Hi, I’m Andy, a Change Leadership Consultant based in Montreal, originally from France, now helping organizations across Canada and beyond to turn transformation into a lasting success.

For over 12 years, I’ve worked with executives, HR leaders, and transformation teams to strengthen their change maturity, the mindset, capability, and culture needed to lead change effectively.

Many organizations struggle with transformation because people, culture, and leadership aren’t ready and lack capability for it. 

That’s where I come in.

Here’s what I do:

→ Design tailored change strategies and transformation roadmaps.
→ Coach leaders and sponsors to drive change with confidence.
→ Assess impact, resistance, and risk to ensure smooth transitions.
→ Build internal change capability through hands-on training.
→ Drive clear, 360° communication across all levels, using existing channels effectively.
→ Measure engagement, readiness, and behaviors to demonstrate ROI and lasting impact.

At Elevation Groupe Conseil, my goal is simple: make change your competitive edge.

If you’re ready to make your change initiatives stick, let’s connect.

Send me a DM or email me at andy.lauret@elevationgc.ca

Andy ⬆️

Everyone wants transformation to go faster.

Almost no one counts the damage speed creates.

I’ve seen rushed transformations burn teams, miss decisions, 
and stall adoption months later.

I’ve felt that pressure too.

“Go faster” sounds productive.

Until energy drops and shortcuts multiply.

Speed without clarity isn’t progress.
Speed without capacity creates workarounds.
Forced pace looks efficient, but it quietly sabotages outcomes.

Real acceleration comes from alignment, not pressure.

What’s one change you slowed down to move faster later?

🔁 Repost & ➕ Follow Andy Lauret for more real talk 
from the change frontline.

Andy Lauret ⬆️

Change management partner | Building Change-ready Organizations by helping People-First leaders and employees | Founder @Elevation Groupe Conseil

Change management does not need a seat at the table.
It needs its own table.

For years, change has been treated like support work.

Brought in after decisions are made.

Asked to help people “align” once the hard parts are over.

That is not change management.
That is damage control.

Change work shapes the decision, not the announcement.
- It challenges timelines.
- It questions readiness.
- It slows things down when speed would break trust.

If change leaders only react, they will always be ignored.
If they only facilitate, they will never influence.

Owning the table means saying no.

It means pushing back on leaders who want buy in without ownership.

It means being accountable for outcomes, not just adoption plans.

P.S. Is change invited early or only when things start breaking?

🔁 Repost & ➕ Follow Andy Lauret for more real talk 
from the change frontline.

Leaders accidentally kill engagement.

They broadcast instead of dialogue.
Present instead of co-create.
Celebrate go-live instead of measuring what sticks.

Here’s the truth:
Engagement is not about making people excited.
It’s about making them feel involved, equipped, and heard.

This framework shows:
→ The 5 things that kill engagement (even when leaders mean well)
→ Why each shift matters

One column builds compliance.
The other builds ownership.

Same intentions but very different outcomes.

Worth asking: which one are you designing?

🔁 Repost & ➕ Follow Andy Lauret for more real talk 
from the change frontline

People support what they help shape.

Consultation creates compliance.
Co-creation creates care.

One informs people.
The other gives them authorship.

Change doesn’t need more direction.
It needs shared ownership.

And you, are you designing for control...
or for commitment?

🔁 Repost & ➕ Follow Andy Lauret ⬆️for more real talk 
from the change frontline

Saying ‘I support this change initiative’ is not leadership. 

It’s distance.

Support without visibility is abandonment.

It tells teams the work matters, but not enough for leadership time.

Change does not need cheerleaders.
It needs sponsors who are willing to be seen and challenged.

Here’s what sponsorship actually looks like:

1/ Publicly own the change.
Say “I am accountable for this” instead of “I support this.”

2/ Show up where the tension is.
Join the meetings where people disagree.

3/ Repeat the message often.
If you are tired of saying it, people are just starting to hear it.

4/ Make one visible decision early.
Cut a process, fund a priority or stop an old habit.

5/ Protect the work publicly.
When resistance shows up, address it out loud.

🔁 Repost & ➕ Follow Andy Lauret for more real talk 
from the change frontline.

Same goal, different approaches.

And… it’s OK!

Company A: top-down, directive driven.
Company B: co-created, Participative-driven.

We often search for *the* right way to lead change.

Truth is: there isn't one!

Both succeeded, because their strategies fit their culture, pace, and people.

The danger? Forcing a framework that doesn’t fit your DNA.

Yes my preference goes for a more co-created path… 
but different doesn’t mean wrong!

Context is king.

Custom beats copy.

And you, what’s the boldest change path you’ve seen work?

🔁 Repost & ➕ Follow Andy Lauret for more real talk 
from the change frontline.

For a long time, I thought leading change required authority.

A role, title or mandate.

Then I watched most change actually happen.
It didn’t come from the people with the biggest say.
It came from the ones who stepped in early.

The ones who noticed friction and removed it.
Who helped others make sense of what was shifting.
Who stayed calm when things got uncomfortable.

