leadership 2026

Dear Leadership Teams of 2026,

If there is one shift I wish for us next year, it is this:

Stop Change Management. Start Change Self-Management.

For decades, we’ve treated change as a "rollout"—a top-down message to be communicated, managed, and monitored. But in a complex world, we cannot "communicate" people into ownership. We have to build it with them.

The shift is simple: instead of communicating change, do the change together.

How?

Using structured participant-driven agenda sessions. Imagine bringing your entire division—hundreds of people—into one room. No pre-set topics. No PowerPoint decks. Just a guiding theme and the collective intelligence of our people.

In a single day, we can achieve:

✅ Self-driven solutions on complex issues.

✅ Action plans created by the people who will execute them.

✅ A shift from "buy-in" (passive) to "opt-in" (active).

What could be better than a large group self-selecting for their own work?

When people co-create the change, they don't need to be "managed" through it.

They are the change.

Let 2026 be the year we stop driving change at people and

start unlocking the change with them.

Happier (more self-managed!) New Year!