forces is a competitive advantage. Companies like Netflix and IBM have maintained their top positioning on the market by reinventing themselves while uncompromising on their identity.For instance, Netflix has undergone two major strategic shifts: from a DVD‑by‑mail rental service to a global streaming platform, and then to a streaming platform that also produces large‑scale original content. Throughout these shifts, it maintained a core focus on using data to personalise entertainment and on delivering a convenient, on‑demand viewing experience.However, incorporating agility by adapting and innovating without suffering from transformation fatigue and loss of identity, is easier said than done.So, what are the transformation drivers that leaders should look out for?

The Transformation Drivers Framework

Using the Ishikawa method, the MECE structuring approach, my experience as a strategy consultant and those of my senior colleagues who helped me cross-check it, as well as light use of AI to check for completeness of reasoning, I mapped 40 specific triggers across 8 domains (Exhibit 1):

Exhibit 1: The Transformation Drivers Framework (by author)I would not claim this covers every single possible trigger, but it represents a significant portion of the key triggers. You will likely recognise some of the more familiar ones (highlighted in red), such as the impact of AI on the organisational ways of working, the challenges of sustainability reporting under frameworks like the ISSB, or the supply chains risks arising from conflicts, wars and embargoes, are just part of the story.Organisations use a more complex constellation of signals to decipher when and what to change.However, organisational transformations are rarely caused by just one trigger. A combination of 3–4 triggers simultaneously (such as technology disruption, customer expectations shift, new CEO strategy, and financial pressure) is necessary to create a transformation tipping point.Based on the insights from McKinsey & Company, Bain and Co, BCG, and the frameworks of Michael Porter, Clayton Christensen, strategic management frameworks, and PROSCI insights, we can begin to classify organisational transformations into a Four Transformation Archetypes.

The Four Transformation Archetypes

This model can help leaders answer the question: “Why is the organisation transforming?”Thus, triggers are categorised into the 4 most common archetypes of transformation tipping points (Exhibit 2):

Exhibit 2: The Four Transformation Archetypes (by author)Note that this is a simplified model of transformation. Real transformations are multi-dimensional and have multiple nuances. (More about this model in Disclosures, at the end of the article)1st — Turnaround. Organisational transformation to Fix the Business is often triggered by financial and competitive pressures, such as low margins and decreasing productivity. The transformation is required to find a financial remedy fast and restore financial performance. Typical success criteria include KPIs that track financial health.2nd — Operational Improvement. Organisational transformation to Improve the Business is often triggered by gaps in performance, processes or workforce pressures, whereby the organisation is not operating at its full potential. Commonly, a transformation is required to improve the ways of working and close performance gaps to sustain competitiveness and meet business objectives.I have seen this challenge come up in some of my transformation work. For instance, a Telecom client was transforming their ways of working to improve time to market across borders while also aiming to reduce costs by around a third.3rd — Growth. Organisational transformation to Grow the Business is often triggered by the leadership ambition and market opportunities to expand either the product range, customer segments, geographical reach, improve product pricing, or all at once. This transformation is commonly characterised by new market entry campaigns, innovation and new product development, or new pricing strategies.I have seen this challenge in some of my work as well, such as during the long process of defining, founding and scaling a new corporate offering to meet the evolving client needs.4th — Reinvention. Organisational transformation to Reinvent the Business is often triggered by existential disruptions, such as technological advancements (e.g. AI), regulatory changes (e.g. sustainability mandates as a license to operate), or competitor or market disruption. Commonly, initiatives to address these shifts focus on moving the organisation to adapt to the new normal, such as investing in digital transformation, ESG reporting capabilities, and breaking silos in organisations for co-creation, alignment, and innovation.I have seen this challenge come up for a client as well, a global car manufacturer who was pursuing a core banking transformation to redesign the way they help their customers finance their car purchases.

Conclusion

The Transformation Drivers Framework and the Four Transformation Archetypes can help leaders understand:a) What is the root cause, and what triggers are they witnessing in their organisation?b) How close are they to a transformation tipping point?c) And if they are already transforming, what archetype is the closest match and what initiatives might help meet their objectives?This is a quick and general analysis of the organisational transformation triggers and archetypes agnostic of industry or geography. A targeted analysis with a clear end-goal for a specific program or organisation can reveal many more insights into “why” and “what” needs changing (if anything).Furthermore, as the coauthor of the book ‘The Secret of Culture Change’, Jay Barney, the author of the book ‘Good to Great’, Jim Collins, the PROSCI body of knowledge on organisational transformation, and many other authors have noted, organisational transformation is underpinned by a cultural transformation.Without the people enacting the change, no amount of planning will, by itself, move the needle.

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Disclosure

Exhibit 1, The Transformation Drivers Framework, strives to capture a significant portion of potential triggers by using brainstorming, MECE structuring techniques, and professional experience from myself and peers. Even so, it is possible that there may be many more transformation triggers that are not yet captured in this diagram. If you think I’m missing some, let me know!Exhibit 2, the Four Archetypes Model, is a synthesis of recurring transformation patterns observed across strategy literature and consulting practice, grounded in sources: McKinsey and Company, Bain and Co, BCG, Michael Porter, Clayton Christensen, strategic management frameworks, Lean / Six Sigma body of knowledge, and the PROSCI change transformation methodology.This model simplifies a very complex domain of organisational transformation that inherently has multiple nuances and dimensions, with the goal of helping leadership frame the problem quickly and align stakeholders with greater ease.It has 5 inherent assumptions: 1) all transformations are goal-driven, 2) a dominant driver exists, 3) transformations cluster into repeatable patterns, and 4) business model disruption is categorically different, 5) internal and external triggers can be abstracted.The strengths of this model are that it syntheses real transformation archetypes observed in practice, aligns with multiple well-established frameworks, and provides a clear and easy method for leaders to diagnose and communicate change.Weaknesses of this model include the potential for some transformation cases to straddle the boundary between growth and re-invention, as well as the fact that this model provides only a generalised view that does not account for industry specifics.AI was used to check that the framework is MECE and accurate.

Six Types of Organisational Transformation Every Leader Should Know

A practical view of transformation domains and their 48 initiatives

2nd April 2026Organisational change is as much about understanding where you come from as it is about knowing where you are going.But most importantly, it comes down to knowing how to get there.My previous article explored the drivers of change and the archetypes of transformation, offering a structured lens to support clearer thinking and sharper conversations around how organisational transformation begins.This article builds on that foundation. It explores the directions of change, presenting a comprehensive view (Exhibit 1) of the most commonly observed types of organisational transformation and their associated initiatives.

THE FRAMEWORK — The Organisational Transformation Framework

The Organisational Transformation Framework outlines 6 dimensions of change and 48 associated initiatives.It is structured using the rigour of a logic tree, with branches that are mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive (MECE), and is further informed by AI as a supporting layer to enhance depth and breadth of industry insight.

