Lead With a Loud and Constant Why

Transformation needs more than a plan. People need to understand why they are being asked to change in the first place.

Businesses are very good at explaining what is changing: new structures, new systems, new targets, new reporting lines, new ways of working. We are often less good at explaining why any of it matters. That distinction became increasingly important to me during the transformation that ultimately created Refinitiv.

People can deal with a remarkable amount of change when they understand its purpose. What they struggle with is change that feels arbitrary, disconnected or imposed upon them. A transformation plan can make perfect sense in a boardroom and still fail when it reaches the organisation. If the people expected to deliver it can't see the destination, why would we expect them to be enthusiastic about the journey?

Clarity before action

The original Refinitiv Blue Book was created partly to solve that problem. It was a blueprint for how the organisation should work: its purpose, strategy, operating model, accountabilities and decision-making. I used to think of it as a kind of Highway Code for the business. It couldn't make somebody a brilliant driver, but it could make the rules of the road clear.

That clarity matters enormously during transformation.

Leaders inevitably spend months thinking about a change before most employees hear about it. By the time we announce something, we have lived with the rationale for so long that it can seem obvious. It isn't. The rest of the organisation is starting on day one.

So the why has to be simple, meaningful, and repeated far more often than most leaders think necessary. Meaning creates movement and purpose isn't the soft stuff around transformation. It's part of the machinery that makes transformation possible.

People need to connect the work they are doing today with the organisation you are trying to create tomorrow. That means explaining why the status quo isn't good enough. Why the destination matters. What will be different when you get there, and, importantly, what part people themselves have to play in making it happen.

You don't communicate that once at a town hall and move on. You keep coming back to it.

When the why disappears, the transformation quickly becomes a collection of projects, targets and PowerPoint slides. When the why remains loud, clear and constant, people have something much more powerful.

A reason to move.