They didn’t “drive” change, they made it easier to move.

What I’ve learned is this:

Influence doesn’t come from position.

It comes from usefulness, trust, and timing.

– When you create value under pressure, people listen.
– When you follow through, people rely on you.
– When you model the change before it’s popular, people follow.

That’s how change gets led long before it’s approved.

🔁 Repost & ➕ Follow Andy Lauret for more real talk 
from the change frontline.

How to Lead Change Without Authority

Kotter 8-step Framework was meant to guide, not dictate.

It’s not the framework that fails.

It’s how rigidly we apply it.
The problem is using a copy-paste approach to a personalized challenge.

Kotter’s 8 Steps?
Still one of the best frameworks out there.
If you treat it as a compass not a checklist.
Change isn’t linear.

Sometimes urgency comes later.

Sometimes coalitions form mid-flight.

And sometimes empowerment needs to start before the vision is clear.
You can adapt the order.

You can tailor the approach.

But you can’t ignore the conditions.

Frameworks don’t fail.
Misusing them does.

🔁 Repost & ➕ Follow Andy Lauret for more real talk 
from the change frontline.

You didn’t lose value when the project failed.
You lost it when people stopped using it.

On time.
On budget.
Zero value...

Not because of resistance.
But because adoption was assumed, not managed.

Every hour of low adoption is a hidden cost.
And it adds up faster than you think.

Delivery is an event.
Adoption is the investment.

🔁 Repost & ➕ Follow Andy Lauret for more real talk from the change frontline

cost of low adoption

Projects don’t lose margin in the spreadsheet.
They lose it in the handoffs.

Sales hands over an order that isn’t clean.
Engineering fills in the blanks.
Specs shift. Procurement scrambles.
Production gets it late and “makes it work.”
Then you pay for it in rework, expediting, and write-downs.

I’m a fractional COO / Change Operator for mid-sized manufacturers and project-driven engineering businesses.

I’ve owned P&L and delivery accountability in project-heavy, high-risk environments.

What I put in place in 90 days:
📌 clear decision rights (who decides what, by when)
📌 handoffs that are actually “ready” before work starts
📌 change control that stops free work
📌 weekly exec control room that forces the hard calls early
📌 a few simple signals that show trouble early — before the margin is gone

I’m usually called when:
→ Projects look green, but GM keeps slipping
→ Teams live in exceptions, expediting, and rework
→ Decisions sit too long and scope drifts quietly
→ Leadership wants fewer surprises and real accountability

If the numbers aren’t moving, it’s not a motivation problem. It’s a system problem.

DM me “MARGIN” and I’ll tell you where the leak is — and what to lock down first.

Lars B.

We like to tell ourselves we’re ‘empowering’ middle managers.

Most of the time, we’re just outsourcing the pain of change to them.

From the top it sounds reasonable:

‘They’re closest to the work.’
‘They know the people.’
‘They’re in the best position to drive it.’

So you:

→ announce the new direction
→ present the slide with the five strategic pillars
→ say a few words about ‘local ownership’

...and then everything uncomfortable gets handed to the middle.

They are the ones who have to:

→ translate vague slogans into real conversations
→ explain trade-offs you didn’t want to say out loud
→ hold the line with people who are already stretched
→ defend a plan they had almost no shaping power over

When it wobbles, what do we say?

‘They’re not on board.’
‘They’re not strong enough for this level.’
‘They’re blocking the transformation.’

We pretend we delegated change.
In reality, we just delegated the emotional labour and the risk.

If you want to know whether you’ve empowered your middle managers or just loaded them, look at three simple things:

→ What did you take off their plate when you gave them this change to lead?
→ What decisions can they genuinely say no to without being punished later?
→ Who shows up next to them when the first real pushback hits?

If you can’t answer those without hand-waving, you didn’t delegate.
You just found someone else to absorb the blast.

-----

👋 I’m Lars – delivering transformation that sticks.
🔔 Follow me for more on 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 and 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁.

undefined undefined

PMP Project Management Professional

I turn complex operations into scalable, high-profit businesses.

I thought training my dog to come when called would be straightforward.

Call her name. Give the command. She comes running.

Instead, she locked eyes with me… and trotted off in the opposite direction.

Not because she didn’t understand—but because, to her, trotting in the different direction was simply the better option. She weighed the rewards, the risks, and made a decision.

That’s exactly what happens in organizational transformation.

Leaders introduce new systems, restructure operations, or push for efficiency gains. The logic is sound, the strategy is clear. But when it’s time for execution?

Hesitation. Resistance. A quiet return to the old way.

Not because employees don’t understand—but because they don’t trust the change. They weigh the risks, the rewards, and make a decision.

I help leaders tip the scale in favor of action.

Here’s how I’ve helped manufacturing companies transform with measurable results:

✅ Cut costs without cutting trust. Reduced fixed costs by 15%+ annually—without destabilizing operations or losing key talent.

