My Biography

I have recently graduated from the University of Warwick with a degree in History and Politics, Studying history has provided me with an excellent background in research and analysis, whilst my politics background has afforded me valuable communication skills with people from all walks of life. These skills have come in handy as I look to begin my career in recruitment. In my free time I still try and keep up with current affairs, read, and play football.

My Areas of Expertise

Research
Communication
Data Analysis

My Languages

English

My Interests

Reading
Football
Hiking

Line managers are at the forefront of recruitment, retention, and contract extension—three critical pillars that directly impact an organisation's performance. Here's a look at how line managers can navigate these challenges while leveraging the unique advantages of interim professionals.

Recruitment: Finding the Right Fit Quickly

For line managers, recruitment is often a race against time. Vacancies need to be filled promptly to ensure that operations continue smoothly, yet finding the right talent is no easy feat. This challenge is even more pronounced when hiring interim managers, who are expected to deliver immediate results. The pressure to identify candidates with the right mix of expertise, industry knowledge, and cultural fit can be overwhelming.

To address this, line managers must streamline the recruitment process, focusing on clear, concise job descriptions and leveraging specialized recruitment agencies like Malikshaw Interim & Executive that understand the nuances of interim roles.

Retention: Keeping Talent Engaged

Retention is a well-known challenge in line management. Keeping permanent employees motivated and engaged is critical, but with interim managers, the dynamics are different. Interim professionals typically have shorter contracts and are often highly focused on specific objectives. However, their engagement is crucial, as their performance can significantly impact the success of a project or initiative.

To retain interim managers, line managers must create an environment where they feel valued and empowered. Regular check-ins, clear communication of expectations, and recognition of their contributions can go a long way. It’s also important to integrate them into the team culture, making them feel like part of the organisation, even if their stay is temporary.

Contract Extension: Balancing Needs and Expectations

Extending contracts for interim managers presents its own set of challenges. While an interim manager may have successfully led a project, extending their contract requires careful consideration. Line managers must weigh the benefits of continuity against the potential for over-reliance on interim solutions.

When considering an extension, line managers should evaluate the interim manager's performance, the ongoing needs of the project, and the availability of internal talent to take over. Open dialogue with the interim manager about their interest in continuing and the conditions under which they would stay is essential. Balancing the organisation’s needs with the interim manager’s expectations is key to making informed decisions that benefit both parties.

Conclusion: Strategic Line Management

By adopting a strategic approach—focusing on clear recruitment processes, fostering engagement, and making informed extension decisions—line managers can effectively manage these challenges. Interim managers, when well-integrated and properly supported, can provide invaluable expertise and agility, helping organisations navigate periods of change and drive success in critical projects.

Scholars commonly credit the ancient Romans with publishing the first newspaper, Acta Diurna, or daily doings, in 59 BCE. Although no copies of this paper have survived, it is widely believed to have published chronicles of events, assemblies, births, deaths, and daily gossip.

In 1566, another ancestor of the modern newspaper appeared in Venice, Italy. These avisi, or gazettes, were handwritten and focused on politics and military conflicts.  However, the absence of printing-press technology greatly limited the circulation for both the Acta Diurna and the Venetian papers.

The game changer came when Johannes Gutenberg’s invented a movable-type press that permitted the high-quality reproduction of printed materials at a rate of nearly 4,000 pages per day, or 1,000 times more than could be done by a scribe by hand.  This innovation drove down the price of printed materials and, for the first time, made them accessible to a mass market. Overnight, the new printing press transformed the scope and reach of the newspaper, paving the way for modern-day journalism.

The first weekly newspapers to employ Gutenberg’s press emerged in 1609. German language papers, Relations: Aller Furnemmen, and Aviso Relations over Zeitung, were a success, and newspapers quickly spread throughout Central Europe. Over the next 5 years, weeklies popped up in Basel, Frankfurt, Vienna, Hamburg, Berlin, and Amsterdam. In 1621, England printed its first paper under the title Corante, or weekely newes from Italy, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Bohemia, France and the Low Countreys. By 1641, a newspaper was printed in almost every country in Europe as publication spread to France, Italy, and Spain.