Exhibit 1: The Organisational Transformation Framework (by author)The challenge with mapping organisational transformation is the lack of a clear consensus on how it should be structured (in other words, what constitutes a single source of truth). Existing frameworks tend to structure transformation by impact, complexity, or the underlying drivers of change (PROSCI, HBS, IJECM).This framework employs a first-principles approach, offering a structure for organisational transformation based on the types of initiatives most commonly observed in practice.1st — Strategic TransformationInitiatives that redefine what the organisation does fall under strategic transformation, whereby the top management team defines the direction of travel and the objectives to be met.This includes initiatives such as redefining the business model or rethinking supply chain partnerships in response to environmental or geopolitical shifts. A well-known example is Netflix, which evolved from a DVD-by-mail rental service into a global streaming platform.2nd — Growth TransformationWhereas strategic transformation sets the direction, growth transformation focuses on execution.For example, where a strategic initiative defines a new ecosystem of partners in response to supply chain disruption, a growth initiative might involve vertical integration across suppliers. This can help increase control over the supply chain while improving operational efficiency and reducing costs.3rd — Operational TransformationThe way an organisation operates determines how agile and competitive it is on the market, as well as how quickly it can identify and respond to change. It also influences how successfully strategic and growth initiatives are executed.Jim Collins, in his book “From Good to Great”, provides a great example of how talent management shapes an organisation’s ability to navigate change. Before banking deregulation in the US, Wells Fargo, under the stewardship of Dick Cooley, rethought its approach to hiring and retaining talent to ensure it had the right capabilities to navigate future shifts.As a result, Wells Fargo outperformed its peers during deregulation, achieving returns three times higher, while its sector of the banking industry fell 59% behind the general market.4th — Process TransformationProcesses define how work flows and are effectively the organisation’s default operating system. They are often executed automatically, without intentional direction, which can either work in the benefit or to the detriment of strategic goals. Initiatives aimed at improving processes focus on how the organisation operates “under the hood,” enabling greater speed and efficiency.For example, one client I worked with was pursuing an initiative to standardise ways of working across seven business units in different geographies, with the aim of reducing time to market and lowering costs. Such initiatives not only benefit the organisation but also its customers, who ultimately gain from more reliable broadband services at home and abroad.5th — Digital TransformationIn recent years, digital transformation has become almost synonymous with organisational transformation, as the current rate of technological change has been consistently faster than the rate at which organisations can adapt to it.Digital initiatives can improve operational efficiency (such as through automation, AI-enabled workflows, or enhanced cybersecurity), as well as create customer value (for example, by offering digital products such as mobile banking, bridging the physical–digital divide, or enabling on-demand services).6th — Cultural TransformationPeople are at the centre of any organisational transformation, a point echoed by PROSCI, as well as firms and authors involved in transformation work (such as McKinsey & Company and Jay Barney).Much of the heavy lifting often lands on the shoulders of leaders, who are responsible not just for driving change but also for modelling it. This includes understanding how to move individuals from resistance to acceptance and ultimately to thriving in a new environment.For example, the impact of culture on company success is conveyed by Jim Collins. When faced with competition from Procter & Gamble (P&G) in the paper-based consumer business in the 1960s, two incumbent companies in the same industry with similar financials, Scott Paper and Kimberly-Clark, responded differently.Whilst Scott Paper “resigned itself to second place”, Kimberly-Clark saw this competition as an asset. Under Darwin Smith’s leadership, the team fostered a culture of continuous improvement and a winning attitude, framing this challenge as an opportunity to make the company greater.Despite operating in the same environment, different cultures and different leadership led to diverging outcomes. Under Darwin Smith’s stewardship, Kimberly-Clark generated cumulative stock returns of 4.1 times the general market, owned Scott Paper, and outperformed P&G in 6 of 8 product categories.

PURPOSE

In practice, transformation efforts are often discussed in fragmented terms (whether digital, operational, or cultural) without a clear view of how they connect. For example, departments may pursue their own transformation initiatives, with varying degrees of coordination with other departments or alignment with a unified corporate direction.This framework is intended to bring these transformation elements into a single, coherent view. It is not designed to be exhaustive, but rather to offer a practical lens that can be applied across different transformation contexts. As with most frameworks, its value lies in how it is applied, adapted, and challenged in practice.It aims to provide a clearer view of transformation scope, help locate where initiatives sit, and support alignment across complex programmes.

APPLICATION

The framework is designed to be a practical tool that can be used to:

It is worth noting that it is not intended to be a replacement for detailed programme design, rather a way to bring structure and coherence to complex transformation efforts.

CONCLUSION

Transformation is often complex and systematic, requiring coordination across the entire organisation to make it a success. It is rare for organisations to pursue just one type of transformation at any given moment, which is why it is crucial to have an eagle’s eye view of every single initiative and where they fit.This framework can make it easier to understand exactly this. Namely, what is changing, why it is changing, and how the different elements connect.

If you have been involved in transformation efforts, what do you think?Does this structure reflect how transformation plays out in practice?What would you add, challenge, or refine?If you found this article insightful, follow for more. I write on adaptive organisations, strategy, leadership, and decision-making in high-pressure environments.

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How to go from Vision to Real Change in Three Steps

Avoid 6 Months of Stalled Momentum in Business Transformation16th April 2026The CEO declares: “We must change or perish!”They create emotional urgency, imbue employees with a sense of action, and make change feel inevitable.Six months later? Business as usual.What went wrong?This challenge might sound familiar.Creating urgency is just the beginning of organisational transformation. What happens after defines whether change becomes a reality that endures or a message that fades.I found it useful to draw on both my experience and John Kotter’s 8-step model to understand where change breaks down and what can be done to fix it.With 6 months gone and business confidence falling, there is no time to waste.

THE FRAMEWORK — Kotter’s 8 Steps Model

John Kotter’s 8 Steps for Leading Change incorporates key lessons from decades of observing organisational transformations, capturing the common success criteria into 8 steps.When a CEO creates a burning platform, they declare an existential crisis where the cost of inaction is greater than the cost of change. This is just the beginning, namely step 1 of 8.However, most transformations break down between steps 2 and 4, long before anyone sees visible change.Here is a high-level summary of steps 2 to 4 of Kotter’s model:Step 1 — Create urgency. Done, but there is a catch: There is a difference between fear-based urgency (“we are dying”) and opportunity-based urgency (“this is what’s possible”). Fear can paralyse people rather than mobilise them. It is worth asking: “Did people believe the platform was truly burning, or did they think the CEO’s speech was only dramatic?”Step 2 — Build a guiding coalition. This is often a failure point. A CEO cannot drive transformation alone. If no senior cross-functional group was formed and empowered to lead the change, the urgency had nowhere to land. Middle managers, the real transmission layer of any organisation, never got activated.Step 3 — Form a strategic vision. Urgency without direction is just anxiety. If the CEO says why things must change but not what the future looks like, people freeze. “We must change” is not a vision. “This is what we are becoming and why it is worth it” is.Step 4 — Communicate the vision. Even with a vision, if it was communicated once (town hall, all-hands email) and never reinforced, it evaporated. Kotter says leaders under-communicate vision by a factor of 10. One speech is not a communication strategy.Steps 5 to 8 (removing obstacles, generating short-term wins, sustaining acceleration, instituting change) often do not get a chance to operate if 2 to 4 are broken.

APPLICATION

The model helps us gain a clearer picture of where challenges normally arise in the first few months of implementing change, as well as what questions we should be asking to uncover potential inefficiencies.Now that we have a rough idea of where to look, we can go back to our case where the CEO created a burning platform, and check whether any one of these challenges is present in their change programme.A good diagnostic conversation usually involves these questions:1. “Who else, besides you, was responsible for leading this change?”If the CEO hesitates, names no one, or says “my HR director was coordinating it”, it is highly likely that change broke down at step 2. No guiding coalition means that the leadership team did not act on the urgency for change.In contrast, if the CEO has a solid coalition in place, it is already a good start. However, they may still have blind spots. They may have a coalition, but how empowered or committed is the coalition truly? Are those people leading the change, or coordinating it?2. “What were you trying to get people to move towards?”How a CEO answers this question tells you as much as what they answer.A compelling vision should be articulated in under 60 seconds. It should be emotionally resonant and specific enough that employees can make decisions against it on a daily basis. If the CEO has a strong answer, then vision clarity is likely not the challenge.However, if the CEO takes three minutes, uses abstract jargon, or describes a process rather than a destination (“we are implementing an agile transformation”), this already reveals a potential challenge. If this is the case, then a lack of vision clarity is what prevents change from happening.3. “How often was change communicated? And by whom?”An effective communication strategy takes everyone on the journey towards the desired state, creates engagement throughout the organisation, and tailors change as an opportunity for growth for everyone involved.In contrast, if there is no clear communication strategy, if it is fragmented or confusing, and different people tell you different things about what the direction is, this is likely the cause of stalled change.4. “What would you have done differently?”This reframes challenges into lessons learned, thus inviting collaboration, candour, and constructive analysis of what went wrong with a focus on how to fix it. It is essential for the CEO and leadership to take a pragmatic and thorough introspection to drive change in the right direction.Caveat: this can be a sensitive topic, especially if the question is framed more bluntly like “What challenges do you face?” A question that requires leaders to locate failures within themselves or their decisions can lead to defensiveness, since it triggers reputation protection.Emotional intelligence matters just as much as a factual approach.

RECOMMENDATION

There is a real risk of designing the perfect system while momentum bleeds out. Not to mention constraints like resources, politics, and time, which rarely let you do everything at once.For a CEO who has lost six months and organisational confidence, regaining momentum through small, rapid wins might be a priority.In comparison, for a CEO who wants to enter an innovation-driven market, the priority might be to design an accurate plan to shift the organisational culture from risk-averse to risk-taking in a structured way.Therefore, there is considerable nuance when recommending a change approach. The recommendation depends on a variety of factors, including:

It is worth noting that there is also the cost-of-wrong-direction.I have seen this play out in real life, where it is more costly to drive in the wrong direction and then try to adjust course, than to take thirty days upfront to choose a good direction and then drive at full speed.Thirty days of planning might feel slow. But six months of misaligned effort, which is what happened to the theorised CEO, is far more expensive.Having said that, if I were to prioritise 3 steps that leaders should take to turn urgency into real change, I would recommend the following:

1^st — Clarify the future state.

