Putting People First

This kind of approach is kind of the way some students approach preparing for standardized tests. In order to get test scores to go up, teachers will end up teaching to the test. Now, that approach can work; test results often do go up. But it fails the fundamental goal of education: to prepare students to succeed over the long term. So given these obstacles, what can we do to transform the way we transform organisations？ So rather than being exhausting, it's actually empowering and energising? To do that, we need to focus on five strategic imperatives, all of which have one thing in common: putting people first. The first imperative for putting people first is to inspire through purpose. Most transformations have financial and operational goals. These are important and they can be energising to leaders, but they tend not to be very motivating to most people in the organisation. To motivate more broadly, the transformation needs to connect with a deeper sense of purpose. Take LEGO. The LEGO Group has become an extraordinary global company. Under their very capable leadership, they've actually undergone a series of transformations. While each of these has had a very specific focus, the North Star, linking and guiding all of them, has been Lego's powerful purpose: inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow. Expanding globally? It's not about increasing sales, but about giving millions of additional children access to LEGO building bricks.