But printed newspapers have been in decline for many years now. 

The newspaper industry has always been cyclical, and the industry has weathered previous troughs. Television's arrival in the 1950s began the decline of newspapers as most people's source of daily news. But the explosion of the Internet in the 1990s increased the range of media choices available to the average reader while further cutting into newspapers' dominance as the source of news.

Press baron Rupert Murdoch once described the profits flowing from his stable of newspapers as "rivers of gold", but several years later said, "sometimes rivers dry up." "Simply put", wrote The Buffalo News owner Warren Buffett, "if cable and satellite broadcasting, as well as the Internet, had come along first, newspapers as we know them probably would never have existed."

Ironically, these dilemmas facing the newspaper industry come as its product has never been more sought-after.

As the demand for news has exploded, so have consumers of the output of newspapers.

Naturally, therefore, newspapers have needed to undergo their own form of transformation to compete in the modern world.  Some are succeeding. Others not so.  Indeed, a 2023 Department for Culture, Media and Sport committee report revealed that over 300 local newspaper titles closed between 2009 and 2019, and that those who remain are having to compete with fewer resources and journalists against online news providers.

In January 2024, Jim Mullen, the boss of Reach plc who owns several national newspapers including the Daily Express and Daily Mirror as well as several local titles such as the Manchester Evening News warned that the print newspaper business could become loss-making within 5 years.

So, is anyone fighting back and winning?

Well, in spite of all those stories about failed transformations, the New York Times is certainly putting up a good fight. They have made the challenge of moving a business from legacy to digital almost look easy (put up an early paywall, launch podcasts, hire armies of the best people (one of Pulitzer-prize-worthy millennial journalists, and another of product people), and have the leadership spend every Friday afternoon on strategy). But a full digital pivot is an anomaly, and successful examples, while they have important things to teach, are far from simple.

Drawing from Tolstoy, every legacy organisation that has succeeded in a digital transformation has done it in its own way and often this is not about technology. The common theme derived from the countless interviews we ourselves have held with leading transformation practitioners is that it is the internal changes to how an organisation operates that prove critical to success. The culture, leadership, talent and the many micro changes in how people make decisions and interact on a daily basis and win Hearts and Minds.

Indeed, similarly to the New York Times, the Guardian in the UK led a digital pivot that has clearly transformed their business and their trajectory.  And much in tune with what Tolstoy mentions above about unique factors, theirs has been brought about through the use of data. An analytics tool, in fact, named Ophan.

Ophan has been credited with providing visibility of a level of data and analytics that no other newsroom was able to boast. With a dashboard that displayed to the nth degree page views, attention time, social referrers, the breakdown of readership, where they have come from, where they went to next, who were the biggest Twitter/X influencers, we could go on, Ophan became a peerless example of disruptive technology emerging from within a legacy newsroom going on to change the fabric of the entire organisation.

And, whilst this pioneering work is well known in the sector, the cultural dimensions perhaps less so.

The starting point was one person’s goal of improving the readership of articles when they moved from print to digital. But of course, like in many change projects, progress was difficult. Entrenched cultural values were blocking change – and data emerged as a solution.

The first data tool was a morning email, which was initially distributed to just four top people, out of a concern that that data insights might skew journalists away from serious subjects. It showed what worked yesterday and what didn’t.  The next step was to introduce data insights in a very limited way into the morning meeting allowing the team to build on this and push certain messages.

By this time, the data was clearly leading the organisation to understand that it needed to grow traffic.  And linking this back to the theme of this newsletter, maybe this was one of those realisation moments that print really was on its way out and that online readership had to be the future. Who really knows, but it was clear that the next step was to set up a system to review headlines before they went digital. But here was the next problem, culture didn’t allow someone to say, ‘you’re writing the wrong headline’ as it couldn’t be proved, and the very limited system providing the data insights clearly wasn’t scalable.

