Turn Intention Into Action

Transformation doesn't happen because the strategy is right; it happens when people turn that strategy into decisions, actions and momentum.

Most organisations aren't short of ambition. They have strategies, transformation programmes, targets and plans. The hard part is turning that intent into something that actually changes the business. I saw that repeatedly throughout my career. An enormous distance can exist between agreeing what needs to happen and actually making it happen.

At Refinitiv, we didn't have the luxury of allowing that distance to grow.

We were separating a huge Financial & Risk business from Thomson Reuters, creating a new company, rebuilding technology, changing the culture and operating model, and doing it all against demanding financial targets. There was plenty to think about, but eventually, somebody has to do something - make the decision

One lesson I've learned about transformation is that delayed decisions rarely become easier decisions. Often the opposite happens. Problems become embedded, complexity accumulates, and people work around what isn't working. Temporary compromises quietly become permanent ones.

Leadership means being prepared to make decisions with imperfect information. Not recklessly or without listening to the people around you. But with an understanding that progress has its own value.

A good decision made at the right moment can be far more valuable than a theoretically perfect decision made six months too late.

You need to create momentum. Action also creates something that's difficult to manufacture in any other way: belief. When people see decisions being made, barriers being removed, and things genuinely changing, transformation stops being an abstract corporate programme; it becomes real.

One action leads to another, and progress becomes visible. Sceptics begin to believe that this time things might actually be different. That momentum mattered enormously at Refinitiv. We didn't get everything right. No transformation does, but we kept moving, learning and adjusting.

The strategy mattered. The plans mattered. The numbers mattered.

But none of them transformed the business on their own. The people did. Strategy only matters when it moves. There will always be another analysis you could run, another meeting you could hold and another version of the plan you could produce.

At some point, leadership requires movement.

Set the direction.

Make the decision.

Give people ownership.

Then get going.

Because intention tells people where you want to go but action is what gets you there.