The Heart of Transformation: Build the Human Capabilities that Change Organizations for Good

Technology doesn’t transform organizations - people do.

In an era of technological and constant change, companies are bombarded with urgent advice to become more agile, lean and digital. Billions are spent on digital transformation efforts with the promise that these efforts will increase competitive advantage. Yet even when only 30 percent of these efforts succeed, this hard-won competitive advantage only lasts until the next disruption before the cycle repeats, causing transformation fatigue. The Heart of Transformation breaks this cycle by suggesting that the pace and complexity of change is too great and too complex to be addressed by a single change effort or transformation. The answer lies in the organization’s greatest asset: its people. In the face of complexity, it is the people and their ability to adapt and learn that are the true engine of organizational change.

The Heart of Transformation outlines the six human capabilities (Exploring before Executing, Learning before Knowing, Pathfinding before Path Following, Changing before Protecting, Innovating before Replicating and Humanizing before Organizing) that create competitive advantage for organizations organically, quickly and from the bottom up. The book translates those capabilities into simple and immediately adoptable behaviors for leaders and every person in the organization. It offers a new standard for organizational excellence, one that is dependent on the organization’s ability to be deeply human. Instead of offering another one-size-fits-all solution, The Heart of Transformation reveals that by leveraging our most human of capabilities, organizations can change better, faster and achieve excellence much quicker than imagined.