Within 24 hours, one of the developers had hacked up the SEO dashboard, as it was then called, which showed everything that had happened on the Guardian site in the previous 3 minutes. And so Ophan was born.

As this data analysis dashboard grew, so was the organisation’s ability to nudge the culture.  A little tweak here, a little tweak there and people became enthused, empowered and started to see the real value in the data. Which articles worked (e.g. by readership numbers, or how long they stayed on an article), and which headlines didn’t. And a critical nudge came when a benchmark was set for minimum readership. If it doesn’t meet X page views, do we really care about it? And, if we do, what went wrong?

The point here is that, as Tolstoy says, change is delivered by a number of means. Each legacy organisation that has pulled off a digital transformation has done it in its own way. It has found its own levers.  In the case of the Guardian, it was data interventions that have proven to be the catalyst to deliver both cultural change and strategic change. But there is a proviso, and that is that there needs to be clarity around what needs to be delivered from the start. 

“My job was to take what we did in print and put it online”. And it worked.

Interim management involves bringing in experienced professionals to temporarily fill senior executive positions during periods of transition. These seasoned experts are often brought in during crises, to manage change, or to bridge gaps while a permanent executive is sought. Unlike traditional consultants, interim managers take on operational roles with full accountability, making them integral to the organisation’s leadership team during their tenure

Succession planning is a proactive process of identifying and developing future leaders within an organisation to ensure a seamless transition when key roles become vacant. It’s not just about having a list of potential candidates but involves preparing these individuals through training, mentorship, and development opportunities.

Interim management can significantly enhance this process in several ways:

1. Gap Filling with Expertise: 
   Interim managers provide an immediate solution to leadership gaps which buys the organisation time to make thoughtful, strategic decisions about permanent appointments rather than rushing to fill a vacancy. Moreover, these interim professionals bring a wealth of experience and a fresh perspective, often identifying and nurturing internal talent that may have been overlooked. 
   
   
2. Mentoring and Developing Potential Successors: 
   With their extensive experience and objective viewpoint, good interims can guide emerging leaders, offering insights and practical advice. This real-time coaching is invaluable in preparing future leaders, not just for their next role but for the overall challenges of executive leadership. 
   
   
3. Enhancing Organisational Agility: 
   The right interim manager can introduce a level of flexibility and agility to the organisation that is crucial for effective succession planning. They can help the organisation adapt its succession strategies in response to changing business conditions, ensuring that the leadership pipeline remains robust and relevant. 
   
   
4. Evaluating Internal Talent: 
   An external perspective, free from internal biases, can be invaluable when assessing the potential of internal candidates objectively. 
   
   
5. Implementing Best Practices: 
   Interim managers often bring with them a wealth of knowledge from their experiences across various industries and companies. They can introduce best practices in succession planning that the organisation may not have considered, thereby strengthening the overall process. These practices could include more rigorous talent assessments, improved leadership development programs, or more strategic alignment of the succession plan with the organisation’s long-term goals. 
   
   

Case Study: How Interim Management Transformed Succession Planning

Consider a mid-sized technology company that unexpectedly lost its CEO due to health reasons. The board appointed an interim CEO to manage the transition. During their tenure, the interim CEO identified gaps in the company’s leadership pipeline, particularly the lack of readiness among senior managers to step into executive roles.

The interim CEO implemented a structured leadership development program, introduced new assessment tools to evaluate potential successors, and worked closely with the HR team to align the company’s talent management strategy with its long-term goals. As a result, when the board finally appointed a permanent CEO, they had a clear, well-prepared pool of candidates for other key leadership positions, reducing the risk of future disruptions.

In conclusion, interim management plays a critical role in improving succession planning, offering a strategic advantage that can help organisations navigate the complexities of leadership transitions with confidence and foresight.