When leaders create a burning platform, they must also be clear on what the opportunity is behind that urgency and be pragmatic about what it would take to get the entire company there. This brings vision clarity (step 3) right to the forefront.This sequencing may be unconventional, since it is hard to enact change without political buy-in, but it has its strengths. Having vision clarity sets the North Star for the organisation, the culture, and the coalition that they should aim towards.Jim Collins argues that good-to-great companies first get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats, before they decide on a direction.However, in my experience, I found that when you are making that choice about people, you already have a rough vision of the purpose of that bus. That rough vision is what guides your selection process. Next is to get the people who can challenge, shape and sharpen your vision and devise a path to get there.

2^nd – Build the informal communication

To make change real, create stories to build momentum and shift behaviour. The way information flows through the company is twofold:a) formal (forums, announcements, all-hands meetings, emails)b) informal (coffee chats, stories, culture, behaviours).Informal communication shapes what people see as acceptable behaviour, guides decision-making at all levels, and is what kicks in when there are no formal rules governing certain situations.The organisation that wants to change needs to master both.Firstly, they need to create stories that support the future state. For example, say a CEO of a siloed organisation wants to make it more collaborative. One way to do this through informal communication channels is for them to act to actively break silos.This one action becomes a story that travels through the organisations. Three of these actions create a narrative, and the organisation starts to see that breaking silos is the new normal. This is how culture shifts. (Jay Barney explores this topic further here)Only after these stories are circulating does the CEO need to launch an official communication strategy to strengthen this narrative of change.The key is to keep both channels of communication pointing in the right direction. Once one of them eases, momentum drops, and the urge to revert to the old ways becomes stronger.

3^rd – Embed accountability

On top of establishing a guiding coalition with a clear directive, it helps to establish a mechanism by which you hold this coalition accountable for implementing the change.Consistent with a portfolio management approach, this includes defining key deliverables, setting milestones, following roadmaps, and establishing alignment meetings to track and measure progress and surface any obstacles.This drives real results and ensures plans are acted upon with consistency and deliberation.

REALITY CHECK

This sequence of vision → stories → coalition works well when the CEO has genuine credibility, and the organisation still has trust in leadership.It works less well in low-trust environments, where people have seen big visions announced before with little follow-up. In those contexts, the story must come before the vision. Leadership must make visible, unexpected actions that signal “this time is different”; otherwise, the vision announcement is not acted upon.This is sometimes called the credibility gap problem, namely, the bigger the past failures, the more emphasis needs to be placed on behaviour compared to communication.

CLOSING THOUGHT

Every transformation is unique. Different leaders will have different challenges that require different solutions. The deeper we dig, the more complex this becomes.There is, however, one certainty.To turn urgency into real change, leaders must balance between:
– Confronting the brutal facts (the burning platform)
– Maintaining a strong vision for how they will prevail (the change programmes)

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DISCLOSURE

AI has only been used as a sparring partner to run the simulation and challenge assumptions and recommendations.

Can LEGO Benefit from GenAI?

How the LEGO Group bridges the physical-digital divide in its products, platforms, and experiences30th April 2026Digital transformation is as much about adopting new technologies as it is about aligning them with your brand identity and customer value.LEGO has the physical “brick” at its core. It engages both children and adults in creating tangible builds, inviting them away from the digital world and into the physical.So how can a superbrand that’s become synonymous with physical play navigate the age of AI, where experiences are increasingly virtual?

STEP 1 — Framing the opportunity

LEGO has already integrated digital technology into its value proposition. From expanding into digital platforms like LEGO Ideas, to producing LEGO Fortnite, releasing LEGO movies, and introducing the Smart Play System that bridges the physical–digital divide.Implementing GenAI features will require a careful balance between innovation and identity.This is not just a question of “How do we build GenAI?”, but rather: “How can this technology reinforce the LEGO values most at risk, namely imagination and creativity?”Deconstructing this challenge into a MECE structure (Exhibit 1), here is one way to frame the opportunity LEGO faces:

Exhibit 1: Key Questions for LEGO when integrating GenAI (by author)That’s a busy diagram. Precisely the point: applying AI within an established global brand, especially one rooted in the physical world, is inherently complex.Let’s break it down.LEGO operates across six dimensions affected by AI, prioritised below along with their key considerations:

1st — Customer

How does GenAI meaningfully improve the customer experience?This sits at the core of LEGO’s value proposition: deepening engagement with builders, enhancing creativity, and bridging physical and digital play.Key questions include:- How do we define creativity in the age of AI?
- Who owns the intellectual property of AI-assisted creations?
- How do we ensure children continue to think independently and creatively when equipped with such powerful tools?The answers form the foundation of the brand itself.

2nd – Business

How can GenAI create measurable business value?Once customer value is clear, the next challenge is operationalising it. This opens opportunities to enhance efficiency and generate deeper insight into customer preferences and unmet needs.Key questions include:- How can GenAI drive both operational efficiency and strategic advantage?
- What are the financial and sustainability implications of deploying AI?
- Where can we build and sustain competitive advantage?Positioning the business to capture this value becomes the second building block of LEGO’s digital transformation.

3rd – Product

What should we actually build?With customer needs defined and business alignment established, the focus shifts to product.Key considerations:- How will GenAI-powered features integrate with the existing portfolio?
- How do they reinforce core values (creativity, learning, and social interaction)?
- Can GenAI accelerate the design of new builds and experiences?This is where strategy translates into tangible outcomes. This is where ideas become products that drive both brand and business value.

4th – Capabilities and Technology

What do we need to build, buy, or partner for?This is the execution layer. If earlier steps define the “what” and “why,” this defines the “how.” In other words, now that we have designed the blueprint of the car we want to build and defined its purpose — how do we actually build it?Key considerations:- Do we have the required capabilities in-house?
- Which partnerships are critical to delivery?
- What feedback loops and controls are in place to identify issues early?Clarity here determines both feasibility and speed to market.

5th – Safety and Compliance

How do we deploy AI responsibly, especially for children?Say we built the car. But is it safe to drive?LEGO serves not only adults but also children, raising the bar for responsibility.Key considerations:- Do GenAI products meet safety, ethical, and regulatory standards?
- How do we ensure age-appropriate, brand-aligned outputs?
- Where must human oversight remain in place?This dimension anchors innovation firmly within the brand’s values.

6th – Ecosystems

What role should LEGO play in the AI ecosystem?Now that we have created the mechanism for building the car and have deployed it to our users, what does that say about us? This is a fundamental question about how LEGO shapes, and is being shaped by, the evolving AI landscape.Key considerations:- How will GenAI offerings compete over time?
- Which partnerships are essential for long-term relevance?
- How can capabilities (3D modelling with AI) extend into adjacent industries such as manufacturing or the built environment?This is where LEGO defines its role on GenAI not just through products, but through the relationships it forms, and the capabilities it contributes.

