Transformation, change management and other catch phrases imply that change is a project with a start date, an end date, and an ultimate return to "normal." Even 10 years ago, there was a clean PMO team, a defined project Terms of Reference, Decision Review Board (DRB) and a Critical Path Schedule (CPS) with a beautiful Microsoft Project GANTT chart. Lots of 3 letter acronyms and a project managers dream set up. We celebrated the end of a project with a big cowbell ring in office followed by a team dinner.
What world was that anyway?! There is no returning to normal.
Between experimenting with new business models, shifting toward sustainable and more diversified supply chains, and digitizing processes with AI, leadership teams are now managing Perpetual Change.
In any people heavy organization in a constant state of evolution, the biggest risk isn't technical failure or strategic misalignment. It is organizational exhaustion.
If our teams feel like the goalposts are moving every single quarter, they will burn out, disengage, and quietly resist the strategy. Passive aggressive resistance often kills initiatives from the inside, more than any other factor.
Having spent over three decades being part of & leading commercial transformations in massive global enterprises, I’ve learned that the secret to leading perpetual change isn't about planning better or pushing harder. It’s about the quality of leadership.
To evolve our businesses to be future fit without destroying our culture, we have to master some of these executive balancing acts:
1. Purpose rooted - Change the "How," Anchor the "Why" When the business model is shifting, people need to know what isn't changing. If you change your tools, your metrics, and your core mission all at once, you lose your identity. Your organisations core purpose—why you exist to serve the customer—must remain unshakeable. When the "Why" is a fixed anchor, the team can tolerate massive volatility in the "How." When we designed and delivered a multi-year digital transformation in Shell, we were consistent in our use of rituals, symbols and internal communication over time. Read more about our story here.
2. Protect the Core While Funding the Future You cannot treat your legacy business like yesterday’s news. The teams running your traditional revenue lines fund the transformation experiments. If you create a culture of "cool innovators" vs. "legacy operators," you breed internal resentment. Celebrate the efficiency and stability of the core team just as much as the agility of the pivot team. In both P&G or Shell, when we launched into new categories or business models, we made sure that inadvertent use of discriminatory language, organizational labels, hierarchy differences or informal recognition did not derail the core or demotivate the “startup” either. As an aside, structurally, I have also seen that setting up a separate organization allows enough attention vs. keeping it as a young child (likely to be neglected) within an existing busy family of businesses.
3. Incentive structures matter: Both formal and informal rewards matter. People do what they are recognized for doing. If our organizational model and ambition changes, but our incentive structure remains anchored to 2018 metrics, our transformation is dead on arrival. If we want a sales team to transition from selling high-volume legacy products to selling outcome-based, sustainable solutions, we must align their commissions, KPIs, and performance evaluations to that new world, not to forget informal recognitions (the power of a shout out in a webinar or town hall!). Read some of our stories here.
4. Capability, not just inspiration: In perpetual change, inspiration wears off in 48 hours. Competence builds permanent confidence. We cannot inspire our way out of a skill deficit. Leadership must back up the vision with structured, rigorous upskilling. In various transformations that I’ve been part of (integrating the Gillette or Wella salon business acquisitions into my marketing team, AI transformation, GTM transformations etc), we’ve had to identify the top 1-2 capabilities that we would need to win and plan to build, borrow or buy them (usually a combination of all 3). Capability is not just skills – it’s about processes, systems, tools and cultural evolution too.
5. Communication and operational drumbeat: The best leaders communicate well, with the right frequency and have a solid feedback loop on their communication as well. Change dies in the silence between quarterly town halls. Living in perpetual change also requires a relentless, high-frequency operational rhythm that keeps the organization aligned. We need a transparent feedback loop where data-backed decisions are made quickly, roadblocks are cleared in real-time, and successes (and fast failures) are broadcasted immediately to maintain momentum. Most organisations do this well in crises but doing this very frequently can exhaust people. Which brings me to the final point below.
6. Build Pit Stops Into Delivery: Human beings cannot sprint a marathon. Even if the macro market demands continuous adaptation, leadership must create deliberate, short periods of operational predictability. Give teams time to stabilize and celebrate a new AI integration or a new commercial process before dropping the next mandate on their desks.
Leading a modern enterprise is no longer about strengthening and moving direction of a large ship but rather about stripping away waste and building a new, more agile vessel. Sure, one day AI may take over all our jobs but human realities have to be considered for success today. If we want a culture that embraces constant evolution, we have to give our people psychological safety and stability first.
