You wouldn't engage me if you didn't have a financial strategy…so why should I take you seriously if you didn't have a cultural strategy?
A transformation without a functional budget (that's regularly contextualised) is going to fail. Every senior leader knows the financial version of this.
So what is the cultural or behavioural equivalent in your program?
And why do I even have to ask that?!
My answer has a name — and a tool your leadership team can run this week.
Read More2003. First passport photo, frosted tips and all. I'm posting it as evidence of our ability to learn and evolve.
Between 2016 and 2022, employee support for workplace change collapsed from 74% to 43%. A knee-jerk and misguided conclusion: people have lost the ability to adapt.
Human nature doesn't move 31 points in six years. We are built to adapt — it's arguably our defining trait as a species. What broke was the dated playbook, and the collective trust in leaders who stick to it.
The neuroscience remains consistent; we physically change our brains in the right conditions. And not just the part responsible for haircuts...
Please understand: you are better at change than you realise. So is everyone in your organisation.
So what do leaders do about this? My thoughts on Pragmatic Change below 👇🏾
Read MoreAs a busy leader…should I really give a sh*t about your personal problems?
And more begrudgingly: Since when was it my job to be the therapist…? Do all these kids just lack resilience?!
I’m not making these questions up; as an elder millenial with lines blurred between social and professional circles…I’ve heard them all in the past fortnight. From frontline retail shop owner to Biotech CE.
So…do you? Yes - it’s surprisingly “life or death”. (I can back that up, read on)
You can’t fake it and you do have to figure out your own version of “how”.
Thoughts in article and app.pragmaticchange.com.au as your safe rehearsal space with my best attempt at an authentic AI version of me.
Read MoreManager engagement has collapsed to 22% — yet managers are now the single biggest factor in whether AI adoption works. Is it still worth the struggle? Yes, but not the way it’s currently set up.
Read MoreI love the National Basketball Association (NBA) playoffs.
The best coaches know: at this point in the season, you can't squeeze your players any more. But what is our temptation as leaders, when the pressure is on and all eyes are on us?
I'm sad one of my all time heroes LeBron James is out. But I'm intrigued by what Mike Brown is building in New York. From being fired four times, to (in his first year with the team) making the Finals!
And now, on the cusp of success in a city with notoriously high expectations...he's making it all about the players.
I'm in my own 'playoff series' right now on a project. I just hope I've positioned us right for success.
Read MoreYou know how I'm supposed to open a LinkedIn article. Especially one published on a Monday...who does that?!
Recognisable caricutures from the Boardroom. A leadership vignette. A clever mixture of intruige and just enough panic to make you keep reading...
Instead, I'm compelled to share a gem from my Evernote files, saved during my Masters at the University of Sydney in 2012.
It's from a British physicist named Mark McKergow. He coined a word using Japanese roots because English didn't have one for the concept he needed. It's 2026 and I keep coming back to it.
Because the way most organisations are approaching complex change right now lacks the substance that McKergow was writing about fourteen years ago.
So what does it actually mean to lead complex change in 2026?
Read More49 conversations with Pragma. 190 messages. Two learnings from the data: the first thing people present is rarely the problem, and specificity is the admission ticket.
Read MoreThe Planning Fallacy is the diagnosis. Reference Class Forecasting is the discipline. Why looking outside your own boardroom — at what actually happened to comparable projects — is the single best corrective to inside-view optimism.
Read MorePsychology is WEIRD…and that’s a problem. Not a diversity problem. A validity problem. 96% of the psychological research your change frameworks are built on came from populations representing 12% of the world. Most of it was built on American college students. Then generalised to your manufacturing workforce. Your regional council. Your healthcare organisation. Your university with significant first-generation student populations. And when the frameworks produce mediocre results…we blame resistance. Poor sponsorship. Inadequate resourcing. It might simply be that the framework wasn’t built for these people.
Read MoreWhat two moments will your transformation be remembered for?
Not the months of stakeholder engagement. Not the training rollout. Not the governance forums. Not even that beautiful documentation you’ve laboured over.
Over the long run: The emotional peak. And how it ended.
That’s what the research says. And if you’ve led (or been lead into…) a major change, I’d wager it matches your own memory too.
This is called the Peak End rule and applying it deliberately is one of the most underused lenses in change leadership.
