Change is hard, especially in organisations where culture, processes, and human dynamics collide. Over the years, I’ve guided companies through transformations, and one truth stands out: you can’t manage what you don’t understand.
Here’s a quick overview of what I’ve learned and how you can apply it.
1. The Map Is Not the Territory
We love tidy strategy decks and polished roadmaps. But reality? It’s messy.
- Hard data (KPIs, financials) tells you what’s happening.
- Soft data (interviews, observations) reveals why it’s happening and what you missed.
Real story: A factory’s efficiency metrics looked great until interviews exposed that workers were bypassing safety protocols to hit targets. The “map” (reports) didn’t match the “terrain” (reality).
Takeaway: Always triangulate data. Numbers alone lie; stories alone exaggerate. Combine both.
2. Polarities Are Power
Leaders often frame dilemmas as “either/or”: Should we centralise or decentralise? Innovate or optimise?
But high-performing teams manage polarities, not solve them:
- Too much stability? You stagnate.
- Too much change? Chaos reigns.
Real story: A tech startup over-pivoted chasing investors until morale crashed. They recovered by anchoring to a process and organisational structure that would actually fill their innovation pipe.
Takeaway: Name your polarities. Balance them deliberately.
3. Complexity Demands Experimentation
The Cynefin framework reshaped how I approach problems:
- Simple (baking a cake): Follow recipes.
- Complicated (rocket science): Analyse, then act.
- Complex (culture change): Probe → Sense → Respond.
Real story: A client thought maintenance budget cuts were a “complex” problem. It turned out that the teams were paralysed by misaligned incentives, not math. We fixed it by managing up.
Takeaway: Don’t assume the problem domain. Diagnose first.
4. True North ≠ Rigid Vision
A compelling vision aligns teams—but how you create it matters.
- Top-down visions often gather dust.
- Co-created visions fuel ownership.
Tool I love: Lego® Serious Play®. Teams build their future state physically, making abstract goals tangible. One leadership team realised their “digital transformation” was really about trust, not technology after building it brick by brick.
Takeaway: Involve the people doing the work. They’ll spot blind spots.
5. Beware of the “Magic Dial”
In one factory, operators swore a broken knob controlled machine tension and thus product quality.
Spoiler: It wasn’t connected to anything. Their belief in it (“If I turn this, the problem fixes itself”) masked the real issue: multiple linked variables and lack of quality mastery.
Takeaway: Always validate “how things work” on the ground. Assumptions are expensive.
Final Thought
Transformation isn’t about forcing change—it’s about unlocking the system’s own capacity to adapt. The best practice is to:
- Listen to the quiet data (culture, stories).
- Balance tensions (innovation vs. stability).
- Experiment in complexity (small bets > big plans).
And if you feel this is too short to address your complex real-life organisational issues, I agree, this is just a summary of my methodology and I’d be excited to talk about your needs in detail.
What transformation challenge keeps you up at night? Culture? Alignment? Scaling? DM me or comment below—let’s explore solutions together.
#OrganisationalTransformation #ChangeManagement #Leadership #Cynefin #SystemsThinking
Through Yinsight, I support companies, their managers and teams in their development with a view to achieving tangible performance that respects people. Creating strategy, working on collective values, aligning teams, managing complexity and interpersonal dynamics, and providing individual and collective support for transformation are at the heart of my work.