STEP 2 — GenAI Products and Features

Questions are useful to frame the problem, but they must lead to tangible outcomes.Building on what LEGO has already achieved, here are the GenAI products and features that are likely within reach (Exhibit 2):

Exhibit 2: Potential GenAI Agents and Features for LEGO (by author)Again, that's a complex diagram. And rightly so. Even with LEGO's constraints, there is a wealth of possibilities for AI innovation. But each opportunity carries risk and requires deliberate controls.Here's what's possible.In the age of AI agents, it is useful to frame innovation around the roles these agents can play. First, define the role. Then, identify the features that enable it:

i. AI as a Building Companion

Imagine you want to build an underwater castle but have limited bricks and no clear starting point.An AI companion could analyse your available bricks, generate a buildable design, identify missing pieces, and provide step-by-step instructions tailored to your skill level.This addresses the “blank page” problem, supports creative flow without taking over, and optimises the use of existing bricks without new purchases. LEGO has already taken steps in this direction with LEGO Builder, which offers digital 3D instructions.The core challenge lies in ensuring that AI-generated designs are physically buildable within LEGO geometry, which requires highly specialised training. The risk: over-reliance on AI could unintentionally constrain creativity and imagination. Hence, such features should be handled carefully.LEGO is in the early stages of developing these features, based on what is known to the public, and herein lies an opportunity for future development.

ii. AI as a Storytelling Companion

Consider what happens after a build is complete. You spent half a day building a castle for your princess and her knight. Now what?With an AI storytelling companion, play can continue beyond construction. Using Augmented Reality (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR), children could scan their creations and unlock dynamic narratives, such as stories, characters, and adventures layered onto the physical build. This is what LEGO Hidden Side introduced in 2019–2020.The biggest risk, however, is that it might increase screen time for children as well as hinder creative thinking when children create their own stories in their minds as they play. Such stories are essential for out-of-the-box thinking and originality when growing up.LEGO is in the early stages of developing this category of features based on what is publicly known. What’s more, the AI playing companion has been stopped in development because of privacy and safety concerns.

iii. AI as a Physical-Digital Bridge

The previous example bridges the Physical-Digital gap by adding virtual stories to the physical build.This a long-standing ambition. LEGO launched the LEGO Smart Play System in March 2026, introducing “smart bricks” that respond with sound and light in response to how children play with them. The common criticism of this technology is that children are already quite adept at making realistic sounds and special effects as they play.Another way AI can bridge this gap is by enabling you to take what you have built into your video game (e.g. LEGO Fortnite). For example, say you have built a robot in the physical world. Theoretically, you could then scan the robot and tell the AI agent to transfer it into your LEGO Fortnite video game adventure for you to interact with it digitally.The biggest challenge here is translating physical geometry into the digital world and then gamifying it on the spot. This requires extensive AI processing. It also leads to the risk of increased screen time.LEGO is already advanced on this front, as evidenced by products like LEGO Smart Play System, released in March 2026 and the LEGO Hidden Side, active between 2019 and 2020, where users scanned their builds to reveal a digital world of ghosts and could be solved by manipulating the physical bricks.

iv. AI as a Community Facilitator

Imagine building a shared world with your friends and family across different locations. Platforms like LEGO Builder and LEGO Play already enable collaborative creation. AI could extend this by acting as a facilitator, offering prompts, suggesting improvements, and supporting group dynamics.However, this introduces questions around privacy, data security, and autonomy. There is also a risk of over-facilitation, where AI dampens genuine human interaction.LEGO is already advanced on this front, as evidenced by platforms like LEGO Ideas where users can submit their design ideas or vote for their favourite build for a chance for that build to become a real product.

v. AI as a Learning Companion

AI could personalise learning journeys for builders of all levels.Beginners might receive structured progression paths, while advanced users could be challenged with increasingly complex builds tailored to their interests (e.g. Architecture, Star Wars, Botanicals).The difficulty lies in scaling personalisation across millions of users, which requires deep insight into preferences, behaviour, and even existing brick inventories so that AI can recommend builds based on the bricks they have.While LEGO has invested heavily in educational products, such as LEGO Education, to foster STEAM skills, fully adaptive AI coaching remains an emerging capability.

vi. AI as a Customer Experience Companion

Internally, AI agents can help teams better understand their customers.By analysing purchasing patterns, store analytics, digital interactions, and engagement data, AI can surface insights into customer needs, pain points, and opportunities for value creation.The challenge is to avoid shallow generalisations, labelling, and categorisation of users. True value comes from extracting nuanced insights, such as context, intent, and underlying drivers, not just trends.This remains an area of active development for LEGO.

vii. AI as a Business and Innovation Companion

GenAI can also augment other departments.Designers could use 3D modelling with AI to generate and iterate on new designs, while business teams could leverage it to identify trends, forecast demand, and shape strategy.The technical hurdle remains significant: generating designs that adhere to LEGO geometry and physical constraints is far from trivial. Nonetheless, experimentation (e.g. text-to-build tools) is already underway, such as LegoGPT or BrickItApp.This is one of LEGO’s strongest positions, particularly given its potential spillover into adjacent industries like construction and manufacturing.

REALITY CHECK

LEGO must balance GenAI innovation with its core values.Unlike its competitors, LEGO must pursue all three simultaneously:- Capture digital value
- Maximise creativity
- Protect children and brandShort term: Customer experience is the most immediate opportunity. Applying AI to better understand users and personalise offerings can unlock near-term value.Medium term: AI-driven storytelling offers a compelling avenue, provided content quality and brand alignment are tightly controlled.Long term: Building and learning companions represent the most transformative potential. However, they also carry the greatest technical and ethical complexity.Ultimately, the decision rests with LEGO. The path forward depends on a variety of factors, including which features they prioritise, the capabilities they have in-house, and the strength of external partnerships.

CLOSING THOUGHT

The evolving ethical, privacy, and regulatory landscape around GenAI makes transformations like this inherently challenging.It is inspiring to see LEGO, a global brand whose beating heart is the physical experience, innovate extensively in the digital space without losing sight of its core values.Much of the foundation is already in place - hardware (e.g. Smart Play), platforms (e.g. Ideas), and digital experiences (e.g. Fortnite). The next step is to build the intelligence layer that connects these elements into a cohesive ecosystem.

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DISCLOSURE

This is an independent, outside-in analysis based on publicly available information. The views are my own.

The Future Organisation Will Look Fundamentally Different

14th May 2026

How does transformation actually move through an organisation?Once the CEO declares a crisis and the mandate for transformation is set, how does this change trickle down through the organisation?What are the:- Decision centres
- Organisational layers
- Information flows
- Systems and processes
- Behaviours… that need to be activated for this transformation to produce the desired outcome?
Similarly, what is holding these transformations back?In the last two decades, only “12% of transformations create sustainable performance gains, even after three years,” according to Jana Werner and Phil De-Brun ( article here).Before we see how transformation flows through an organisation, we need to understand how the organisation is structured and how leadership makes decisions when they need to change.For this reason, let’s think from first principles:- How is an organisation structured?
- How does it make decisions?
- What is it optimised for?

THE DIAGRAM - The Evolution of Organisational Structures

The three common (although simplified) organisational structures include:1. The Traditional Pyramid Organisation
2. The Start-up Organisation
3. The Octopus OrganisationThese structures are the result of the environment they operated in:1. The traditional pyramid organisation is optimised for the industrial age, where scale, control, and predictability were the keys to success.
2. The start-up organisation is optimised for the internet age, where speed and mobility are the keys to success.
3. The octopus organisation, a new metaphor to encompass more agile systems and structures, is optimised for the AI and complexity age where adaptability to sudden and significant changes is the key to success.This evolution is captured in the diagram below (Exhibit 1).