 For interim and executive hires, who often step into roles during times of significant change or crisis, resilience is not just a quality to aspire to but a necessity for navigating complex challenges.  By embedding mentoring into a resilience culture, organisations

1. Understanding Resilience in Leadership:

Resilience in leadership goes beyond bouncing back from setbacks; it involves the capacity to adapt, maintain focus, and lead effectively under pressure. Interim and executive hires, often facing high-stakes situations, require a robust support system to develop and sustain this resilience. This is where mentoring becomes invaluable.

2. The Role of Mentoring:

Mentoring provides a structured form of support where experienced leaders guide, advise, and encourage their less experienced counterparts. It also offers a sounding board for navigating organisational politics, making strategic decisions, and managing stress. It helps build confidence and provides practical strategies for overcoming obstacles.

3. Tailored Support for Interim and Executive Hires:

Mentoring programs should be tailored to the unique needs of interim and executive hires. These leaders face different challenges compared to permanent staff, such as short-term objectives, integration into existing teams, and immediate impact expectations. Effective mentoring should address these specific challenges, providing relevant advice and support.

4. Matching Mentors and Mentees:

Successful mentoring relies on a good match between mentor and mentee. Mentors should ideally be seasoned leaders with experience in similar roles or industries. This alignment ensures that the guidance offered is practical and grounded in real-world experience.

5. Setting Clear Objectives:

To be effective, mentoring relationships should have clear objectives. These might include goals related to leadership development, strategic thinking, stress management, or navigating organisational changes. By setting these objectives, both mentors and mentees can track progress and ensure the relationship remains focused and productive.

6. Assessing Resilience Growth:

To evaluate the effectiveness of mentoring programs, organisations should assess the growth in resilience among staff. This can be done through feedback surveys, performance reviews, and assessing the ability of leaders to handle stress and change.

7. Tracking Organisational Impact:

The impact of mentoring extends beyond individual leaders to the organisation as a whole. Monitoring metrics such as team performance, employee engagement, and turnover rates can provide insights into how well the mentoring program is supporting organisational resilience.

Mentoring within the framework of a resilience culture is a powerful strategy for supporting interim and executive hires. By providing tailored guidance, fostering open communication, and promoting work-life balance, mentoring helps these leaders navigate the complexities of their roles and build resilience.  Embedding effective mentoring practices can enhance leadership effectiveness, support organisational stability, and contribute to long-term success. Investing in mentoring is not just about individual growth; it’s about cultivating a resilient and thriving organisation capable of overcoming any obstacle.

Do you or people in your team stay plugged in whilst meant to be on holiday?  Are there emails being sent at 3am?  Is work frequently crashing in on personal time?

Boundaries in the workplace are essential for several reasons. They help maintain a healthy work-life balance, prevent burnout, and ensure that all team members, from junior staff to senior executives, can perform at their best. For interim and executive hires, who often enter organizations during periods of transition or crisis, boundaries are particularly critical. These leaders are expected to make swift, impactful decisions while navigating complex organisational dynamics. Without clear boundaries, the risk of overwhelm and burnout is significantly heightened. 

1. Clear Communication:

Effective boundary-setting begins with clear communication. Interim and executive hires must articulate their limits regarding work hours, availability, and workload from the outset. This includes setting expectations about after-hours communication and weekend work. By doing so, they can create a framework that allows them to function optimally without overextending themselves.

2. Prioritisation:

Identify the most critical tasks and focus energy on these. Delegation is a powerful tool in this context. By delegating less critical tasks to other team members, leaders can ensure they are not overwhelmed and can maintain their focus on strategic decisions that drive the organisation forward.

3. Self-Care:

Self-care is often overlooked in high-pressure roles, but it is essential for resilience. Interim and executive hires should prioritise their well-being by ensuring they get adequate rest, exercise, and downtime. This might mean scheduling regular breaks throughout the day or ensuring that weekends are reserved for family and personal time.

4. Organisational Support:

For boundaries to be effective, it requires a culture that values and understands their importance. Companies should encourage their leaders to set and maintain boundaries and model this behaviour at all levels of the organisation.

