Charting the Course of Change

Picture this: It’s Thursday afternoon, and you’re heading into a Townhall meeting about your company’s future. As you walk in, there are two possible outcomes. In one, the team is clear on the company’s vision and goals. Everyone is focused, motivated, and excited to discuss how they can help move the company forward. In the other scenario, there’s confusion. Conversations are scattered, priorities are unclear, and the team doesn’t understand how today’s work fits into the bigger picture.

 

The key to achieving the first outcome? Clarity. When your team understands the vision and sees how their work contributes, the entire organisation is motivated and ready for change. Without it, confusion and misalignment will take over.

If you’ve already tackled the most pressing energy drainers from “When the Boardroom Becomes a Battlefield,” you’ve moved out of the immediate danger zone. But there’s still more work to do…That’s why, in this article, we will show you how to take your company to the next level by creating organisational momentum.

The 5 energy gainers we’ll explore in this article:

  • Inspire with a vision
  • Be clear on who you serve – and who you don’t
  • Define what makes your organisation special
  • Make every change initiative count: the power of a strong “why”
  • Balance external expertise with building internal strength

1. Inspire with a vision

Every great team needs something to get excited about – whether it’s an athlete dreaming about olympic goals, or a business team rallying around a transformative goal. If your company’s vision isn’t exciting, it’s difficult to get people to go the extra mile. .

This is part of the ambitious top team” battery: A strong, inspiring vision will ignite energy at the top, making sure your leadership sets the tone for the entire organisation.

Think about it like this: having an ambition is one thing – but formulating a vision that makes you say, “Wow, wouldn’t it be amazing if we could achieve THAT?” is something else. When JFK said, “We’re going to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade,” no one knew exactly how it would be done. Yet, that vision wasn’t about logic – it was about inspiring people to dream big and push the boundaries of what was possible. That’s the kind of vision that makes people want to jump on board and be part of something extraordinary.

To bring this back to the corners of your organisation: An energy gainer like this goes beyond just having a vision/mission statement hanging on the wall of meeting rooms or adding your company’s motto in your email signatures. Inspiring with a vision is about storytelling and connecting that big, bold goal with the day-to-day work everyone is doing.

 

Inspiration from practice: In one of our clients’ workshops, the CEO had the entire top team use graffiti and art to visualize their past, present, and future. So, instead of sticking to vague PowerPoints and stats, they created something tangible and meaningful. This made the vision real, something they could literally see and feel. As such, while they were creating their vision, the stories behind the paintings started to bloom. 

“Vision isn’t about logic - it’s about inspiring people to dream big, to push the boundaries of what is possible.”

2. Be clear on who you serve – and who you don’t

It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that more customers equals more success. But in reality, trying to serve everyone often leads to spreading your resources (including your people) too thin and losing focus on what you do best.

This connects to the clear strategic direction” battery: Defining who you serve is essential to maintaining focus and aligning the organisation toward clear goals and priorities.

Imagine your company as a motorcycle manufacturer. You might be tempted to create bikes for all kinds of users to generate the most profit: for beginners, intermediate riders, and hardcore enthusiasts. But when you think about it, these are not the same types of customers (and they require a very different approach):

Charting the Course of Change

By focusing on a specific target group, you streamline everything – design, marketing, sales – allowing you to create products that truly meet the needs of your ideal customer. And when your company is known for being the best in a certain niche, customers within that niche are more likely to choose you over a brand that tries to do it all! For example, Harley-Davidson is synonymous with heavy, powerful cruisers – while Yamaha focuses on performance and innovation in different (motorbike) categories. Each brand has created its own space by being clear about who they serve and who they don’t.

For a CEO, this means making tough decisions about where to focus resources. More isn’t always better. So, how do you decide? 

One useful exercise is categorising your customers into A, B, C and D groups:

  • A-customers: Your most valuable customers. These generate the highest revenue and align perfectly with your company’s core strengths and strategic’s ambition. 
  • B-customers: These customers may not be as profitable yet but still offer long-term potential for growth, providing you invest resources to nurture their development.
  • C-customers: These customers are less profitable and aligned with your company’s long-term goals. This means that focusing too much on these customers could distract your company from focusing on A and B customers.
  • D-customers: These customers are not profitable and therefore drain energy from your organisation, inhibiting you to implement a strategy that builds on your core strengths.