✅ Expanded global operations—without unnecessary risk. Helped companies scale their international footprint profitably, aligning local teams, optimizing supply chains, and ensuring sustainable growth.

✅ Made new systems work for people—not against them. Led global CRM & ERP rollouts that improved efficiency instead of overwhelming teams.

✅ Helped teams move forward—decisively. Coached, mentored, and led up to 90 people through complex, high-stakes transformations—without chaos or burnout.

✅ Saved companies from costly missteps. Rescued subsidiaries on the verge of collapse, turning failing operations into profitable, streamlined units.

The reality? Change doesn’t fail because the plan is flawed. It fails because people don’t trust it.

Fix that, and transformation isn’t an uphill battle—it’s a natural next step.

And my dog?
Once she realized coming when called wasn’t the end of the fun—she mastered recall. 
Now, she’s got it down to a science… unless there’s a squirrel.

If your company is leading transformation—but struggling to make it stick—let’s talk.

I drive change & scale operations profitably | Organizational Change & Transformation

𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻:

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.

Your initiative is brilliant.

Until it has to produce results.

I’ve spent years watching companies launch “strategic programs” and then act surprised when the P&L doesn’t move.

It’s like watching a gym membership argue with a bathroom scale.

Both want progress...but they don’t speak the same language.

🎯 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁.
↳ Vision. Direction. Big arrows.

🧾 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿.
↳ Wants numbers.
↳ Wants dates.
↳ Wants receipts.

🛠️ 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗲𝗿.
↳ Keeps the plant running.
↳ Doesn’t have time for PowerPoint.

And then you have the gap:

Projects go live.
Dashboards go green.
People clap.

But benefits stay “expected.”

This is where a 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗢𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗲 earns its keep.

PMO tracks delivery.
Change management tracks adoption.
𝗩𝗥𝗢 tracks whether any of it turns into measurable value.

PMs juggle milestones.
CMs juggle resistance.
VROs juggle the only thing the board actually cares about:

𝙙𝙞𝙙 𝙬𝙚 𝙜𝙚𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙪𝙡𝙩 𝙬𝙚 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙚𝙙?

It’s a delicate dance:

🛠️ PM says: “We delivered the system.”
🤝 CM says: “People are using it.”
💰 VRO says: “Show me the operational metric and the money.”

Because 𝗮 “𝗴𝗼-𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲” 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁.
It’s a bet.

𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲? 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗱.
𝗚𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗮𝘆 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸? That’s the real job.

And if you think value tracking is easy...
Try getting five leaders to agree what “success” means without redefining it every month.

✅ The best PMOs deliver.
✅ The best change teams embed.
✅ The best VROs make it undeniable.

Because no matter how exciting the initiative is…
𝗜𝘁 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗶𝗳 𝗶𝘁 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝘂𝗽 𝗶𝗻 𝗯𝗲𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗼𝗿, 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗣&𝗟.

-----

👋 I’m Lars – delivering transformation that sticks.
🔔 Follow me for more on 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 and 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁.

Lars Buttkus

Run this test on your next transformation.

Ask four people the same question:

→ an exec
→ finance
→ operations
→ someone on the floor

‘What exactly are we changing — and how will we know it worked?’

If you get four different answers, you don’t have resistance.
You have a translation problem.

That’s how you end up with:

→ projects ‘green’
→ people exhausted
→ benefits ‘expected’
→ numbers unchanged

Alignment isn’t agreement in a meeting.
It’s a shared definition of:

→ what changes
→ what stops
→ what gets measured
→ what shows up in the P&L

If your answers don’t match, your initiative isn’t ready.

It’s just approved.

-----

👋 I’m Lars – delivering transformation that sticks.
🔔 Follow me for more on 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 and 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁.

No alternative text description for this image

𝗕𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗺 𝗕𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗼 (𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗘𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻)

✅ “We’re aligned.” (𝘕𝘰 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯.)
✅ “On track.” (𝘈𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵, 𝘦𝘹𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘭𝘺?)
✅ “No issues.” (𝘕𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵.)
✅ “We’re making progress.” (𝘚𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘤.)
✅ “The timeline is aggressive.” (𝘞𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘦-𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘴.)
✅ “We need leadership support.” (𝘞𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘢 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭.)
✅ “Let’s take it offline.” (𝘈𝘷𝘰𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘵.)
✅ “Green across the board.” (𝘈𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘺, 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴.)

𝗕𝗼𝗻𝘂𝘀 𝘀𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗿𝗲: “It’s a change management issue.” (𝘈𝘤𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘧𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮.)

If you hit Bingo, don’t blame the team.
Blame the system: unclear outcomes, hidden trade-offs, and no single owner.

What phrase belongs on this card that I missed?

-----

👋 I’m Lars – delivering transformation that sticks.
🔔 Follow me for more on 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 and 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁.

Margin doesn’t vanish in the quote.

It gets lost during the project.

Not in one big mistake. In the little stuff.

Kickoff goes well. Everyone feels good. The schedule is green.

Then real life shows up.