5. Leading by Example:

Interim and executive hires have the unique opportunity to lead by example. By consistently enforcing their own boundaries, they can demonstrate to their teams the importance of doing the same. This creates a ripple effect, fostering a workplace culture that prioritises resilience and well-being.

6. Accountability:

Finally, there must be mechanisms in place to hold everyone accountable for respecting boundaries. This might include regular check-ins, feedback sessions, and a clear policy on work hours and communication. When boundaries are consistently respected, it builds trust within the team and enhances overall organisational resilience.

In the dynamic world of business, resilience is not just a desirable trait; it's a necessity. For interim and executive hires, resilience is particularly crucial as they steer organisations through pivotal moments. By setting and respecting boundaries, these leaders can maintain their well-being and effectiveness, ultimately contributing to a more resilient and robust workplace. As organisations recognize and support the importance of boundaries, they lay the groundwork for sustained success and a thriving workforce.

In the dynamic landscape of modern business, the importance of diversity within teams cannot be overstated. Interim hires, much like the diverse athletes who come together for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, bring unique skills and perspectives that can significantly enhance a team's performance.

1. Fresh Perspectives and Expertise

Interim professionals often come with a wealth of experience from various industries and backgrounds. This diversity in experience means they can offer fresh perspectives and innovative solutions to challenges. Their varied expertise enables teams to approach problems differently, fostering creativity and improving decision-making processes.

2. Flexibility and Adaptability

Interim hires are typically accustomed to stepping into new environments and quickly adapting to different corporate cultures and team dynamics. This adaptability can be particularly beneficial in today’s fast-paced business world, where the ability to pivot and embrace change is crucial. Their presence can help permanent team members become more flexible and open to new ways of working.

3. Cross-Pollination of Ideas

Just as athletes from different sports share training techniques and strategies during the Olympics and Paralympics, interim professionals bring best practices from their previous roles and industries. This cross-pollination of ideas can lead to the development of more effective processes and strategies within the team. The exchange of diverse knowledge not only enhances the skill set of the team but also fosters a culture of continuous learning and improvement.

4. Accelerated Growth and Innovation

Diverse teams are known to be more innovative. The variety of viewpoints and approaches that interim hires contribute can accelerate growth and drive innovation. By challenging the status quo and encouraging different ways of thinking, these professionals can help teams break out of conventional patterns and explore new avenues for development.

5. Bridging Gaps and Enhancing Collaboration

Interim hires often serve as bridges between different departments or functions within an organisation. Their broad range of experiences allows them to understand and communicate effectively across various teams, enhancing collaboration and breaking down silos. This holistic approach can lead to a more cohesive and united team, where diverse talents are leveraged to achieve common goals.

Conclusion

The integration of interim hires into teams can significantly enhance diversity and bring a unique blend of skills and perspectives. Much like the diverse athletes at the Olympics and Paralympics who come together to achieve greatness, interim professionals contribute to a richer, more dynamic team environment. Their fresh insights, adaptability, and ability to foster collaboration can drive innovation and lead to exceptional performance, making them invaluable assets in today’s competitive business landscape.

Recruitment and retention is not unlike assembling a world-class Olympic squad. In today’s competitive job market, HR and Transformation leaders must play the role of strategic coaches, adapting to evolving attitudes towards work and workplace dynamics. Just as high turnover can derail a team's performance, an organisation's finances and operational efficiency suffer when employees frequently leave.

Crafting employee value propositions that cater to individual preferences is like customizing training programs for each athlete. This approach bridges the gap between what employees seek and what the organisation requires. HR teams should take the lead in identifying these unique preferences and aligning them with the company's needs. Similarly, matching business needs with the right skills ensures that employees are placed in roles where they can excel, much like ensuring athletes compete in their best events. Comprehensive training and development are essential, just as continuous coaching is crucial for athletes.

It is important to differentiate between long-haul roles and interim or contract roles that are vital for more transformational projects, ensuring key positions are filled with the right talent for the short-term.