Once you have categorised your customers, it becomes easier to see where to allocate resources and when to say no! 

 

“Trying to serve everyone often leads to spreading your resources too thin and losing focus on what you do best.”

3. Define what makes your organisation special

Every successful company has something that sets it apart: a unique value proposition – also part of the clear strategic direction” battery – that clearly defines why customers should choose them over anyone else. Depending on how you position this value proposition, you’ll shape the entire direction of your company!

To illustrate, let’s compare McDonalds with Disney:

McDonald’s is all about operational efficiency. They aren’t known for the most gourmet food, but their processes are designed to get meals out quickly and consistently. Everything – from how the kitchens are organized to how orders are processed – is designed to run smoothly and allows them to serve millions of customers at low prices every day. In contrast, Disney is known for its amazing customer service, among others due to their strong focus on employee training. They’re even called “cast members” and have to make sure that every guest’s experience is memorable and magical! 

The message is clear: choose your fight wisely and act accordingly.

“Your value proposition will shape the direction of your company.”

4. Make every change initiative count: the power of a strong “why”

Change is inevitable, but not all change initiatives are created equal. So, without a compelling “why,” even the most well-intentioned projects can lose momentum and leave your team feeling disconnected.

This fits into theaction planning & implementation” battery, which emphasizes the importance of having clear goals and action plans for successful change initiatives.

As a leader, it’s your job to bridge the gap between the company’s strategic goals and your team’s daily tasks. Ask yourself: What specific problems will this change initiative solve? For instance, will it reduce operational costs by 10%, increase customer satisfaction scores by 15%, or cut down delivery times by 20%? When your team understands concretely how the project addresses real challenges they face daily, they’re more likely to stay energised and committed.

Clearly communicating the “why” behind each initiative keeps everyone aligned and focused. It turns change from a burden into a shared mission, energising your team to push forward with purpose.

 

“When your team sees how the project addresses real, everyday problems they’ve encountered, they’re more likely to stay energised and commited.”

5. Balance external expertise with building internal strength

In times of change, it’s tempting to bring in external experts: they offer fresh perspectives, specialized knowledge, and they often promise quick solutions! But while external help can be invaluable, relying too much on outsiders can leave your team feeling disconnected and unprepared when challenges arise. This relates to the powerful management infrastructure” battery.

Imagine Susanna, your HR director, hires a communication expert to run workshops for the change initiative. Meanwhile, your operations director brings in a project management specialist. Both experts deliver great sessions, and everyone feels like they’ve gained valuable insights! But once the experts leave, the team struggles to apply what they’ve learned. The knowledge stays siloed, and when challenges arise, there’s no one with the internal expertise to navigate them.

However, the opposite extreme – completely ignoring external expertise – can also be harmful! The least successful companies refuse to seek outside help and believe they can handle everything on their own. This leads to the company missing out on specialized knowledge that could help them grow and adapt more effectively – and thus, lose energy.

To conclude, the most sustainable solution is a balancing act. While external experts have their well-deserved place (otherwise we, LQ, wouldn’t exist), the goal should always be to build your own internal capabilities as well. So, use external knowledge to strengthen your team, connect the dots across your organisation, and make sure that your people actually will have the skills they need – when they need them.

 

“The key is finding a balance: use external experts when needed, but always focus on building internal capabilities, so your team can handle future challenges on their own.”

Align your team, build your strength, gain energy 

In fully charged organisations, employees at every level are aware of what’s happening within the company and their market. They understand the challenges and opportunities, and most importantly, they feel empowered to contribute to change. Just like a Formula 1 pit crew working together in perfect harmony, completing a tire change in seconds – each member of your organisation knows their role, understands the stakes, and is driven by a collective desire to win.

Because a shared drive fuels organisations to stay on course.

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