Leading organizational change according to the conventional management playbook is difficult and often frustrating, and such efforts rarely stay on track. Executives set out with the sound ambition to transform traditionally hierarchical and siloed organizations into more agile, collaborative, and innovative ones: They formulate a compelling vision, communicate it, and try to inspire employees to do what’s required to achieve it. But they often find that people resist change, even when they agree that it’s needed. The top-down approach rarely wins engagement and commitment to a new vision.

In our hard-won experience in organizational transformation projects at several companies, we found that the idea of large-scale transformation can leave employees feeling overwhelmed and insecure about their ability to thrive in the new order. But we learned that by deploying a strengths-based approach at the individual level and then using it to constitute and manage diverse teams, we could win employee commitment to transformation. This approach can help reduce anxiety and burnout, increase inclusive and collaborative behaviors, and cut across hierarchical and functional boundaries. It creates agents of change with the power to contribute to a shared purpose and bold ambition rather than victims of change who feel powerless and fearful.

All of those outcomes contribute to a stronger culture of innovation in the organization that enables it to continually adapt to changing market conditions and meet new stakeholder demands. As one of us (Linda) has found over decades of research on leading innovation, it’s not about getting people to follow you to the future — it’s about getting them to cocreate it with you.1

In this article, we’ll explain how we developed our approach, the outcomes and impacts we observed, and what we learned along the way.

Wanted: Capabilities and Courage

Our experiences are rooted in the competitive life sciences sector, where the primary challenge facing leaders is the need to make companies more agile and able to innovate at scale and with speed. At each organization, we sought to lay a strong foundation for transformation by declaring ourselves to be “impact first” and working with employees to cocreate the purpose, vision, and strategic impact goals. We knew that executing on this vision would mean adopting a more democratic approach to innovation that would tap every individual’s capability and effort.