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Have you ever noticed
when you ask someone to talk

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about a change they're making
for the better in their personal lives,

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they're often really energetic?

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Whether it's training for a marathon,

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picking up an old hobby,

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or learning a new skill,

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for most people,

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self-transformation projects
occupy a very positive emotional space.

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Self-transformation is empowering,

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energizing, even exhilarating.

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I mean just take a look
at some of the titles of self-help books:

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"Awaken the Giant Within,"

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"Practicing the Power of Now,"

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or here's a great one
we can all relate to,

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"You are a Badass:

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How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness
and Start Living an Awesome Life."

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(Laughter)

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When it comes to self-transformation,

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you can't help but get
a sense of the excitement.

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But there's another type of transformation

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that occupies a very different
emotional space.

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The transformation of organizations.

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If you're like most people,

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when you hear the words "Our organization
is going to start a transformation,"

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you're thinking, "Uh-oh."

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(Laughter)

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"Layoffs."

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The blood drains from your face,

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your mind goes into overdrive,

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frantically searching
for some place to run and hide.

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Well, you can run,

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but you really can't hide.

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Most of us spend
the majority of our waking hours

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involved in organizations.

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And due to changes in globalization,

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changes due to advances in technology

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and other factors,

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the reality is our organizations
are constantly having to adapt.

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In fact,

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I call this the era
of "always-on" transformation.

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When I shared this idea
with my wife Nicola,

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she said, "Always-on transformation?

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That sounds exhausting."

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And that may be
exactly what you're thinking --

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and you would be right.

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Particularly if we continue to approach
the transformation of organizations

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the way we always have been.

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But because we can't hide,

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we need to sort out two things.

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First,

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why is transformation so exhausting?

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And second, how do we fix it?

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First of all,

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let's acknowledge that change is hard.

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People naturally resist change,

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especially when it's imposed on them.

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But there are things that organizations do
that make change even harder

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and more exhausting
for people than it needs to be.

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First of all,

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leaders often wait too long to act.

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As a result,

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everything is happening in crisis mode.

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Which, of course, tends to be exhausting.

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Or, given the urgency,

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what they'll do is they'll just focus
on the short-term results,

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but that doesn't give
any hope for the future.

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Or they'll just take
a superficial, one-off approach,

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hoping that they can return
back to business as usual

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as soon as the crisis is over.

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This kind of approach

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is kind of the way some students
approach preparing for standardized tests.

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In order to get test scores to go up,

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teachers will end up teaching to the test.

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Now, that approach can work;

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test results often do go up.

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But it fails the fundamental
goal of education:

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to prepare students
to succeed over the long term.

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So given these obstacles,

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what can we do

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to transform the way
we transform organizations

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so rather than being exhausting,

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it's actually empowering and energizing?

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To do that, we need to focus
on five strategic imperatives,

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all of which have one thing in common:

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putting people first.

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The first imperative
for putting people first

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is to inspire through purpose.

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Most transformations have
financial and operational goals.

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These are important
and they can be energizing to leaders,

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but they tend not to be very motivating
to most people in the organization.

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To motivate more broadly,

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the transformation needs to connect
with a deeper sense of purpose.

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Take LEGO.

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The LEGO Group has become
an extraordinary global company.

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Under their very capable leadership,

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they've actually undergone
a series of transformations.

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While each of these
has had a very specific focus,

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the North Star,

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linking and guiding all of them,

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has been Lego's powerful purpose:

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inspire and develop
the builders of tomorrow.

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Expanding globally?

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It's not about increasing sales,

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but about giving millions of additional
children access to LEGO building bricks.

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Investment and innovation?

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It's not about developing new products,

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but about enabling more children

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to experience the joy
of learning through play.

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Not surprisingly,

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that deep sense of purpose tends
to be highly motivating to LEGO's people.

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The second imperative
for putting people first

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is to go all in.

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Too many transformations

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are nothing more than
head-count cutting exercises;

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layoffs under the guise of transformation.

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In the face of relentless competition,

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it may well be that you will
have to take the painful decision

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to downsize the organization,

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just as you may have to lose some weight
in order to run a marathon.

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But losing weight alone

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will not get you across
the finish line with a winning time.

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To win

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you need to go all in.

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You need to go all in.

