Transformation principles

The tools and approaches that we use to support and enable leaders to take courageous and calculated steps forward into the unknown are built on some important principles and beliefs of transformation:

• Leaders better enact strategies when they have been part of creating them.
• The speed of transformation is a function of readiness, skills, compelling reasons, emotional will and concrete actions to take – all accumulated in the mind of the leader-to-be-transformed.
• The challenge is not to ‘predict the future we will live in’ but ‘to explore and prepare for the future that is emerging’.
• The story or narrative of a transformation in the context of a compelling aspiration is as important as the elaboration of the strategy into concrete actions.
• Transformation in networked companies comes through empowering viral communities and tribes of engaged leaders, not (only) through formal cascades.
• To engage with the future people need a first-hand experience that touches their intellect, their senses and links to a deeper purpose in their work and lives. This requires prototyping and rehearsing next steps to feel comfortable with new choices and to explore likely outcomes of the transformation.
• There is no replacement for a shared leadership experience at the beginning of a new journey, no matter how busy the leaders are with the current business agenda.