A spec changes.
The customer asks for “one small tweak.”
Someone says yes because it’s easier than a fight.
Engineering does another revision.
Procurement pays extra because the ship date didn’t move.
The site call turns into “while you’re here, can you also...”
And nobody wants to be the person who slows things down.

So you absorb it. Quietly.

That’s how margin goes away. Not dramatically. Just steadily.

If you want to catch it early, here’s the question you should use in weekly reviews:

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗶𝗱 𝘄𝗲 𝗮𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗲’𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗴𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿?

If the room gets vague, or you hear “it’s minor” or “we’ll make it up later,” you already know what’s coming.

Green status won’t save margin.
Only the uncomfortable moment will:

“That’s a change. Here’s the cost. Here’s the date impact. Which way do you want it?”

Most teams don’t lose margin because they can’t execute.

They lose it because they keep paying for decisions they never priced.

-----

👋 I’m Lars – delivering transformation that sticks.
🔔 Follow me for more on 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 and 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁.

‘Let’s communicate more.’

That’s the default answer to almost every change problem.

People don’t get it? Communicate more.
People don’t like it? Communicate more.
People aren’t doing it? Communicate more.

So we add:
→ another town hall
→ another FAQ
→ another ‘leader talking points’ sheet
→ another email with a painfully optimistic subject line

And then leaders are genuinely surprised when nothing moves.

The piece we skip is simple:
people are not short on information.
They’re short on reasons to believe you and room to act on it.

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard, ‘We’ve communicated this a hundred times,’ only to find, underneath:

→ metrics that still reward the old behaviour
→ managers quietly saying, ‘Do it the old way for now, it’s safer’
→ no time in the day to actually try the new thing
→ nothing taken off anyone’s plate to make space

The communication plan becomes a very polished soundtrack to the same movie.

Communication can do useful things. It can make the why less fuzzy, the path less confusing, and the fear less lonely. It cannot fix a bad design, create capacity that doesn’t exist, or compensate for leaders who say one thing and do another.

If your message is ‘We value safety,’ and the team watches you override procedures to hit a number, no amount of storytelling will save you.

If your message is ‘This is the new way of working,’ but the old spreadsheet still wins every time it gets busy, people will believe the spreadsheet, not the slide.

‘Communicate more’ is usually code for:
‘We don’t want to change anything else, so let’s talk about it louder.’

A better starting point is not, ‘How do we say this?’
It’s, ‘What will actually be true in their day after we say it?’

If the honest answer is ‘pretty much nothing,’
you don’t have a communication problem.

You have a leadership and design problem with very good formatting.

Where have you seen ‘more communication’ change absolutely nothing?

-----

👋 I’m Lars – delivering transformation that sticks.
🔔 Follow me for more on 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 and 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁.

The day your best middle manager quits is not the day you lost them.
That’s just the day they stopped pretending.

It always sounds the same at the top:

‘I’m shocked.’
‘I thought they were fully committed.’
‘I knew they were busy, but not that busy.’

You don’t lose them with the resignation email.
You lose them in installments.

You lose them the first time they raise a real concern and you:

→ thank them for their honesty
→ and then change absolutely nothing

You lose them when you badge them as a ‘key change leader’
but still copy them on every minor escalation ‘just in case’.

You lose them when they say:

‘This is too much. Something has to give.’

and you answer with:

‘I hear you. Let’s revisit this next quarter.’

From that point on, a quiet exit process starts:

→ they stop bringing you the uncomfortable data
→ they start protecting their team from your promises
→ they do just enough to keep the place running, nothing extra
→ they update the CV instead of the roadmap

By the time you see the formal notice, they’ve already left you in their head.

If you’ve just lost a strong middle manager, don’t start with a replacement profile.
Start with an autopsy:

→ What did they tell us early that we chose to ignore?
→ Where did we use their competence as a dumping ground?
→ What did we keep adding to their role without taking anything away?

And if you still have someone in that position and this sounds uncomfortably familiar, be honest with yourself:

You are not ‘retaining key talent’.
You are running down the battery and hoping they don’t notice.

You don’t suddenly lose people like this.
You train them, over months, to realise they’ll be valued more somewhere else.
-----

👋 I’m Lars – delivering transformation that sticks.
🔔 Follow me for more on 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 and 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁.

Green status is not evidence.
It’s a symptom.

Every transformation I get called into has a dashboard.
Most of them are glowing.

Green milestones.
Green timelines.
Green confidence.

And still:

→ adoption is uneven
→ workarounds multiply
→ benefits stay ‘expected’
→ the numbers refuse to move

That’s not bad execution.
That’s theatre.

Green status usually means one thing:
we’re measuring activity because we haven’t agreed on outcomes.

So we track:

→ meetings held
→ training completed
→ systems live
→ tasks closed

None of which tell you whether the work actually changed.

Status reporting becomes a substitute for truth when:

→ no one shares a concrete definition of success
→ trade-offs were never made explicit
→ value was approved, not operationalised

The result is predictable.

Teams learn what keeps the dashboard green.
Not what makes the business better.