Read MoreThere's a risk in your change programme that rarely makes it onto the risk register. And if you've been watching the AI conversation lately...I can guarantee you've seen it! It's not a toxic leader, hostile stakeholder or external 'threat'.... It's someone capable and well-intentioned...but whose confidence has quietly outrun their calibration. It has a name. David Dunning and Justin Kruger documented it in 1999. Most importantly: before you look around the table and start spotting it in others, there's a quick game worth playing first.
Read MoreMost change programmes are built for an organisation that no longer exists.
The 2005 playbook: appoint a sponsor, hire a change manager, “do comms”, run training, go live…play a Kayne West track and declare success.
That model assumed stable hierarchies. Predictable timelines. Clear authority.
That 2005 world is largely gone. And not just because Kanye has lost the plot.
700 change practitioners across the globe just told us what’s actually coming.
In reading about it and writing this article, I realised I’ve been living it for 20 years…
Read MoreMost leadership teams can’t answer this question…without looking at a slide. Can your leadership team name your 3-6 distinctive capabilities? Then: does your AI investment map to those - or does it map to a desire to look like you’re keeping up? The Coherence Premium isn’t just a strategy concept. It’s the difference between AI that builds momentum and AI that quietly drains it.
Read MoreI got scared that AI would take my job.
Which is mildly ironic...given I've spent 20 years helping leaders navigate exactly this kind of moment.
Even more ironic? The tool that scared me, has no emotions whatsoever.
There's something worth sitting with in that juxtaposition.
Then I got sent (by actual humans) two pieces of research that completely reframed what I thought I knew about the AI transition.
The headline finding: we've swapped the motor. We have not redesigned the factory. AI is wholly dependent on organisational change.
There's an essential leadership concept behind why so many hyped AI projects are underperforming.
Your people don’t trust each other enough to share their data...or to do the work to create meaningful, high-quality data.
No trust = no data.
No data = no AI impact.
Let's get back to the bottom of the pyramid; here's Patrick Lencioni's perennial Five Dysfunctions of Team through an AI implementation lens
Years ago in a bout of career boredom, I played the cursed game of picking individual ASX stocks because I thought I could "see the trends coming" and "beat the market"...
Much to the amusement of my Sydney based finance / wealth industry mates, I'm down 74% 😵
But I'm up infinitely in lessons about change, leadership and innovation 📈
Some of the best money I've ever spent!
The shared lie of the 'Magic Number' is destroying innovation in your organisation!
Embrace uncertainty, to the point where it is reflected in the business cases for genuinely innovative ideas.
Thanks to Tristan Kromer and Elijah Eilert from Innovation Metrics Podcast for the insights and inspiration!
I’ll admit it: I lost a couple of good hours each day this week to distraction.
Like many, I've been caught up in the “culture of personality festival” that is the US election cycle.
And yet for someone who thinks deeply and often about change and leadership...this spectacle is the opposite of how anything actually gets done. Real change is driven by consistent, low-fuss, purpose driven effort—usually from people who aren’t looking for the limelight.
Look beyond formal titles or outgoing personalities. Instead, notice who people trust with questions, who others go to for guidance, and who brings a steadying presence to the team.
An article on how Quiet Influencers are a vital part of change strategy, which also doubles as my own sublte ode to those types I've met along the way. Thanks as always...I won't tag you here, even though you deserve it!
“Every organisation I work with seems to be in a constant state of flux. They can't all be at Level 1 maturity! Does anyone know what they are doing yet?!"
This tongue in cheek musing by a topflight change manager, captures a common frustration across industries. It raises a critical question: does anyone get their transformation right...?
Somewhat recent research from Harvard Business School "Top 20 Business Transformations of the Last Decade" provides some compelling answers.
Organisations don’t just thrive because they adopt new technologies or pivot strategically. Instead, they do so by anchoring their transformation efforts in a powerful “Why”—a purpose that transcends profit. The numbers tell the story: purpose-driven transformations aren’t just aspirational; they deliver tangible results.
"What's the first thing I should do for this complex change?"
It's seductive to think there's a "perfect" starting point... but complex change isn't linear—it's a web of intertwined processes and people.
A more effective question is, "What are all the relevant aspects of the change that I should consider?" Here's some shortcuts:
🌏 Think Holistically: Address multiple elements simultaneously rather than sequentially.
📊 + ❤️ Balance Data and Stories: Metrics tell you what's happening; stories reveal why and how.
🤩 Integrate Process and People: Technical solutions need human engagement to succeed.
Complex change demands both the head and the heart. By embracing this duality, you prepare yourself to navigate challenges with agility and authenticity.
Success isn't about a single step; it's about understanding the whole journey to lead with confidence and impact.
