Stop Trying to 'Drive' Change: Why Your Transformation Strategy Is Backwards
"We need to drive this change through the organization."
Sitting in yet another strategy meeting, these words made me wince. Because they went against everything I've learned about genuine transformation. They took me back to all the moments that shaped my understanding of how real change happens – not through force, but through deep listening and authentic connection.
Because people don't like to be driven. They like to be invited, involved, inspired.
The Power of Deep Listening: Lessons from My Founder Days
Before tech, I built my career on the art of asking questions. As an event planner and founder, my success hinged entirely on truly understanding what people needed – not what I thought they should want. Every successful event, every thriving community we built, started with genuine curiosity and active listening.
I remember sitting with clients, asking not just about their event vision, but about their fears, their hopes, what success would feel like for them personally. These weren't just consultation sessions; they were human connections that formed the foundation of everything we would build together.
Bringing the Consultant's Mindset to Tech
When I joined Palantir in 2015, this consultative approach became my secret weapon as I worked with product teams, business development. Faced with implementing a new learning management system, I instinctively fell back on what I knew worked: start with questions, not answers.
My first step wasn't to create implementation plans – it was to have coffee with Sarah*, a team lead whose challenges I wanted to deeply understand. This wasn't a new approach for me; it was the same way I'd approached every client meeting, every community building effort in my founder days.
The conversation with Sarah wasn't about the LMS at all initially. We talked about her team's growth, their struggles with knowledge sharing, their aspirations for building something sustainable. Just like in my consulting days, I found that people don't need to be convinced of solutions – they need to be heard about their problems.
The Natural Evolution of Change
What happened next felt familiar to anyone who's built communities from the ground up. Sarah's team became not just users but co-creators. They approached the LMS the way my event planning clients used to approach their events – with a sense of ownership and possibility.
I followed the same principles that had served me well as a founder:
Create space for organic discovery and adaptation
Let people find their own meaning and purpose in the tools
Build connections between people facing similar challenges
Trust in the power of word-of-mouth and authentic advocacy
Push vs. Pull
When I helped Zipline transform its operational model and build a program management function to support the rapidly scaling business, we started by:
Finding the natural change-makers in the organization
Understanding what they needed and being flexible about the archetypes of program managers we were building out
Creating space for them to experiment with what best served their team’s needs. Did they need a mix of technical program managers and project coordinators? Did they need just need program planning lead to support the engineering project managers? We let the create the ‘mix’ that worked for them.
Amplifying their successes with company updates, visual achievement boards and metric trackers on computer displays
Making it easy for others to follow their lead with a toolkit for adoption and FAQs so that they could see the thoughtful approach we were taking and self-serve adoption.
The result? Changes that stuck because they grew organically and people saw the positive impact the program management team was having on timeline slip, communication, decision making speed and much more.
A Founder's Framework for Change
This approach to transformation isn't something I learned in tech – it's deeply rooted in my experiences as a consultant and founder:
Lead with questions, not answers
Build relationships before implementing solutions
Create space for co-creation and ownership
Trust in the power of authentic advocacy
Let results speak through human stories
The Beautiful Alignment of Experience
What fascinates me is how perfectly my background prepared me for leading transformation in tech. The skills that made me successful as a consultant and founder – deep listening, relationship building, community cultivation – are exactly what's needed to create lasting change in any organization.
The most powerful transformations I've been part of, whether planning complex events or implementing tech solutions, have always had these elements:
Genuine curiosity about people's needs and challenges
Space for co-creation and adaptation
Trust in the wisdom of the community
Patience to let change grow organically
A Return to Human-Centered Change
Today, when I hear phrases like "driving change," I share a different perspective – one born from years of seeing how genuine transformation actually happens. It's never about force; it's always about connection, understanding, and creating space for people to find their own path forward.
This isn't just theory for me – it's the foundation of every success I've had, from building communities as a founder to transforming organizations in tech. The tools and contexts may change, but the fundamental truth remains: real change happens through human connection, deep understanding, and genuine co-creation.
The Reality Check
Here's the uncomfortable truth: You can't control transformation. You can only create the conditions for it to happen.
The most powerful changes I've seen have come from:
Junior employees who felt empowered to solve problems
Teams who were given permission to experiment
Leaders who focused on removing barriers rather than driving adoption
What might shift in your approach to transformation if you brought a founder's mindset of deep listening and community building to your next change initiative?
