The Transformation Trifecta: Three Behaviors Leaders Must Demonstrate in Order to Orchestrate Change

Businesses face a huge challenge when it comes to transformation. It doesn’t have anything to do with creating the perfect strategy. And it doesn’t have anything to do with an industry-first merger, best product on the market or first-to-launch service either. The biggest obstacle to organizational transformation is winning over the hearts and minds of your people.

Spelling it out, plain and simple: if you don’t win over the hearts and minds of your employees, forget winning the hearts and minds of your customers. Change isn’t going to happen. Not even a little. However, if you get everyone believing, feeling connected and excited about the change, you can win. The question is … how?

Vital foundational change is built around a trio of actions that leaders must undertake. This transformation trifecta includes Truth Statements on the current business, a set of new Underlying Beliefs on which to build the business going forward, and a set of Behavioral Ground Rules that become a behavioral change contract between the leaders of the business. Follow these three steps and seasoned leaders and newbies alike will successfully navigate the sometimes tumultuous and always uncertain waters of strategy transformation.

Step 1: Create a Truth Statement.

Everything begins and ends with the Truth Statement. Change only occurs when people are shown a truth that influences their feelings rather than given a presentation, memo or analysis in an attempt to shift their thinking.

Consider this example. A retail brand that wants to create a competitively differentiated and industry-best customer experience took a good look in the mirror. The leaders evaluated what they saw. And then they shockingly acknowledged these Truth Statements to themselves and others.

• We say that we want to be a people development company. We say this is core to transforming our guest experience, but we rarely make it a priority, don’t like doing it, and aren’t very good at it.


• We have a productive relationship with our franchisees but don’t trust that they will do the right thing for the brand standards without our strong policing. To transform the customer experience we need a shared vision for the future with much deeper franchisee/franchisor trust.


• We direct, tell and sell rather than ask, listen and learn with our people and our franchisees, which creates an absence of engagement and the lack of commitment to change.


• We see franchisees as a necessary evil we must control and keep in line, rather than a partner we want to be in business with.

The minute you begin to acknowledge the truth statements of your business, becomes the first minute of your organizational transformation.

Step 2: Align on the Underlying Beliefs

Kudos! If you’re moved onto step two, then you deserve a bit of congratulations for taking the often-scary step of comparing your mission to your actions and attitudes in order to determine how your business is performing. But the hard part ain’t over yet. Now it’s time to create transparency and alignment on Underlying Beliefs, the guide for broad change in leaders’ practices, habits, routines and behaviors.

The same retailer referenced earlier established these Underlying Beliefs.

• The guests’ experience will be determined by the quality of our people’s experience.


• Capturing the hearts and minds of the general manager is essential to transforming the guest experience.


• Our success depends on building a high-trust relationship with franchisees.

Establishing Underlying Beliefs really starts and stops with the end-goal of the business. You need to list out the essential beliefs and supporting actions that will turn your customer experience goal into a reality.

Step 3: Set Behavioral Ground Rules

Lastly, it’s time to set some rules. Behavioral Ground Rules determine how leaders connect their aspirations for the future business with their behaviors. Whether we like it or not, our emotions impact our actions – even at work. The emotional side of our brain has a long history, is connected to the factors that change our behaviors and is the more powerful side for significant change. This is why it’s ESSENTIAL that you get your emotional side in check with your cerebral side, that’s how you can help bring change to fruition.

After you figure out your ground rules, it’s important to make sure they don’t purely exist on paper. They need to be measured and monitored just as importantly as the financials.

Let’s take a look at the Behavioral Grounds Rules that our retailer set up in order for their leaders.

• Ask, listen, and learn instead of directing, telling, and selling when interacting with franchisees and employees.


• Respect and trust the intentions of others.


• Link critical actions to the desired employee and guest experience.


• Disagree without being disagreeable by separating the issue from the individual.

If you thought that discussing, researching, building, revising and testing your customer experience strategy for change was the hard part, you’re in for a shock. The blood, sweat and tears you invested in planning for this transformation will all be for naught if your actions and behaviors don’t match up. If your people don’t believe in what you’ve planned. If your people don’t believe in YOU. Yet, change is possible. It can be empowering, uniting and successful. All it takes is a little honesty and a commitment to walk the walk as much as you talk the talk.

The Transformation Trifecta: Three Behaviors Leaders Must Demonstrate in Order to Orchestrate Change