Turning points: Introducing our new transformation podcasts

A couple of years ago, I co-led research with EY into organisational transformations. The top line was that leaders of transformations who prioritise the emotions of their workforce are nearly three times more likely to succeed.

But we knew there was more to probe.

In the process of carrying out that research, so many leaders - even those who led successful transformations - asked us what they are supposed to do when things go wrong.

That question was so ubiquitous that we launched a new phase of research to understand how leaders can pinpoint when a transformation is veering off course at an early enough stage so that it can be addressed.

This is what we called “turning points”.

Turning points are incredibly commonplace: our survey of 1,646 leaders and workforce members, across seven industries and 16 sectors, suggested 96% of all transformations experience a point where the programme is under threat and leaders need to decide whether to act.

We found human dynamics in the workforce are at the heart of turning points, and they are often the things taken for granted when a project plan is put together. For example, there may be insecurity over power structures, or employees questioning if they have the capabilities to thrive in the new world. This, of course, can undermine confidence in the future.

But we also found that when a turning point is addressed in the right way, it can be something that not only gets the programme back on track, but accelerates the organisation into the future. Our data found leaders who approach a turning point by putting humans at the centre are 12 times more likely to succeed.

Our research, including a dynamic process we identified to navigate turning points, can be found here .

To bring it to life, myself and Adam Canwell , from EY, have launched a new transformation series on my Leadership 2050 podcast*. Adam and I carried out interviews with executives from five companies - Applied Materials, Volvo, ANZ, Rio Tinto and LuLu Hypermarket - which we cited in our latest research as examples of organisations which successfully navigated turning points in a way that provided rocket fuel for their wider transformation programmes.

My following five newsletters, therefore, will focus on key transformation lessons executives can learn from each of these examples. With many leaders having to face radical organisational change in today’s unpredictable world, these five podcasts will provide important insights.

*the first episode, with Junaid Ahmed from Applied Materials, is already available and will be the focus of my next newsletter

A message from the author

Thank you for reading the 60th edition of the Leadership 2050 newsletter. You may be interested to know why I am writing it. As CEO of Transcend.Space and senior fellow of management practice at the University of Oxford’s Sa?d Business School, my work, research and teaching focuses on how leaders transcend 21st century challenges such as disruptive technology change, the climate crisis and creating diverse and inclusive environments… alongside the ongoing challenge of delivering profitable growth. Through Transcend.Space and Sa?d, where I direct the Oxford Advanced Management & Leadership Programme, I have worked with leaders from many geographies, industries and governments. All this has given me a deep understanding of how good leaders create value - and bad leaders destroy it. Never before has this topic been so important on a global stage, hence why I am undertaking this work.