From Planning Parties to Transforming Organizations
The Hidden Connection Between Events and Enterprise Change
I never planned to become a transformation expert. Standing in a power-outage darkened venue in Lagos, with 2,000 guests due to arrive in three hours, I wasn't thinking about enterprise change management or organizational psychology. I was thinking about generators, guest experience, and how to keep the ice sculpture from melting.
But looking back now, after working at companies like Palantir and Zipline that are building transformative companies and innovating across industries, I realize that those chaotic nights in Nigeria's event scene taught me everything I needed to know about leading change in tech enterprises.
Here's what managing 4,000-person events taught me about transformation that no MBA program could.
Systems Thinking Isn't Optional
When you're running a major event, everything is connected. Change one element, and you create ripples throughout the entire system. The same is true in organizational transformation, but it's often less visible.
I remember the night we had to completely reconfigure a wedding setup due to unexpected rain. It wasn't just about moving tables - it was about understanding how that change would affect the catering timing, the guest flow, the entertainment schedule, and even the photography plan. Sound familiar to anyone who's tried to implement new technology in an organization?
The lesson? In both events and enterprise transformation, you're never just changing one thing. You're shifting an entire ecosystem.
Crisis Reveals Culture
My favorite story to tell coaching clients is about the night our most experienced chef called in sick two hours before we were due to run three major events. I was already set to cook for a twelve course fine-dining experience for a client’s 40th birthday, and we had two events onsite at our event venue that were sit down dinners for 100 and 40 people respectively. What happened next taught me everything about organizational culture and team resilience.
Without prompting, our junior staff started stepping up. The dishwasher took on the prep cook work so that the sous chef could step up. The waitstaff organized themselves into an assembly line for plating. The main event coordinator put on an apron and stepped in to be a set of hands to handle the mise en place. Our team coordinator started calling her network for backup wait staff so that our full time staff that were familiar with the rhythm of our business could support the event coordination. Our delivery driver got the white board out and started the punch list of what we had sorted, what we needed to figure out and what we we were going to pivot away from (no more swan shaped napkins for sure!). They got to work and worked together.
This is what I now look for when assessing an organization's readiness for transformation: How do people react when things go sideways? Do they retreat into silos or band together? Do they blame or problem-solve?
The Power of Lived Experience
These days, when I'm coaching executives through digital transformation or helping teams navigate change, I often draw on seemingly unrelated experiences from my event days. Why? Because transformation isn't about frameworks and theories - it's about understanding human behavior under pressure.
Running events taught me to:
Read a room's energy and adjust in real-time
Build contingency plans for my contingency plans
Understand that resistance often masks fear
Know when to stick to the plan and when to improvise
Remember that behind every process is a person
The Truth About Transformation
Here's what I've learned: Whether you're transforming a blank space into a gala venue or a traditional business into a digital powerhouse, the fundamental challenges are the same. It's about:
Managing complexity while maintaining clarity
Building trust through consistent execution
Creating systems that bend but don't break
Understanding that every technical challenge is ultimately a human challenge