Let’s break this down:1. The Traditional Pyramid OrganisationThis structure is perhaps the first that comes to mind whenever we talk about transformation efforts.The Board of Directors decides that it is time to change, and that mandate is ordered across the organisation and trickles down through the division heads, middle management, and finally to the front line.Information flows vertically. Decisions commonly flow top-down, and the recipients must produce the results assigned to them and report up the hierarchy.The people making the decisions do so within their field of influence. The decision centres are often the top management team, division heads, and middle managers, also called the strategic and tactical layers. The execution occurs at the operational layer, which often rests with senior associates, associates, and juniors. (This McKinsey article has more)This command-and-control approach is optimised for a world where disruption is minimal and episodic, challenges are predictable, and the solutions are clear.However, it struggles when challenged by rapid change, high uncertainty, and complexity, where it needs to make decisions fast, adapt to emerging trends, and draw on the knowledge of its people across the hierarchy. It requires cross-functional coordination faster than the hierarchy allows.
This is where another type of organisational structure challenges this rigid structure.2. The Start-up OrganisationFounders conceptualise a product or service, gather a team to help build and deploy it, and disrupt established players in their own industries.This organisational structure is often a flat hierarchy where information flows horizontally between small, functional teams and the founders. The founders are the decision centres, who adjust course as new information comes in. This structure is optimised for fast responses to new trends, but often struggles to scale.A common example is the rise of FinTech as a disruptor of the banking industry. Whereas traditionally, the brick-and-mortar banks controlled the entire value chain, from payments to insurance to mortgages and loans, FinTechs focused on one link in that chain and innovated with speed and rigour. Think of digital wallets (Apple Pay), peer-to-peer payment apps (PayPal), and roboadvisors (Betterment). Start-ups are fast, nimble and specialised to respond to the market and the customer as they change.The banks’ response was to either buy out their competitors to access that centre of innovation, collaborate with such FinTechs or tech companies, or develop competitive products in-house.With time, even the FinTech industry was challenged by tech companies, who brought with them the highest standards for user experience, mobile-centred products and services, and products optimised for accessibility and aesthetics. A key development in the FinTech industry was the emergence of super-apps and digital-native banks like Revolut. (But this topic needs a whole new article.)
The biggest challenge the start-ups face is growing without compromising adaptability or adopting a rigid traditional structure. The best of both structures is what has been recently introduced as the “Octopus Organisation.”3. The Octopus OrganisationThis concept is introduced by Jana Werner and Phil Le-Brun in their book and discussed further in their article and podcast with HBR.This structure is named after the octopus, which has nine brains: one central brain for processing information, and eight mini-brains for each of its arms for autonomous function.The structure follows this analogy. An octopus organisation is thus a distributed system, where intelligence and decision-making are spread across the company.- A central team scans the horizon, coaches the leaders across the organisation, and sets the strategic priorities based on information coming from all sides of the organisation and their environment. They provide direction, alignment, and guardrails.
- Meanwhile, autonomous teams closest to the customers or the market sense changes and act with autonomy and flexibility to adapt to the information they are receiving.However, it doesn’t end there. According to the authors, an Octopus Organisation has to adopt this identity to the very tips of its arms. Namely, they must enable innovation, experimentation, and ownership at all levels of the organisation, from the front-line workers to the leaders.When people have the autonomy to own their area – whether that be a Starbucks barista serving customers, a manager of a convenience store optimising sales per customer, or an expert in charge of developing new AI-enabled products – they can produce outstanding results. Guided by a clear company mission (e.g. becoming the place between work and home, being the go-to store for customer needs, or improving the lives of people through innovation), these teams can respond to change much more effectively.In the age of AI, adaptability is the name of the game. The organisations best suited to navigate this age of complexity and AI are the ones where information flows freely, people can make decisions autonomously, and innovation spreads because it works and not because it’s force-fitted.

CLOSING THOUGHT

Transformation is the effort by organisations to become better suited to a new reality.It is not a finite project whose mission is to change bits and pieces of an old system, like changing the parts of a jet engine. Rather, it is a journey to redesign the jet engine entirely.Transformation is the journey of evolving from an outdated organisational structure to a new one. It implies adopting new models that rethink outdated structures, systems, and behaviours and becoming better equipped for the new reality.

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Great Leaders Coach. Here is How to Become One

30th May 2026Leaders are not always trained to be coaches. Yet this skill is essential when leading people through today’s rapid changes.“The leading causes of failure are employee resistance and management behaviours that do not support the desired change” (Blackburn et al, 2011; BMT)Business transformation is where it matters most. Successful transformations need more than setting targets, tracking progress, following roadmaps, and communicating the change. New tools, new processes, and new systems all need people to change.Coaching is how great leaders close that gap between surface-level commitment and true engagement. The key is understanding the deeper layers of people’s identity, how they perceive change, respond to it, and the impact it has on their development (Joseph Grech has more in his article on ICF). This unlocks insights into how you can create space for people to contribute to and belong to the new state you are creating.Luckily, this can be learned. Here are two categories of tips:1. Immediate tips — things you can apply in your next conversation
2. Long-term tips — deeper capabilities to strengthen your leadership over timeBut before we dive in, the sceptics in the room might be asking: “Does coaching actually provide tangible results?”Funny you should ask. Let’s look at the data.

Does coaching provide tangible business results?

The short answer? Yes. Here’s why.
Case Study 1: MD AndersonThe success story of MD Anderson is one case of many where the coaching culture delivers tangible improvements in business performance, according to Stephanie Norris in her article on ICF.In this case study, Stephanie Norris gives an account of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre, an institution on a mission to end cancer for patients and their families. MD Anderson launched an enterprise-wide ICF-accredited coaching programme to boost employee engagement and reduce turnover. The preliminary results were promising. An internal survey in 2023 reported the following achievements:- 25% lower turnover compared to the control group
- 19% higher promotion rates compared to their control counterparts
- 32% higher favourability in teamwork in 2023 than in 2017
- 32% higher team collaboration in 2023 than in 2017
- 38% higher employee engagement in leadership in 2023 than in 2017This success story shows that coaching can not only improve employee retention, productivity and efficiency, but also enable an organisation to be more agile in the face of change by training leaders to continuously learn and adapt.Case Study 2: AEON VietnamAEON Vietnam, the leading retailer in Vietnam, established a coaching culture on the belief that “leaders create leaders,” according to the account by Robert Garcia in his article on ICF.As a result of its coaching programme, AEON Vietnam achieved:- 12% higher team performance in 2023 than in 2021
- 7% higher coaching recipient satisfaction score in 2023 than in 2022
- 115% higher workforce happiness than the average score of the retail industry in Vietnam in 2023Furthermore, other accolades include:- Consistently ranked in the 100 Best Companies to Work for in Vietnam
- Ranked the top company to work for in retail by Anphabe
- “Lower turnover rates than the average rate in the retail industry”
- “Surpassed projected sales budgets since the implementation of the program”
- Earned the ICF Coaching Impact AwardAEON Vietnam is using the coaching programme to create a coaching culture where employees are empowered and encouraged to ask questions, try new things, and take ownership. This paves the way for greater innovation, collaboration, and engagement at the enterprise level.Case Study 3: Applications across professional services firmsNotably, companies that operate across borders delivering consulting services must gain and retain a high level of trust with their clients in any region and any domain, as emphasised by Magdalena Nowicka Mook in her article on ICF.Which is why adopting a coaching culture is a must for many of these companies to ensure their employees deliver the highest standards of service:- EY provides professional development opportunities across the organisation, including support for individuals’ milestones (from promotion to parenthood). “89% of (leaders) who had experienced coaching saw their leadership brands improve”.
- Deloitte’s coaching culture emphasises well-being and relationships, providing one-on-one executive coaching to managers, senior managers, and top leadership. According to internal surveys, “the executive coaching program is one of the most beneficial and impactful opportunities Deloitte offers”.
- PwC supports individuals in learning coaching skills and strategies in their Coaching Academy, as a result of their strong belief in the benefits of coaching.These examples of a coaching culture in global, profitable, client-centric companies emphasise the idea that coaching is a key driver for navigating change whilst delivering strong business performance.

Immediate tips — start applying today

Whilst mastery requires dedication and time, here are quick steps you can take right now to strengthen your leadership style:1. Separate your role as an expert from your role as a coachMcKinsey’s research on radical transformation describes how leaders must now show up as multiple archetypes, including coaches who can build new organisational capabilities and inspire others to learn fearlessly.The tension most leaders feel is that they are also the subject-matter expert in the room. The discipline is knowing when to switch modes:- When the team needs your expertise, give it
- When they need to develop their own capability, coach themMaking that distinction explicit builds trust on both sides.2. Ask more, speak lessManagers have the tendency to tell their team what to do, preserving the control-and-command approach for a hierarchical organisation.Leaders who coach support their employees, recognising that a front-line worker might know more about the problem they are facing and how to solve it. (Octopus Organisation, previous article)
In your next conversation, ask the right questions for your team to discover the answers by themselves.This has benefits:
- Promotes greater autonomy, ownership, and creativity in solving the problem at hand
- Helps employees make their own decisions
- Actively develops their skills on the job.In practice, this means replacing statements with questions. Before you share your solution, ask the person what they think the problem is and what options they see.Research from HBR found that the skill managers struggled with the most was “letting the coachee arrive at their own solution.” Naming this tendency is the first step to correcting it.3. Leave space for people to answerAsking the right questions is great. Tolerating the silence that follows and holding the space for people to open up slowly and gradually is the next level.Powerful, open-ended questions prompt people to think deeply and reflect. Active listening then enabled you to understand their underlying concerns and emotions. This kind of deep engagement enables a meaningful response.In transformation contexts, where people are anxious and resistant, the quality of your questions signals respect. Practically, swap closed questions (“Did you do this?”) for open ones (“What’s getting in the way of this?”). Resist the urge to fill the silence. The pause is where the thinking happens.For more on this topic, check: ICF Core Competencies | Joseph Grech’s article on ICF.4. Create psychological safetyCoaching is about creating a safe, open space where employees feel comfortable thinking through their challenges. Balance curiosity with empathy.This is as simple as rewording “Why didn’t you handle this sooner?” to “What got in the way of addressing this earlier?” The difference in that phrasing is the difference between a conversation that shuts down and one that opens up.During a transformation, people are already on edge. Your language either builds or erodes the trust that makes change possible.For more on this topic, check: “How to use the GROW Model for Coaching Employees”5. Adopt the GROW model in conversationsThe GROW model (Goal, Reality, Options, and Way Forward) is one of the most widely used coaching frameworks in leadership, performance development, and organisational transformation.It provides a simple yet powerful structure for guiding meaningful conversations, enabling participants to quickly discover:- What is the goal?
- What are the obstacles?
- What are the options?
- How do we move forward?This model is action-biased, meaning that challenges and changes must always have a clear definition and an action to address or bypass them. You can use it in a ten-minute check-in or a deep one-on-one.6. Close every coaching conversation with a clear commitment.The ultimate goal of coaching is to turn new insights into action. This means partnering with people to design actionable goals, integrate new learnings, and build accountability systems.At the end of every one-on-one or team discussion, ask: “What are you committing to, and by when?” This is the natural completion of a coaching conversation, and it drives the behaviour change that transformations depend on.