If you want a simple check, ask this in your next review:

‘What would have to be visibly different on the floor for this to be truly successful?’

If the answer is vague, abstract, or uncomfortable,
your green status is hiding a red reality.

Real progress doesn’t show up as a colour.
It shows up as changed behaviour, fewer exceptions, and numbers that finally move.

If all you have is green, you’re not done.

You’re just not looking where the truth lives.

-----

👋 I’m Lars – delivering transformation that sticks.
🔔 Follow me for more on 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 and 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁.

Your operation isn’t stable.
It’s untested.

Most leaders relax when things feel calm.
I get nervous.

No complaints. No escalations. No one shouting on the radio.
It looks like stability.
Very often, it just means nothing has challenged the system in a long time.

You’ve probably seen some version of this yourself:

For years, performance looks ‘steady’.
Same routines. Same tools. Same reports. No major drama.

Then something small changes:

→ a new customer requirement
→ a spec tweak
→ a new tool or system
→ a new reporting rule

And suddenly:

→ scrap quietly creeps up
→ cycle time stretches
→ supervisors drift back to the old way ‘just to be safe’
→ people start saying, ‘Let’s wait this out, it will blow over’

Nothing explodes.
It just slowly snaps back to what everyone knows.

The problem isn’t the change.
The problem is an operation that hasn’t practised changing in years.

Calm gets mistaken for capability.
What you really have is atrophy.

You see it in the details:

→ no habit of running small experiments, only big projects
→ the same 5–10 people pulled into every new thing
→ teams who can repeat the standard, but can’t adjust it under pressure
→ leaders who only show up when something breaks, never when something is tested on purpose

A genuinely robust operation doesn’t look chaotic.
But it also doesn’t look frozen.

People know how to tweak, learn, roll back, try again.
Shift change doesn’t kill every new idea.
A small change doesn’t feel like major surgery.

That is what I mean when I talk about Change Fitness:
Not how well you run on a normal day,
but how gracefully you bend when something shifts.

So if your world feels very ‘quiet’ right now, there’s a hard question worth asking:

Is this real stability –
or have we just not been tested in so long that we’ve forgotten how to move?

If you had to adapt tomorrow, could you?
Or would everyone reach for the old way and hope the storm passes?

-----

👋 I’m Lars – delivering transformation that sticks.
🔔 Follow me for more on 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 and 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁.

Sunday is where a lot of leaders lie to themselves.

Out loud you say:
“I’m taking the day off.”

In reality you are:

→ half-watching a series
→ half-answering emails on your phone
→ half-arguing with your VP in your head

That’s not rest.
That’s just unpaid overtime in sweatpants.

Here’s the uncomfortable bit:
Most of what you call “getting ahead for Monday” is just anxiety in a nicer outfit.

Quick test:

If you open the laptop, are you fixing a real blocker?
Or just trying to feel less guilty about doing nothing?
If you’re “planning the week”, are you making one hard decision?
Or just moving the same 20 tasks into a new list?

Different experiment for this Sunday:

→ Do one thing that makes Future You’s week clearly easier.
→ Delete or ignore three things that only exist to make you feel productive.
→ Then practice the most advanced leadership skill of all: closing the lid.

Your team doesn’t need a heroic 7pm email on Sunday.

They need a boss who shows up on Monday with an actual brain.

-----

👋 I’m Lars – delivering transformation that sticks.
🔔 Follow me for more on 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 and 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁.

Your org chart says ‘manager’.
Their calendar says ‘sponge’.

On paper it all looks neat:

→ ‘Production Manager’
→ ‘Area Lead’
→ ‘Team Supervisor’

Clear box. Clear scope. Clear title.

Then you look at their week and it tells the truth.

In reality they are:

→ part-time project manager
→ unofficial HR partner
→ therapist for three burnt-out specialists
→ escalation point for every ‘quick’ customer request
→ local IT support
→ safety mascot
→ change champion on top

And somewhere under that pile is the job you think they have.

This doesn’t happen in one big step.
It happens in layers:

→ one ‘temporary’ vacancy they cover
→ one ‘small’ global initiative they’re perfect for
→ one ‘quick’ process fix they just take on
→ one more project where ‘we really need you in the room’

None of it sounds outrageous on its own.
All of it together turns the role into a sponge.

It soaks up whatever the system has no proper place for.

Then, when something finally leaks, the diagnosis is:

→ ‘They’re not prioritising.’
→ ‘They need to push back more.’
→ ‘They’re not thinking strategically.’

If you want fewer ‘difficult’ middle managers, start with one simple exercise.

Print out someone’s calendar for a random week.
Sit down with them.
Ask:

‘Which part of this is actually your job –
and which part is the system using you as a sponge because it has nowhere else to put the mess?’

If the answer is 50/50 or worse, you don’t have a performance problem.

You have a design problem with a human stuck in the middle.

-----

👋 I’m Lars – delivering transformation that sticks.
🔔 Follow me for more on 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 and 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁.

