Practical Perspectives for Change LeadersÂ
Change is not a programme with an end date. It is the operating system. Karla Micallef, Event Chair and Paul West Panel Chair, bring together four powerful speakers and their vantage points that equip you to lead in that reality:
- Amy C. Edmondson Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School
- Caroline Perkins o-founder and former president of the Change Management Institute and managing director of Carbon Group
- Leonie Hull co-founder and CEO at the Academy of Brain based Leadership (ABL)
- Dr Dorottya Sallai Associate Professor of Management (Education) at the London School of Economics (LSE).
3 Essentials every leader uses, everywhere: Amy C. Edmondson
Amy frames effective change as three ongoing actions leaders take, regardless of level:
- Set the stage by explaining the why and the what so people see purpose and direction
- Invite and enable by actively seeking voices, experimentation and contribution
- Respond with a learning mindset by treating change as iterative, celebrating progress and adapting as new information arrives
She adds a crucial second role for change professionals. Beyond enabling delivery, they help organisations identify the most important areas that deserve change, including environmental, geopolitical and societal challenges. In short, success is not only shareholder value. Legitimacy comes from demonstrable value to society.
Where we have come from: Caroline Perkins
Caroline tracks the profession’s evolution from the 1980s through the 2000s. Early foundations were set by thinkers such as Kotter, Covey, Kübler-Ross and Kanter, with consulting houses building the first practices and universities beginning to formalise qualifications. Methodologies like Prosci’s ADKAR helped codify adoption work, yet the practice was often lonely and fragmented.
Her pivotal shift is moving beyond project-level change to organisational and leadership-level change. Capability now lives in the business, not just in programmes. Governance must adapt to agile environments. One size never fits all. Meet the organisation where it is, then align capability investments across projects, business units and leaders. Caroline also cautions that some gains around purpose and agility risk slipping under pressure from individualism and short-termism.
Where we are now: Leonie Hull
Organisations and change initiatives are often working against the human brain. We don’t get the results we’re looking for because despite our best efforts, we fail to motivate, influence and nurture people and their needs through a change initiative.
Her prescription is psychological safety understood through neuroscience – the state where the brain’s needs for
- Security
- Autonomy
- Fairness
- Esteem
- Trust are met in the social context
She uses the ‘SAFETY’ shorthand to help leaders design change that minimises threat, reduces fatigue and supports performance. Without this, you get opposition, quiet dissent and burnout even when governance and plans look sound.
Psychological safety is not a soft extra. It is the precondition for sustained adoption.
Where we are going: Dr Dorottya Sallai
Dori reframes the era we are in – we are moving from a world of planned change to a world of constant, unplanned change.
Today, leaders face a new challenge. They really need to think about how to build organisations that don’t break under the weight of constant transformation. We are entering a new phase where stability itself is an illusion and we have to think about how to develop a culture in which change is the norm and it’s a natural state.
The task is to build organisations that do not break under continuous transformation. That means resilience at the system level, not just the individual level, and a culture where learning and adaptation are normal.
The immediate disruptor is AI. Regulations shift mid-programme. Tools evolve before roll-out. Products change while you are still vetting vendors. Adoption is rapid, yet a shadow AI economy emerges when people use tools privately because trust and transparency are missing. Her capabilities agenda:
- Make change a strategic capability in the C-suite.
Treat it as part of how the enterprise competes, not a delivery function - Equip people at scale. Put leading and managing change into leadership development and internal training
- Lead with values and critical thinking. In a world where everything else is fluid, values can anchor choices and prevent mindless homogenisation
Reframing change as something people can lead, not something that happens to them, reduces helplessness and resistance.
Why this matters now
Across all voices, four threads join up:
- Trust is a capability, not a sentiment
- Psychological safety is built one brain at a time, then scaled through language, routines, and accountability
- Resilience shifts from personal grit to organisational design
- Context beats playbooks, especially across cultures and generations
Leaning into these threads, positions change leaders to help people not only absorb change, but lead it.
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