Long-term tips — skills that take time to master

To become a great leader, practice and discipline are essential. Here are some of the directions worth developing:1. Develop genuine self-awarenessThe competency that surprises people most is not active listening or powerful questioning. It is presence.Self-awareness is the foundation beneath presence. It has two dimensions: understanding your own emotions, triggers, and biases, and understanding how others experience you. Both take sustained effort. Useful practices include journaling, peer feedback, and working with your own coach.Leadership coaching develops self-awareness and can help leaders uncover hidden behaviours, beliefs, and motivations that affect their leadership style.For more, check: “The 8 ICF Core Competencies” | “Self-Aware Leadership”2. Develop your emotional intelligenceResearch consistently shows EQ to be among the most powerful predictors of leadership effectiveness.Leaders who master empathy perform 40% higher in engaging others, coaching, and decision-making. Gallup’s 2025 State of the Global Workplace report confirms that 70% of team engagement is attributable to the manager. Engaged teams consistently show lower turnover, higher productivity, and stronger customer outcomes.EQ is a set of competencies (self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, and social skills) that can be trained through coaching, reflection, and deliberate practice over time.3. Internalise a coaching mindsetCoaching is a partnership that empowers the coachee to find their own answers. The coach’s role is to create a safe space for exploration, reflection, and growth.Leaders who perform the techniques without internalising this belief tend to use coaching as a sophisticated form of telling. The mindset shift, truly believing your people hold much of the answer, takes time and usually requires being coached yourself.Hybrid environments, rapid technological change, and shifting employee expectations have elevated the need for leaders who can connect authentically. That kind of connection cannot be fabricated.4. Build a coaching cultureBy embedding coaching skills across leadership levels, organisations can build lasting change capability, accelerate adoption, and create more resilient, humane, and effective change practices.This is a multi-year organisational effort. McKinsey’s research shows that organisations in the top 25% for management practices have 21x higher average returns than those in the bottom. Coaching culture is a core driver of what separates those tiers.The ICF’s 2025 Annual Report highlights Microsoft’s MCAPS division, which expanded coaching to over 70,000 employees and saw stronger engagement, clearer career direction, and increased internal mobility as a result.5. Pursue formal coaching trainingFor leaders serious about making coaching a durable capability, industry-leading companies offer consistent standards for coaching and a clear framework to measure capability, identify areas for improvement, and advance coaching skills.At the organisational level, companies offer internal ICF-accredited coaching programs like the ones mentioned in MD Anderson, AEON Vietnam, EY, Deloitte, PwC and others. These coaching initiatives integrate coaching directly into the flow of work, accelerating business impact and strengthening long-term performance.This integration is a great way to develop coaching skills, and also where the most durable transformations take root.

CLOSING THOUGHT

There are two interdependent trends here.The leadership style trend (from directing to coaching) is tied to the organisational structure trend (from hierarchical to distributed, as mentioned previously).The organisational structure trend involves moving from a hierarchical to a distributed structure (aka an Octopus Organisation). In the latter structure, decision-making and innovation are distributed across the entire organisation, making the organisation more agile to sudden changes and better equipped to navigate the age of complexity and AI.The leadership style trend involves moving from directing to coaching. This leadership style amplifies the characteristics of a distributed organisational structure. Leaders who coach recognise that their teams have a better understanding of the problem and its solutions, and need the right level of autonomy to act fast when things change abruptly.If the distributed organisation is an octopus, the coaching leadership style is the blood that gives it agility.

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DISCLOSURE

AI was only used to gather information from a variety of high-quality, high-authority sources (ICF, HBR, McKinsey and others).

What Successful Transformations Get Right

Why you should invest in both the rational and emotional sides of change11th June 2026Organisations are 2.6 times more likely to achieve success in transformations if they address both the rational and the emotional aspects of change (EY).When leaders make a change, from implementing new ways of working, adopting new technology, or expanding their teams through mergers or joint ventures, the success of that transformation comes down to:- Have we achieved our objectives in time?
- How well are we doing in this new state, from a business and people perspective?
- Is this new state sustainable? If we step away now, will our people keep it up?For every person in the organisation who is either part of a transformation or directly impacted by it, their routines and comfort zones are likely to change. Human factors and emotions are the root causes of transformation failure across industries and geographies, according to research. They're also the key drivers of successful transformation.Leaders have a duty to create discipline and structure, but also to be empathetic and courageous to bring everyone with them in the new system. They have a duty to create the conditions for success at both the rational and the emotional level.

THE TWO SIDES OF TRANSFORMATION

Transformations are more likely to succeed when they have the executive support and change champions that infuse teams with the energy to change and the accountability to do it right.Organisational structures can vary, but taking a high-level approach, we can be categorised into the three management layers:

If we assume transformation starts with the strategic layer and moves down the hierarchy, then we can map specific actions to each layer that should be taken if a transformation is to succeed.Yet this view alone is missing something important. Namely, the emotional side of transformation is the responsibility of everyone in the organisation and cannot be assigned to just one group or management layer. Exhibit 1 can help us visualise the actions that need to be taken at the rational and emotional level.

Exhibit 1: The Two Sides of Transformation (by author)