A flexible, non-core workforce is like having a strong bench and reserve players ready to step in during peak times and challenges. This flexibility not only manages workforce demands but also ensures that talented individuals are placed in roles where they can thrive. By doing so, organisations can retain and nurture the skills needed for sustained growth and success.

New strategies for attraction, retention, and attrition are essential as people rethink their relationship with work. Organisations can respond by tailoring employee value propositions to individual preferences, closing the gap between what employees desire and what companies need. By doing so, businesses can cultivate a loyal and resilient team, ready to achieve long-term success, just like an Olympic team striving for gold.

Do all Transformation experts think alike?

In its glory days, the Roman Empire was responsible for creating an extensive network of thoroughfares throughout the European continent, from Britain to Turkey, interconnecting its 113 provinces by means of 373 routes that were more than 80 thousand kilometres long. Today, some of Europe's major highways exist on these ancient Roman roads.

The well-known saying “all roads lead to Rome” seems to be true, at least, that’s what Moovel Lab, a team from Stuttgart dedicated to urban mobility research, points out. Titled "Roads to Rome," the project has mapped out over-land routes across Europe that converge to the city.

From a grid of 26,503,452 square kilometres covering all of Europe, the researchers defined 486,713 starting points that were superimposed on the continent's street map. Then an algorithm was developed for the project that calculated the shortest route between each of the points and the Italian capital.

The resulting cartography reveals a route map that, in fact, does lead to Rome!  Well, at least if the road was important. The logic of how an empire works isn’t so different to a modern country. The Romans weren’t that different to us; they were just trying to minimise routes to save time and to retain control.

In modern day parlance, the phrase “all roads lead to Rome” is taken to mean that there are many different ways of reaching a certain goal and that all choices, methods or actions eventually lead to the same result. 

Do they? You might ask.

So, it set me thinking about some of the research into failures in transformation programmes and what approaches various experts are extolling.

As we surely know by now, 70% of business transformations fail to achieve their original ambitions. Indeed, a recent study report from global strategy and management firm Boston Consulting Group found that only one third of local corporate digital transformation programmes could be considered a success, with targets met or succeeded and sustainable change created. On the flip-side, 20 percent of such projects were deemed outright failures, with less than half of the targets met, and no sustainable change created. globally, that figure pushes out to more than a quarter.

With such dire figures and corresponding poor return on investment, a lot of organisations turn to the big consultancies. They have a fear that the same will happen to them. Leaders fear their own personal jobs might be at risk if they fail and so having their hand held by one of these trusted organisations may be seen to help mitigate the risk, show they’re doing the right thing and give people more belief.

In some ways, transformations are viewed as being very complex, requiring a correspondingly complex and detailed approach. Others though, view transformations as relatively simple, programmes that become complex at their peril, and truly succeed only when they are simplified, and you win the hearts and the minds of the people. 

So how do some of the consultancies and researchers approach transformations? Well, we read a lot about different strategies they propose are the right ones to adopt.

Bain & Co, for example, talk at length about six practices their research has shown are key to successful programmes.  Treating transformations as a continuous process is at the forefront here taking aim at the previous “unfreeze-change-refreeze” model. That model made sense when most business transformations were transitionary, it’s not well suited to deliver a major change in today’s highly dynamic environment. As we can probably all see, most organisations are likely to be in a state of constant transformation now, given the environment we are currently operating in.

Here, they also talk about building transformation into an organisation’s operating rhythm; explicitly managing organisational energy, an argument for focus and simplicity; using aspirations, not just targets, to stretch management thinking; driving change from the middle out; and accessing substantial external capital from the start.  The last point being that transformation is expensive. Whether you are a company or a government department, it seems to be quite a common theme that transformations are underfunded and often funded through cost saving measures. As you would expect, this typically falls short.