Most leaders I work with don’t have a change problem.
They have a calendar problem.

They tell me they want:
- Clearer priorities
- Fewer initiatives
- More ownership in the plant

Then I look at their week.

Back to back calls.
No white space.
Every gap filled with 'just a quick sync'.

They want a more focused operation while running their own brain like a pop-up help desk.

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen this pattern:
→ Monday: eight meetings, zero thinking time
→ Tuesday: three escalations that should never have reached them
→ Wednesday: a late-night email promising, 'Next week I’ll block time to really think about the change plan'
→ Friday: 'Let’s just push through this quarter and sort it out later'

Later never shows up.
It’s permanently booked.

We talk a lot about “Change Fitness” for plants, but it starts higher up:
❓ Can you say no to a “small ask” that wrecks your team’s focus?
❓ Can you let a decision stay with the person you gave it to?
❓ Can you stop treating your own exhaustion as proof of commitment?

The truth is uncomfortable:

If your calendar is a mess, your change decisions will be too.

You will:
- Approve too many “top priorities” because you don’t have time to argue
- Add work but never subtract, because subtraction takes thought
- Call overload “resistance” instead of admitting you caused it

The hard work is not adding another framework.
It is unlearning some very successful habits:
→ Unlearning that saying yes keeps you safe
→ Unlearning that being in every meeting equals being in control
→ Unlearning that if you are not exhausted, you are not trying hard enough

When leaders start to clean that up, something interesting happens:
→ Fewer projects suddenly matter
→ Middle managers stop drowning and start leading
→ The plant stops getting hit by every passing idea

Change Fitness isn’t just about the shop floor.
It’s about whether the people making the promises have any bandwidth left to keep them.

If you want a simple way to see where your operation is out of shape for what you’re planning to throw at it, send me FIT.

I’ll share the Change Fitness Checklist I use with plant leaders.
It won’t tell you what you want to hear.
It will tell you where your system (and your own habits) are quietly working against you.

-----

👋 I’m Lars – delivering transformation that sticks.
🔔 Follow me for more on 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 and 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁.

If you only look at the slide deck, most transformations look absolutely fine.
Timelines, budgets, scope – all nicely color coded, mostly green.

Most status reports sound something like:
🟢 Timeline: green
🟢 Budget: “under control”
🟢 Scope: “stable with minor adjustments”

And then, in the same meeting, someone quietly admits:

'We’re still not really seeing it in how people work.'

That’s the point where the colors on the slide stop being useful.

When I talk to leaders about a specific project, I often end up asking two questions:

1/ In the last 90 days, what has actually changed in how people do their work?
2/ What did they stop doing because of this project?

The first question gets a lot of noise:
→ 'We rolled out the new dashboard.'
→ 'We completed the training.'
→ 'We launched the new process.'

All of that is activity.
None of it is behavior.

The second question is where it goes quiet.

Most of the time, the answers are some version of:

- 'Well, they fill in this new field now.'
- 'We added a stand-up.' 
- 'We send a weekly update.'

Everything added.
Nothing removed.

Meanwhile, on the floor:
→ The old spreadsheet still runs the show when things get hectic
→ Old metrics still drive the pressure
→ Old shortcuts still save the day

Status reports measure how well the project team is doing against its own plan.
They do not measure how much of the old way actually died.

If you want a more honest signal, skip the status slide and ask one supervisor:
→ 'What did you stop doing because of this change?'
→ 'When it’s busy, which way of working wins – the new one or the old one?'

If the answers are 'nothing' and 'the old one', your project isn’t green.
It’s just tidy.

-----

👋 I’m Lars – delivering transformation that sticks.
🔔 Follow me for more on 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 and 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁.

I can usually predict whether a transformation will deliver by one thing:

How many handoffs it has.

Because handoffs are where accountability dies.

It starts clear.
Strategy: “Increase throughput.”

Then it gets translated.
Finance: “Save $1.2M.”
Operations: “Do more with the same people.”
The floor: “Skip steps when it gets busy.”

Same initiative. Four meanings.

At every handoff, the hard parts get edited out:
→ trade-offs stay unspoken
→ constraints get softened
→ edge cases get parked for “phase 2”

So the dashboard stays green.
And the value leaks out quietly.

This isn’t an effort problem.
It’s an ownership problem.

CEO test:
Name the one person who owns the outcome end-to-end.
Decision → behavior → P&L.

If you can’t name them, you don’t have alignment.
You have diffusion.

And diffusion is why you keep “aligning”,
and keep missing the numbers.
-----

👋 I’m Lars – delivering transformation that sticks.
🔔 Follow me for more on 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 and 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁.

Sunday is supposedly the day of rest.

Unless you’re a leader.