The Rational Side of Transformation

The rational side is akin to a skeleton. It consists of all the plans, processes, tools and partnerships that an organisation needs to structure and keep the transformation effort on track.This diagram maps the industry best practices to the management layer that would be directly responsible for the outcome and have the means and influence to achieve it. The 17 rational actions are only a selection, and I’m sure you can think of many more.Strategic actions:1. Create urgency — make sure the organisation understands why change is necessary and what will happen if the status quo is preserved. The purpose is to “make the status quo seem more dangerous than launching into the unknown”. The urgency is high enough when 75% of leadership is convinced that staying with the status quo is unacceptable (Kotter).2. Establish a strong support committee — although the impulse to change may start with one person, you need to build a coalition for change to be effected throughout the entire organisation. A powerful coalition does not necessarily include every senior exec, but it consists of members who have a strong commitment to change and the ability to influence it throughout the organisation (influence, expertise, relationships, etc.)(Kotter).3. Define the vision and strategy for transformation — creating a vision that is clear, compelling, and inspires people to go the extra mile is the centre of the transformation upon which everyone will start building (Kotter, EY).4. Provide structure and discipline — transformation is no longer linear. It is complex and can become messy. (EY) At the same time, transformation is becoming a modus operandi, a continuous muscle that needs to be trained and used whenever new changes come up. Leaders must provide a structure that is stable enough to frame that transformation effort, and flexible enough to allow for variations and changes of course along the way.5. Communicate the vision formally and informally — leaders under-communicate the vision by a factor of 10 (Kotter). It is essential to create and communicate a change story that is clear and inspirational, which lets stakeholders know why change is necessary, what is changing, and what the new state is (McKinsey Influence Model). It is not enough to communicate it once, but consistent messaging through every channel of communication available is key (PwC).Tactical actions:6. Assign people, define roles and career progression — in successful transformations, employees reported they had clear roles and responsibilities, taking away the confusion and anxiety and instituting a clear sense of mission and how to execute it. This is essential for addressing negative emotions that invariably come up during transformations. (EY)7. Design processes to track and facilitate the change — for transformations to work, leaders should introduce new rituals and routines to reinforce desired behaviours that make up an organisation’s culture (McKinsey). Furthermore, find a way to make sure that the people assigned to enacting the change are delivering what was promised. This can take the form of progress tracking, community meetings, or consistent check-ins to see the state of transformation efforts and surface any blockers or dependencies. My other article explores this further.8. Define and deploy training programmes — help people acquire the skills that they need to be productive in the new state (McKinsey Influence Model)9. Institute support and incentive mechanisms — establish ways to reward people for adopting the desired tools or behaviour, such as through remuneration, recognition, giving them ownership of certain outcomes, and setting certain targets together (McKinsey Influence Model). At the same time, provide the support they need, whether that is guidance, mindset shifts, inspiration, community, or emotional support.10. Remove obstacles and empower people to act — people want to help bring about the change, but they might encounter blockers. Sometimes they are mental blockers, like limiting beliefs, but very often they are actual obstacles, such as inflexible processes, rigid organisational structures, or legacy systems. Not every blocker can be easily removed, but the big ones should be addressed (Kotter).11. Create short-term wins — whenever you introduce something new, people will be sceptical at first. Which is why you need to create small wins, build the momentum, and promote your progress. That’s when people start to get on board. I have seen this work in my own leadership experience, and it is something promoted by Kotter as well.12. Communicate formally and informally — one of the challenges transformations face is disaggregated messaging from leadership. One leader communicates a vision, the other communicates a different one. Aligning on the vision and on how it is communicated is key.13. Turn influencers into change champions — find the informal leaders whom everyone comes to for advice, who everyone listens to when they speak up, maybe even seen as “rebels”, and get them on your side. Train and protect them, let them help each other, and unify them in small groups with a clear purpose. With their support, you can build momentum and reach people’s hearts via informal communication. (McKinsey, PwC, EY)Operational actions:14. Become champions and early adopters — as an associate, become an early adopter, a role model who builds momentum for the transformation from the start and works together with leadership to achieve their objectives. Take an active change champion role to own and define a part of what is changing.15. Apply the training — as an associate, engage with the training materials to learn the new skills necessary to thrive in the new state and actively seek to use your transferable skills in new ways.16. Innovate with new tools and workflows — as an associate, become curious about how the new state works and adopt a learning mindset to find new ways to apply it in your own work to bring positive outcomes. This should be done within the constraints of the organisation’s tolerance for experimentation.17. Understand your role and expected behaviour — as an associate, actively seek to understand what the desired behaviour is that you need to adopt for the new state, and act upon it. Understand your new role in the new system and define your career progression together with the managers shaping it.Now for the hard part — bringing people on the journey. It is one thing to create a perfect plan, another to implement it, and a complete challenge to convince people to change.Yet that is what you need to do for the transformation to be successful.

The Emotional Side of Transformation

While the rational best practices can be neatly mapped to the organisational structure, the emotional side is different.The emotional side applies to everyone, from the associates whose careers have just started to the senior execs who are seeking support for the change they are leading.The selection of 17 best practices to address the emotional side of change can be broadly categorised into 5 groups of overarching skills:Leadership

Listening

Flexibility

Integrity

Coaching

Although leaders understand the rational complexity of leading transformations, they usually underestimate the enormous emotional toll this transformation takes on employees (EY). Which is why successful transformations are the ones that combine both the rational and the emotional sides of change.

CLOSING THOUGHT

Transformation is, at its core, a people change. And people have both a rational side and an emotional one.It is therefore no wonder that business transformations should address both the heads and the hearts of the people they are changing to achieve a lasting and successful change.That requires certain skills and quite a bit of learning on the job, but that is something that both formal and informal leaders are more than capable of achieving.

🤔 What was your experience?🤔 How did you navigate or lead change?🤔 What did you learn?💬 Let me know.

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How to Deliver a Successful Business Transformation

A practical four-stage guide, linking people, program, and outcomes26th June 2026You just won a large transformation project. Fantastic job. Now you are in charge of delivering it… this can be a daunting task.Luckily, people have done this before successfully. Here is a structured guide that can help you think about how to start, deliver, and sustain a transformation from beginning to end.

The Transformation Delivery Guide

In transformations, you have to lead from both the head and the heart (more about this: Adaptive Organisations).

But how do you actually start? When do you do what? And how do you transition from a one-time success to a permanent capability? Exhibit 1 is a structured view of transformation delivery that synthesises the best practices into a practical guide:

Exhibit 1: The Transformation Delivery Guide (by author)This guide presents a way to structure your thinking. Although it looks like a waterfall approach, the phases often overlap. Phase 2 may start while Phase 1 is still defining new initiatives. Likewise, Phase 3 of one transformation can overlap with Phase 1 of the next transformation, which becomes a recurring cycle.Let’s dive in.

Phase 0: Prepare (weeks 0–8)

This is where you chart the course and check your readiness before you start the transformation journey.–––At the Program level:Baseline the value at stake — assess where you are now and where your organisation can and should improve.Define the transformation type — a cultural transformation is different from a digital or operating-model transformation. The type decides the value that you want to capture and the metrics that you use to track progress.Run a readiness and change-fatigue assessment – Understand how much change the organisation can absorb and whether you have the capabilities in-house to do it.For example, some questions you might ask include:

Set provisional targets with Finance — to ensure the transformation delivers financial results, above value-linked results, the change leader must engage the Finance department to (BCG 1):

Design decision rights and the governance model — Who is authorised to make the decisions? For instance, the CEO usually makes the decisions on strategic direction and objectives and the CFO on financial goals. The Chief Transformation Officer (CTO) makes the decisions on scarce resources, coaching responsibility, and has the power to hold others accountable. Other execs usually have the power to make decisions within their own workstreams.Additionally, a best practice is to instil the boomeranging approach, whereby team members are empowered to approach senior decision-makers (e.g. steering committee) whenever they need to make decisions. This ensures decisions are made timely and the senior leadership is well-informed of developments. (BCG 1)–––At the People level:Build a sponsor coalition — engage the support of senior leaders in the strategic layer, often times C-level individuals. Ensure you have a coalition, rather than one individual, which withstands potential role changes, changes of priorities, and turnover.Articulate the business case — in a small leadership team, often consisting of answers to the questions (HBR):

Secure true alignment — committed budget, people, accepted trade-offs. Beware of false alignment, whereby leaders agree quickly, but in reality, everyone has a different interpretation of how the change will be delivered. Have detailed conversations about “how” this transformation will proceed and the role of each senior leader in achieving it. Where this support is given at a great sacrifice from senior leaders, acknowledge that commitment with respect and appreciation. Here’s a full article on this: HBR.Draft the 2-way communications roadmap — make sure it is a two-way communication, where leaders ask for feedback from their workforce and bring them on the journey, rather than giving orders in a command-and-control fashion.–––Outcomes:

Phase 1: Build (weeks 3–14)

At this stage, you are building the basis on which the transformation will rely, including the operating backbone and the behavioural shifts.–––Program:Set up a lean TO (not PMO) — a Transformation Office (TO) coordinates workstreams, timelines, and priorities. It is the single source of truth that ensures full visibility on progress, ownership and value delivered. (McKinsey 2) A TO can “improve value creation by up to 50%” and “free up business leaders to execute and deliver the goals of the endeavour.” (BCG 1) Importantly, it is not a PMO.In a TO, departments and team managers need to align on one pace and one place to track progress. They need to use the same processes, the same tools, and the same cadence for reporting and meetings. BCG introduces the 5 elements of a TO (BCG 1), which you can use to know what steps you can take to set it up:

Break down aspirations into a value tree and finalise targets — define initiatives that deliver a specific value (e.g. financial, technical, cultural, depending on the transformation type). Set SMART and ambitious targets. Studies show that when teams work in an environment that demands them to make progress every single day, this high-intensity work pace leads to a 5% to 15% higher success rate in transformations. (BCG 1)Define 20 initiatives max and group them into overlapping Waves — even global organisations can successfully focus only on around 20 initiatives in one program. (BCG 1) Once defined, group them into waves: Wave 1 (quick wins to gain momentum), Wave 2 (scale), Wave 3 (longer builds). Make sure to inject new initiatives as the initial ones are completed.Write initiative charters — including the owner, value logic linked to the baseline, milestones, start/finish dates, dependencies, risk/mitigation. Ensure they are approved by Finance and have their own leading indicators.Design the stage-gate and the value-assurance protocol — a methodology to keep the transformation effort on track, ensure outcomes are realistic, and fast-track delivery, as well as manage an ever-growing set of ideas that surface during implementation. More on this: BCG 1.Separate strategy re-test points from execution check-ins —this closes the common gap between strategic intent and operational reality. Just as the two execution layers were set up, namely the short-term layer focused on execution and the long-term layer focused on the strategic direction, establish regular check-ins per layer to touch base on progress and course correct if necessary.- Strategy re-test points — structured check-points to evaluate if initial hypotheses remain valid (e.g. quarterly business reviews, hypothesis validation gates, periodic SWOT scans)- Execution check-ins — recurring meetings that track progress on the ground (e.g. weekly/bi-weekly stand-ups, monthly business reviews, OKRs alignment meetings)–––People:Activate leaders — especially at the tactical and operational layers, communicate the case for change, reach true alignment, and give them the authority to execute that vision. In McKinsey’s research, among transformations that failed to engage line managers and frontline employees, only 3% reported success, versus 26% and 28% when each group was engaged. Management sets the direction, the organisation delivers the execution. (McKinsey 3)Launch 2-way communication — use both formal and informal communication channels to:

Create a middle-manager enablement track — this avoids the risk of the “frozen middle” where leadership messages get lost when they reach middle management, either because of resistance or confusion about the change to be enacted. The key is to shift them from “message carriers” into “change makers”.Best practices include: simplifying the role by reducing admin tasks, introducing micro-development conversations linked with the transformation objectives, or making transformation roles as career accelerators (McKinsey 3).Assign your best people to your highest value initiatives – Jim Collins had a great example in his book, which we can still find in the workplace today. He gives an account of a leader who had ambitions of expanding his company overseas, from its leading position in the US. Thus, he took his high-performing manager in charge of the US department and assigned him to the complete opposite side — international expansion. That team was the smallest one, and the opportunity was barely in its infancy.That ended up being one of the leaders’ best moves, since the high-performing manager grew the international presence of the company to extensive proportions and in good time.Activate influencers — gather them into influencer teams, train them with the new tools and behaviours, and let them become the champions for change that will inspire their peers. (McKinsey 5, PwC, EY)Set up a two-tier execution mechanism — that strikes a balance between detailed delivery excellence and keeping course to the desired goal (McKinsey 3):- Short-term for overseeing progress and team performance, ensuring delivery
- Long-term that keeps an eye on where the business is going and its ROI–––Outcomes:

Phase 2: Deliver (months 3 — 20)

This is where transformation is underway, and the hard part begins.–––Program:Run the stage gate — ensure that the team meets every set period to assess progress and check whether the transformation is still geared into the right direction.“90 days of certainty” — Let the priorities be flexible during the stage gates, after that, lock them in and don’t change them until the next change gate. This gives people clarity and reduces confusion and running to reconcile different priorities (McKinsey 3)Lock-step with day-to-day operations — if transformations operate in a silo or are disconnected from the day-to-day operations, they risk ending up not delivering the desired outcome; competing for the same resources, leadership focus, and credit; and wasting time and effort overlapping tasks or reconciling priorities.This coordination needs an “operating backbone” to link the running and the changing of the business across 5 elements (McKinsey 4):1. Targets for the operating metrics (e.g. 5–7 tier one metrics)
2. Owners and accountability for these metrics
3. Defined time and effort necessary to make the improvements that achieve targets
4. The incentives linked to achieving the targets
5. Transparency to manage real-time performanceFor the in-depth decomposition of each one, refer to: McKinsey 4.Scenario/response planning for shocks — a mechanism to anticipate likely eventualities and craft responses accordingly. Therefore, if any of those scenarios happens, management can respond within hours, not days. (McKinsey 3)Track the value created – banked vs sustained, not just captured.

Inject new initiatives as the Waves complete — in the middle of the transformation effort, the dip can be concurrent with a dip in morale. On the program dimension, this dip can come in the form of results not showing on the P&L, a slowdown in transformation efforts or a sense that the teams are “stuck”. This tends to happen 6–12 months into a transformation, according to studies, but can vary on a case-by-case basis.In this case, the change leader should inject new initiatives into the transformation pipeline to keep the momentum going, ensure the processes and the energy of the workforce remain strong, or take corrective action if necessary. (BCG 1)Run a fresh pre-mortem at major gates — have a rigour check with all key stakeholders to expose critical flaws, such as an unassigned milestone or a dependency that wasn’t considered, as well as check that the goals of the transformation are still up to date with reality. (BCG 1)–––People:Help leaders/teams balance workloads — Adding the transformation effort on top of the workforce’s day-to-day responsibilities can lead to overload. People need the support to decide what work to re-prioritise, what to learn, how to behave in the new system, and how their career will evolve.Making transformation success a key determinant of performance reviews and budgeting is one incentive mechanism.Another approach to consider to minimise complexity is the helix organisational structure (McKinsey 1):- One leader to oversee the career progression of employees (esp within a transformation) and guide them through the transformation.
- Another leader to oversee progress and performance towards business and transformation objectives (keeps teams accountable for it)Additionally, a best practice is to “flip the pyramid” in transformations, where the senior leaders help solve the problems of the junior leaders and workforce. (BCG 1)Anticipate and manage the dip in morale/performance — know that in the middle of the transformation effort, there is a natural dip in morale, where negative emotions naturally spiral. Be sure to nurture employees’ emotions (make them positive rather than negative). (BCG 1, EY)Drive behaviour, mindset, and role change — shift mindsets to “fail fast” to enable teams to engage with the new ways of working and tools without the fear that this will negatively impact their performance reviews. (BCG 1) Model the behaviour that you are trying to instil, empower change champions, and develop incentives linked to the desired new system. (EY)Open initiative ideas to anyone — “To make change sustainable, ideas and operational drive need to come from the bottom up.” The people closest to the daily operations are best suited to identify practical improvements, take ownership of performance and embed new ways of working — an idea also promoted by Jana Werner and Phil Le-Brun in the Octopus Organisation.This is what happened in a success story, where a company was able to implement the transformation effort so well that new initiatives for improvement were coming from the tactical and operational layers of the organisation. (McKinsey 3)–––Outcomes:

“Even in a well-run program, 20% of initiatives won’t achieve their desired impact, and even more (30%) will typically be at risk. If all of the initiatives in your tracking system are proceeding perfectly, you’re not aiming high enough.” (BCG 1)

Phase 3: Sustain (months 20+)

This is where you decide what will happen with the TO and the approach to transform. Making the TO a permanent capability enables organisations to adapt to perpetual changes and maintain their competitiveness.–––Program:Build the TO into an enduring capability — building an always-on transformation capability ensures that it keeps on steering the organisation through step-changes in a structured and rigorous way. This is different from continuous improvement, which deals with day-to-day improvements. (BCG 1)Codify the model — namely the processes and tools that made this transformation successful so that it can serve as a reference for future transformations (McKinsey 3)Embed gains in performance management, incentives and budgets — so they endure through leadership changesRun “train-shadow-own” – a central TO team leads the 1st wave, the business team shadows the 2nd wave, then they own the 3rd wave- The 1st wave proves that an org can execute its transformation
- The 2nd wave proves that it can keep doing it when the environment changes–––People:Tell the transformation story with evidence — celebrate small wins, publish achievements, and make role models visible.Spread ownership — the centre gives the impulse, the org carries it forward (it’s the self-organising teams principle of project management), but maintain oversight, steering (coaching), and expectations by using data to measure.“When transformation becomes how the business runs, no one needs to ask for permission to change. It’s already been built in.” (McKinsey 3)Actively manage change capacity to prevent fatigue — coming full circle to the very start of the transformation effort, this ensures that when the company needs to engage in another cycle of transformation, the team is ready to implement it, knows exactly how much they can push their workforce, and in what way.–––Outcomes:

CLOSING THOUGHT

Defining and delivering transformations are two different challenges.Yet both of them benefit from a structure that makes sense of the chaos, defines a plan to achieve the desired benefits, and brings people along on the journey.Delivering a business transformation is also about judgement – making the decision to course-correct where necessary, checking that the initial hypotheses are still true 1–2 years into the journey, and sense-checking where your team is at emotionally.Although transformation is becoming a modus operandi, its delivery needs to be tailored on a case-by-case basis.

🤔 Have you delivered or been part of a transformation?🤔 How did it go?🤔 What would you have done differently?💬 Let’s discuss.

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