Boston Consulting Group (BCG) have themselves carried out a lot of research to try to identify key factors that contribute to the success of transformation programmes. In one such piece of research, they surveyed 825 senior executives from around the world, along with analysing data from 70 projects that it had itself worked on.  They have also concluded there are six factors which, if addressed in combination, are likely to deliver the greatest chances for success. These include an integrated strategy with clear transformation goals; leadership commitment from CEO through middle management; deploying high calibre talent; an agile governance mindset that drives broader adoption; effective monitoring of progress towards defined outcomes; and investments in a business lead technology and data platform.

As you can see from just these two examples, there is some crossover but with each taking aim at points the other one doesn’t consider.  Were we to incorporate thoughts from PWC, Deloitte, Accenture etc, no doubt we would get a few other aspects that they each believe are important.

No wonder organisations struggle to make sense of things and find it difficult to work out which is the right path.

At risk of confusing matters further, I’m going to refer to a different piece of research, one which ties in with a common theme in several of our transformation newsletters.

This one relates to people and again pulls on some research from Bain and Co, but research that has been impressed on us consistently when engaging with our own cohort of the top transformation leaders.  These are people who are very much in the 30% successful as opposed to the 70% failure category.

According to its survey of over 400 executives and senior leaders, the strongest predictor of a transformation’s success is how well the organisation retains, develops, and acquires the right talent and capabilities to pull it off.  They subsequently identified three common mistakes that seem pivotal in transformations; failure to focus on the critical roles, noting that the wrong people often end up in critical seats, which is disastrous when considering 90% of the results of any transformation are created by less than 5% of roles; relying on too shallow a talent pool, in which “star players” are often overloaded, which sets them up for failure, and a Chief Transformation Officer not being present (a CTO typically achieves 24% more value); and poor preparation for the future, where an organisation’s high performers were often viewed as lacking the capabilities needed to succeed in critical roles, and skills gaps remained unaddressed.

So back to the question.  “Do all roads lead to Rome?”

Well, as per the research by Moovel Lab, they do.  And, indeed, from the research by Bain & Co and Boston Consulting Group, they should do as well.  Some faster than others of course.

But what stands out to us, is the people.  If an organisation retains, develops, and acquires the right talent and capabilities, then it has a far greater chance to pull it off.  Getting the people right is without doubt the strongest predictor of a transformation’s likely success.

Find the best transformation leaders and talent with Malikshaw Interim & Executive...

Malikshaw Interim & Executive work closely with organisations to deliver real world outcomes from transformation and change programmes. Whether it is about people, process, technology, data or product, our talent pools contain the very best leaders and domain specialists that can help to drive your organisation's next stage of growth and transformation.

Remember Greece in 2008?

The Greek economic crisis and associated austerity measures have led to negative social impacts that are still felt today. At the height of the crisis in 2013, general unemployment rose to almost a third of the population with significant impacts on wages and household consumption. Athens was the epicentre of the crisis, experiencing a 51% increase in poverty.  Given the financial mechanisms of the crisis, the most affected were the unemployed and self-employed, young and middle-aged families as well as people paying rents or mortgages.

Traditionally vulnerable groups, such as farmers and the elderly, were comparatively less affected than urban wage-earning families.

Among those that still had an employment, the economic crisis led to a worsening of labour conditions with people having to work longer hours and losing many of the labour protections that existed previously. These precarious labour conditions made farming and the opportunity to be one’s “own boss” incredibly attractive.  Work conditions were becoming so difficult that people linked the crisis and living conditions in the city to a “loss of humanity” that could only be regained through a process of personal transformation.

The result was an exodus of people back to the land to become farmers and a whole wave of personal transformations.

Transformations that were triggered by a crisis.

Crises are defined in a broad sense as "collective stress situations" which change how we understand something is organised and structured e.g. society.  Depending on their level of stress, they can lead to system-level transformation as we saw in Greece.  People’s personal beliefs were shaken to the extent that it made them view the world differently and take personal action for change.

What we have seen here is how a crisis can accelerate transformative change – more than the best laid out transformation plans – because it’s a shock to the system to remind it that it’s alive, a living entity with more latent skills than leaders recognise or fail to realise.