Then it’s:
🔴 20% laundry
🔴 20% pretending to relax
🔴 60% running worst-case scenarios in your head while staring at a wall

I’ve noticed there are a few classic 'Sunday types' in our world:

1️⃣ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 ‘𝗜’𝗺 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗹𝘆 𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴’ 𝘁𝘆𝗽𝗲
Opens the laptop “for 10 minutes” to get ahead of Monday.
Three hours later they’ve:
→ Rewritten a slide
→ Answered emails no one will read
→ Joined a minor Teams argument that could have died peacefully

Closes the laptop feeling “prepared” and somehow more tired.

2️⃣ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 ‘𝗜’𝗺 𝗮𝗯𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴’ 𝘁𝘆𝗽𝗲
Insists on “no work on weekends”.
Also:
→ Mentally reorders the org chart while being 'present' at the kids' soccer game
→ Designs a new escalation process in the shower
→ Falls asleep constructing imaginary conversations with their boss

Technically not working. Functionally still in the office.

3️⃣ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 ‘𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗵𝗼𝗯𝗯𝘆𝗶𝘀𝘁’
Buys a new notebook, a new pen and a new system every January.
On Sundays they:
→ Redesign their to-do list
→ Color-code their priorities
→ Watch three YouTube videos on morning routines

Monday morning they are, of course, late to their first call.

4️⃣ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 ‘𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝘀𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵-𝗼𝗳𝗳 𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗻’
They exist. I’ve met two.

Phone somewhere in a drawer.
No heroic “I’ll just get ahead” speech.
They show up on Monday with the radical advantage of having an actual brain.

The older I get, the more obvious the pattern is:

It’s not the work that kills you.
It’s never being “off” long enough to realise half of it doesn’t matter.

If you catch yourself “just quickly” opening the laptop today, try a different experiment:
❗ Write down the one thing that would truly make next week easier
❗ Do that on Monday
❗ Let the rest fight for survival

Worst case, you discover you’re not nearly as essential to your inbox as you thought.

Best case, you get one actual Sunday this year.

Which Sunday type are you today – and which one would your family say you are?

-----

👋 I’m Lars – delivering transformation that sticks.
🔔 Follow me for more on 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 and 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁.

Most companies don’t burn out their worst managers.
They burn out their best ones.

The reliable ones.
The ones who ‘always find a way’.
The ones you trust with ‘just this one more thing’.

It’s the same people you turned into change shock absorbers in the last posts.

You don’t need a 40-question survey to see if you’re breaking them.
Three questions are enough.

1️⃣ Who gets every ‘critical’ initiative?

Look at the last 12–18 months.

Who shows up on:

→ every recovery task force
→ every pilot
→ every high-visibility rollout
→ every ‘this one really matters’ project

If it’s the same 3–5 names every time, you don’t have a robust leadership bench.
You have a small crisis unit you call ‘talent’.

2️⃣ What actually happens when they say no?

Not what you wish happens. What really happens.

When they push back on scope or timing, do they get:

→ a real conversation about trade-offs

or

→ another round of ‘I know it’s a lot, but you’re the only one I trust with this’?

If ‘no’ just triggers more flattery and pressure,
it isn’t a choice. It’s a trap.

3️⃣ What changed when they became ‘key to the transformation’?

When you named them as central to the change, did anything else move?

Did they get:

→ clearer priorities
→ work taken off their plate
→ protection from random requests

Or did they just get:

→ a new label
→ more meetings
→ more blame if it doesn’t land

If nothing structural changed, you didn’t ‘elevate’ them.
You just branded their overload.

So don’t act surprised when your best managers:

→ stop volunteering
→ start looking ‘negative’
→ or quietly take the recruiter’s call

At that point you didn’t ‘lose a high-potential’.
You finally paid the bill for running your whole change portfolio on the same few people.

-----

👋 I’m Lars – delivering transformation that sticks.
🔔 Follow me for more on 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 and 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁.

Shift change is where most transformations go to die.

On the slide, the new way of working is clear.
In the town hall, everyone nods.

Then you follow it through 24 hours of reality.

Day shift:

→ runs the new process
→ clicks through the new screens
→ uses the new form because someone is watching

Night shift:

→ quietly goes back to the old spreadsheet
→ pulls the old checklist out of the drawer
→ says, ‘We’ll do it the safe way, like we’ve always done’

By the time the weekend crew shows up, there are three different versions of ‘how we do things around here’ and none of them match the glossy diagram.

Officially, the change is live.
Practically, it is on a trial basis, subject to shift.

When you talk to people, the logic is almost always the same:

→ ‘On days we have support if something breaks. Nights, we’re on our own.’
→ ‘Days have time for all the new steps. Nights just have to get it out the door.’
→ ‘If we slow down on nights, we get the questions. So we do what we know works.’

From a distance, that looks like lack of discipline.
Up close, it is a risk calculation.

Most change plans are built as if the organization has one brain and one schedule.
It doesn’t. It has handovers.

If the new way cannot survive shift change, it is not embedded.
It is being performed for daylight.

You see the cracks when you ask simple questions across shifts:

→ ‘Show me how you do this on days. Show me the same thing on nights.’
→ ‘Which instructions do you actually trust when it gets busy?’
→ ‘What do you do when the new process and getting the job done are in conflict?’

