We all agree on the science: 70% of all change initiatives fail.
The proposed solutions are many.
I believe that failure starts in your leadership team.
A recent study at CBS and Lund University* shows that management teams have a hard time breaking out of a cycle that starts with defining a problem, deciding a course of action and then assigning the responsibility for that action. Since it is difficult to agree on and collectively understand some problems, a team can quickly move to discussion different solutions instead, and later assigning the responsibility for that solution to one or more member of the management team – who then go back to the original problem that they feel has not been defined well enough.
In my experience, that cycle becomes especially vicious when the problems discussed are digital or otherwise disruptive and include complicated solutions and affect processes and value streams that cross different parts of the organisation.
*The struggle of leadership work: Three interactional challenges in mobilizing actors to commit to future action. Elisabet S. Nielsen & Magnus Larsson
The Möllan School of Leadership
As a Founder and co-initiator I’m proud to share the Principles of the Möllan School of Leadership.
We believe that leadership in the 21st century must move beyond the legacies of command,
secrecy, and short-termism, into an era of openness, dialogue, and shared responsibility. True
leadership is not measured by the dominance of a few, but by the vitality and resilience of the
whole.
Inspired by Heifetz’s adaptive leadership (1994) and Senge’s vision of the learning organization
(1990), we affirm that trust is born from transparency, learning emerges through process, and
resilience flourishes in uncertainty. Our task is not to promise certainty, but to help people navigate
and make sense of complexity (Weick, 1995).
Transparency over secrecy: We embrace transparency as the foundation of trust
Process over results: We value the integrity of process as much as outcomes, recognizing
Teamwork over individual: We affirm that authentic leadership thrives in teams
Partnership over competition: We commit to partnership, inspired by servant leadership frameworks
Inclusion over exclusion: We choose inclusion as the path to innovation,
Long-term goals over short-term goals: We pledge to build for the long horizon, d
Learning over teaching: We favor learning as a mutual journey
Involving over telling: We involve rather than instruct
Repeat business over growth: We value lasting relationships over rapid expansion,
Accepting uncertainty over planning for certainty: We embrace uncertainty as fertile ground for leadership,
Courage over compliance: We champion courage as the essence of authentic leadership — the willingness to act with integrityeven when it defies convention
Sustainability over exploitation: We affirm sustainability as the true measure of progress