Crises accelerate transformative action because they require a response. By taking action – especially in uncertainty – we create results and results are what we learn from to inform decisions, course correct and take better action in the future.

It’s a counter-intuitive approach because the nature of uncertainty means we don’t actually know what to do. But paradoxically, the only way to get the information we need is through action – taking your best guess, starting small and learning your way through.

Beyond Greece, the entire world went through a crisis back in 2020 when Covid struck.  What we saw in this period was a whole new level of transformative change.

As we know, leading transformation in large organisations is tough. It requires patience, persistence and can feel like an uphill struggle against the system that can’t get out of its own way to evolve. Millions of pounds, countless hours and bucket loads of energy are poured into organisations to encourage revolution. How many true stories of success do we see?

What we have seen though both in Greece and, more recently in Covid, is that crises can bring the best out of people.  It was fascinating to see how the clarity of mission - and that time it was a collective mission of survival - connected people together to drive an intrinsic level of motivation, which in turn drove collaboration to succeed in high-pressure high tempo situations.

We saw the NHS holding patient appointments online and giving us an app to see our patient records.  Remember Joe Wicks famously leading what felt like the whole country through online fitness sessions? Dyson started producing ventilators and local stores sorted appearing online with their own YouTube channels.

And the business world transformed overnight. At Tesco bank they were able to implement an increase in contactless payment limits in days, when previously it would’ve taken months. They and other organisations found a way to decamp overnight to work from home using rapidly prepared laptops. Company meetings went online with Zoom and we all suddenly worked out that people can be productive, and indeed be trusted, to work out of the eyesight of their manager.

It did seem at the time that organisations grasped at speed the benefits of lean and agile processes enabling them to react faster and make quicker decisions. But, if that is true, what brought that about.

Is it that a crisis unshackles an organisation’s ability to apply these principles when before they were suffocated by bureaucracy, siloed thinking and risk aversion?

Covid certainly focused people’s minds.  It gave them a shared purpose which was easy to understand, and which tapped into their intrinsic motivation. Suddenly, the objective was clear and crisply defined with a clear call to action.  Teams could see themselves tackling challenging problems and able to deliver real and successful outcomes for their customers.

Covid-19 also led to radical organisation wide reduction of initiatives, a forcing-function to focus teams on a shared small set of priorities, where otherwise organisations battle many competing priorities often creating confusion.   It created a simplicity with a succinct set of objectives that was both powerful and attractive.  A bit like a football team knowing that it needs a goal in added time or they will be knocked out.

By harnessing this true sense of purpose, the simplicity that comes with it, and the associated compelling motivation, we then saw further knock on effects that made successful outcomes far more probable.  Individuals and teams had a far clearer focus and were more able to see the impact of the part that they played.  At the same time, people became more outcome focused and thought of quicker smarter ways to achieve their goals.  And research since has talked about how Covid19 enabled organisations to focus and take smaller steps, faster.

Another aspect that seems to appear was enhanced collaboration maybe because of the breaking down of political barriers or the reduction in risk aversion that often suffocates an organisation.  Indeed, people reported a shift in culture and people values — especially as leaders started to role model new behaviours and acceptance of imperfect results.

It appears that in the face of crisis induced uncertainty it has now become acceptable at all levels to “learn as we go”, adapting to the crisis and changing when required.

What crisis creates is a situation that isn’t artificial. It’s not a training, a simulation or a story of what great looks like—it’s real. And in this scenario, people get to see, feel and experience the benefits of applying these ways of working for themselves.

The biggest hurdle to change is people not believing it’s possible. In Greece, thousands upon thousands of people combatted that and made their own choice to act.  Similarly, with Covid, the pressure of the crisis has prompted people to act differently, provided a new perspective and impacted their mindset for the better. It created the forcing function to react, grow or be left behind.

How we can leverage that experience of managing a crisis for the benefit of future transformations is the big question.  Can we learn from them or do we lapse back into our old ways of trying to do too much, not being clear in our real purpose, and forgetting the importance of creating intrinsic motivation in our people. 

We’ll see.

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