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Rather than just cutting costs,

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you need to think about initiatives

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that will enable you
to win in the medium term,

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initiatives to drive growth,

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actions that will fundamentally
change the way the company operates,

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and very importantly,

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investments to develop
the leadership and the talent.

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The third imperative
for putting people first

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is to enable people with the capabilities

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that they need to succeed
during the transformation and beyond.

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Over the years I've competed
in a number of triathlons.

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You know, frankly, I'm not that good,

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but I do have one distinct capability;

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I am remarkably fast at finding my bike.

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(Laughter)

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By the time I finish the swim,

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almost all the bikes are already gone.

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(Laughter)

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Real triathletes know that each leg --

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the swim, the bike, the run --

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really requires different capabilities,

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different tools,

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different skills, different techniques.

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Likewise when we transform organizations,

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we need to be sure
that we're giving our people

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the skills and the tools
they need along the way.

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Chronos,

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a global software company,

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recognized the need
to transfer from building products --

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software products --

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to building software as a service.

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To enable its people
to take that transformation,

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first of all they invested in new tools

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that would enable their employees
to monitor the usage of the features

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as well as customer satisfaction
with the new service.

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They also invested in skill development,

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so that their employees would be able

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to resolve customer service
problems on the spot.

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And very importantly,

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they also reinforced the collaborative
behaviors that would be required

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to deliver an end-to-end
seamless customer experience.

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Because of these investments,

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rather than feeling overwhelmed
by the transformation,

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Chronos employees actually felt energized

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and empowered in their new roles.

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In the era of "always-on" transformation,

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change is a constant.

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My fourth imperative therefore

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is to instill a culture
of continuous learning.

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When Satya Nadella
became the CEO of Microsoft

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in February 2014,

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he embarked on an ambitious
transformation journey

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to prepare the company to compete
in a mobile-first, cloud-first world.

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This included changes to strategy,

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the organization

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and very importantly, the culture.

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Microsoft's culture at the time was one
of silos and internal competition --

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not exactly conducive to learning.

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Nadella took this head-on.

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He rallied his leadership
around his vision

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for a living, learning culture,

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shifting from a fixed mindset,

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where your role was to show up
as the smartest person in the room,

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to a growth mindset,

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where your role was to listen, to learn
and to bring out the best in people.

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Well, early days,

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Microsoft employees already
noticed this shift in the culture --

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clear evidence of Microsoft
putting people first.

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My fifth and final imperative
is specifically for leaders.

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In a transformation,

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a leader needs to have a vision,

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a clear road map with milestones,

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and then you need to hold people
accountable for results.

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In other words, you need to be directive.

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But in order to capture
the hearts and minds of people,

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you also need to be inclusive.

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Inclusive leadership
is critical to putting people first.

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I live in the San Francisco Bay area.

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And right now,

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our basketball team
is the best in the league.

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We won the 2015 championship,

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and we're favored to win again this year.

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There are many explanations for this.

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They have some fabulous players,

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but one of the key reasons

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is their head coach, Steve Kerr,
is an inclusive leader.

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When Kerr came to the Warriors in 2014,

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the Warriors were looking
for a major transformation.

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They hadn't won a national
championship since 1975.

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Kerr came in, and he had a clear vision,

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and he immediately got to work.

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From the outset,

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he reached out and engaged
the players and the staff.

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He created an environment of open debate
and solicited suggestions.

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During games he would often ask,

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"What are you seeing that I'm missing?"

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One the best examples of this
came in game four of the 2015 finals.

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The Warriors were down two games to one

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when Kerr made the decision
to change the starting lineup;

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a bold move by any measure.

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The Warriors won the game
and went on to win the championship.

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And it is widely viewed

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that that move was
the pivotal move in their victory.

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Interestingly, it wasn't
actually Kerr's idea.

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It was the idea of his 28-year-old
assistant, Nick U'Ren.

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Because of Kerr's leadership style,

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U'Ren felt comfortable
bringing the idea forward.

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And Kerr not only listened,

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but he implemented the idea

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and then afterwards,

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gave U'Ren all the credit --

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actions all consistent with Kerr's
highly inclusive approach to leadership.

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In the era of "always-on" transformation,

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organizations are always
going to be transforming.

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But doing so does not
have to be exhausting.

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We owe it to ourselves,

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to our organizations

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and to society more broadly

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to boldly transform
our approach to transformation.

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To do that,

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we need to start putting people first.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)