Chief transformation officers are charged with helping organizations adapt to and prepare for a changing future. It’s not an easy job. Our research has found that only 12% of transformations succeed and another 75% achieve only mediocre results.

To better understand those challenges, we asked four transformation leaders what they found trickiest. Invariably they cite energy, both generating and maintaining it. This matches our experience that organizational energy is the resource that most often limits the rate of transformation. Energy needs to be cultivated and managed.

Cathy Arledge, senior vice president of Business Transformation at Dell Technologies; Mathieu Staniulis, vice president of Products, Solutions, and Digital Platforms and chief transformation officer at Desjardins; Kyle Brown, Transformation Office leader, Packaging Solutions at International Paper; and Wilf Blackburn, who’s run transformations at multiple leading insurance companies in Asia and Europe, represent a cross section of industries and experiences. Arledge has been in her role for 15 years, and Blackburn has decades of transformation experience. Staniulis launched Desjardins’ transformation program four years ago, and Brown has been in his job since 2022. Each had a lot to share about the role of energy in a successful transformation.

Nurturing energy

Q: Energized employees are two to three times more productive than dissatisfied workers. When running a transformation, how do you prioritize and sequence the changes to avoid overload?

Brown: Early on, we were worried about not tripping over each other, but we weren’t worried about energy. The group was very excited about the new path. We were very execution focused. We thought, “This will all be over quickly. We can rest when we’re done.” But you can’t hold your breath for that long. So, we’ve had to think a lot more about energy and not just execute but strategically manage the process. That’s going to be something to keep an eye on. Do you ever get tired of transforming?

Arledge: If you’re going to drive significant and dramatic change, it has to be in chapters. If not, the organizational fatigue is just too much. We try to define ambitious efforts that we can complete in two to three years. If we’re not done, we try to put a bow on the elements that are complete and then go hard again. There are a lot of sprints, and we have to be tenacious to ensure we get the job done. It’s also important we recognize the accomplishments and the achievements across the organization so they can appreciate that the hard work paid off.

Our successful leaders have a balanced life. They work out, and they sleep, and they take care of themselves. And they work really hard. The leaders that can’t manage their own energy just don’t succeed.

Blackburn: We need to manage the capacity, give people time to have a life, give people time to recover, to energize, to reflect. We don’t need to solve all the problems at once so we just get burned out. So chose two or three and agree on them together as a team.

Staniulis: Piloting a transformation can be a roller coaster. Some months are great and fast-paced; others are more challenging. It comes with the territory. The goal is to strike a balance between small, steady wins and bigger projects that take longer to complete. With this approach, the team feels that they’re bringing value now, not only five years down the line. Every quarter, we ensure improvements are being made through various initiatives. Smaller projects are still significant, even if they’re not necessarily bringing about huge change. In the same vein, we can’t wait for bigger projects to be completed to be vocal about our successes, as this can undermine the organization’s confidence in our ability to carry out the transformation.  

Figure 1

Maintaining momentum

Q: What role does speed play and how important is that to maintaining energy?

Blackburn: I would say, momentum, pace, and speed are the most important things when you’re trying to bring about change. I found even if you don’t have a complete team, even a third of a team is good enough to get started. You have to keep moving. Then other people are attracted to join. If there’s speed and if there's excitement, the people that are not with the program will jump out faster if the train starts to move.

Celebrating wins

Q: How do you use communication to keep the energy strong?

Staniulis: Communicating with our teams plays a huge role in the success of the transformation, both when things are going well and when there are obstacles. You have to both celebrate the wins and pass on information transparently to keep people informed and mobilized. 

Arledge: With wins, it’s about shouting it from the rooftops and putting the spotlight and the focus on the business leader who’s responsible, never on the transformation engine, but on that leader and what they drove and how we achieved it.

Key takeaways on managing organizational energy:

1. Adapt to the organization’s change capacity.

Overwhelming the same team with simultaneous disruptions invariably leads to overload and diminished performance. 

2. Measure and manage disruption meticulously to maintain pace.

Leaders spearheading major change efforts should strategically sequence important initiatives to enable swift progress without overwhelming the organization.

3. Recognize and celebrate successes along the way.

Positive recognition—especially celebrating achievements and success—is a powerful catalyst for energizing change efforts, with four times greater impact than penalizing undesirable behaviors.

For more about how companies keep their transformations energized, read Does Your Organization Have the Energy to Transform?

The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of Michele Flom to this article.

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