If the answers change with the clock, your problem is not ‘resistance’.
It is that you designed the change for the most supported hours and hoped the rest would follow.

A robust operation doesn’t just run the standard at 10am.
It can hold it at 2am, on a bad day, with the B team on.

If you followed your last big change from Monday dayshift to Tuesday nightshift, would you still see it?

Or would you find the old way, quietly keeping the place running until the storm passes?

-----

👋 I’m Lars – delivering transformation that sticks.
🔔 Follow me for more on 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 and 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁.

Your CEO won’t read this.
You will – the middle manager everyone leans on.

The one who
→ catches problems before they hit the top
→ protects the team from every new ‘priority’
→ turns vague strategy into Monday morning reality

You’re not “resistant”.
You’re the only reason the place still works.

A few truths no town hall will say out loud:

→ The load really is absurd. You’re not imagining it.
→ Being the most competent person in every room is not a promotion. It’s a trap.
→ Saying yes to everything is not loyalty. It’s how you disappear.

Three boundaries if you want to keep your sanity:

1️⃣ 𝗗𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗷𝗼𝗯

Write down what your role actually is.
Not everything you can do. What you’re paid to do.

When they add something, don’t say ‘I’ll try’.
Say: ‘I can do that. What comes off my plate?’

If the answer is ‘nothing’, that’s the problem. Not you.

2️⃣ 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗻𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗹

Every time you quietly absorb one more ‘quick thing’, you teach them:
‘Give it to them. They’ll cope.’

Start saying:
‘I won’t do all of this badly. Choose what matters and I’ll do that well.’

If that makes people uncomfortable, good. That’s called feedback.

3️⃣ 𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗿𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗮𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗲

Find one person who can tell you, honestly,
‘No, you’re not crazy. This really is broken.’

Use that to decide:
What will you still carry here – and what will you only carry somewhere else?

Because if you keep over-functioning, the system won’t thank you.

It will just quietly decide this was your job all along.

-----

👋 I’m Lars – delivering transformation that sticks.
🔔 Follow me for more on 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 and 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁.

The most dangerous KPI is the one that’s “green.”

Because it buys leadership comfort while value leaks out of the operation.

Training at 98%.
System live.
Compliance “good.”
Benefits “on plan.”

Meanwhile:
cycle time flat, backlog steady, quality inconsistent, working capital stuck.

The KPI isn’t wrong.
It’s just tracking the wrong game.

CEO question:
If we hit this KPI, what becomes unavoidably different in the work within 30 days?

If the answer is abstract, you don’t have a KPI.
You have a proxy that protects the program.

Real metrics:
→ connect to flow, quality, or cash
→ reveal trade-offs
→ change behaviour fast

If it doesn’t force a hard choice, it won’t move the P&L.

-----

👋 I’m Lars – delivering transformation that sticks.
🔔 Follow me for more on 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 and 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁.

𝗖𝗥𝗠 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘂𝘁𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗳𝗮𝗶𝗹.

𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗱𝗿𝗶𝗳𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗿𝗲... 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗴𝗼 𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿.

If your CRM program is “on track”, here’s what’s probably happening:

Your pipeline is still in Excel.
Your forecast is still a negotiation.
And your CRM is a diary people update on Fridays.

You didn’t buy a CRM problem.

You bought a leadership honesty problem.

And you can break adoption before go-live:

→ stage definitions don’t match how you actually sell
→ “we’ll fix data quality later” becomes a permanent excuse
→ too many fields, no consequences, and reps learn the system is optional

Then the theatre starts:

✅ training completed
✅ data migrated
✅ logins up

Meanwhile:

→ “commit” deals have no next step, no date, no customer touch
→ discounts live in email threads
→ leaders still ask for “the real forecast” offline

If “Commit” doesn’t mean the same thing for every rep, you don’t have a pipeline. You have politics.

If your CRM can’t be trusted, it will be bypassed.
Once it’s bypassed, adoption is over.

What fixes it isn’t more training.

It’s governance with teeth.

A Value Realization Office (VRO) runs CRM like a value engine, not an IT project:
 • one definition of stages (non negotiable)
 • minimal fields that drive decisions (not admin)
 • weekly exception review (not weekly storytelling)
 • one owner for forecast accuracy
 • “value at risk” called early, while it’s still cheap

AI doesn’t sell. It audits.

→ deals that “advance” with no meeting, no next step, no date
→ “commit” deals with zero customer touch for weeks
→ forecasts that rise while activity dies

If you’re early in a rollout—or already live—and Excel is still the source of truth, DM me “CRM”.
I’ll send you the 10-point VRO scorecard + the 3 red flags to check this week.

-----

👋 I’m Lars – delivering transformation that sticks.
🔔 Follow me for more on 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 and 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁.

taplio

The Battle

Andy ⬆️

Lars B.

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreAndy ⬆️'s LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreLars B.'s LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Andy ⬆️

Lars B.

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Andy ⬆️'s LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreLars B.'s LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreAndy ⬆️'s LinkedIn Performance