The best transformation is the one you never had to launch.

Every few years, most organisations go through the same ritual. A new leadership plan is unveiled. Slides are shared. Everyone is told this time will be different. And yet, somewhere down the line, another “bold new plan” arrives to fix what the last one did not.

I have sat in enough leadership rooms to notice the pattern. The organisations that keep reinventing themselves are not always the ones moving forward. Often, they are the ones still avoiding the real question underneath.

1. Constant change is not always a sign of strong Leadership

There is a quiet assumption in many boardrooms that visible change equals progress. A new structure, a new strategy, a new initiative, it feels like momentum. But when this happens too often, it usually means something else is going on.

• A pattern of repeated overhauls is often a sign that the real issue was never actually solved
• People eventually stop believing in “this one,” because they have seen a few “this ones” before
• Energy that should go into execution keeps getting redirected into announcing the next reset

A recent Harvard Business Review piece put this pattern into words rather well, noting that leaders often point to outside forces to explain repeated shake-ups, while the deeper issues underneath stay untouched (https://hbr.org/2026/01/get-off-the-transformation-treadmill).

2. Not all change deserves the word “Transformation”

To be fair, some change is genuinely necessary. When an industry shifts underneath a business, standing still is its own risk. But there is a real difference between change that responds to something structural, and change that is simply a reaction to a disappointing quarter.

• Ask honestly: has the ground actually shifted, or are we just uncomfortable with recent results?
• Real transformation repositions a business for what’s coming. A routine reshuffle just rearranges what’s already there
• Before starting something new, it is worth asking what the last transformation was actually supposed to fix, and whether it did.

3. What gets quietly lost in the noise?

Frequent, dramatic change has a cost that rarely shows up on a slide. People get cautious. Long-term partners get hesitant. Nobody wants to build something meaningful on ground that keeps shifting.

• Employees who have seen several resets tend to wait things out rather than lean in
• Customers and partners hesitate to commit when the strategy keeps changing.
• None of this shows up as a line item, but it shows up in how slowly things move

4. The quieter, more effective path

The leaders I have seen build lasting organisations rarely wait for a crisis to justify a big move. Instead, they pay close attention early, and they fix small things before they become big enough to need a “transformation.”

• They notice shifts in the environment before those shifts become emergencies
• They treat small, steady adjustments as part of normal leadership, not a special project
• For them, agility is not a one-time project, it is how they lead, every single day.

5. A simple test for any change you are considering

One thing I have learned to watch for is where the value in a decision actually goes. It is tempting to solve one group’s problem by quietly passing the cost onto another, trimming supplier terms here, cutting support there. It might look like a fix. It rarely holds up.

• Be cautious of decisions that solve a problem for one group by creating one for another
• Look for changes that genuinely strengthen the whole system, not just this quarter’s numbers
• If a decision only works because someone else absorbs the cost, it’s worth a second look

Reflective Checklist

• How many “big transformations” has your organisation been through in the last few years?
• Is your next planned change responding to something real, or repeating an old habit?
• Are you building steady strength, or waiting for a crisis to justify the next big move?
• Do your decisions create shared value, or just move the cost somewhere else?
• If you paused every major initiative today, how strong would the business actually stand?

Good leadership is not measured by how many transformations an organisation survives. It is measured by how few it actually needs. The leaders who build something lasting are usually the quiet ones, paying attention early, adjusting steadily, and resisting the pull toward one more big reset. 

If you would like support building a steadier approach to leading change, write to us at [email protected] and let’s start the conversation.

Source: Rigby, D., & First, Z. (2026). Get Off the Transformation Treadmill. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2026/01/get-off-the-transformation-treadmill

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