Stop talking about change.

Plans are tidy. People are not. And somewhere between the two is where change either starts to work — or quietly collapses. • Change doesn’t happen because you told people to execute — it happens because you gave them real choices to make. • Agency is not something you announce. It is something you design for, with enough clarity that people know what a good answer needs to include. • The fastest way to trigger resistance may be to disrespect the past you are trying to change. Roger Martin joins me for a conversation about strategy, change leadership, and why so much transformation work gets stuck in the gap between “great plan” and “nothing much has changed.” Roger is one of the clearest thinkers I know on strategy and leadership, and in this conversation, he makes the case for what he calls choice chartering: giving people the form of the answer, not the answer itself. Not “go execute this.” Not “please take agency.” But a real, demanding, useful job that lets people think, choose, and connect the strategy to their part of the organization. We talk about why vague strategy is demeaning, why “I got this” people can be a little alarming, and why leaders may need to spend less time talking about change. We also get into the role of vision, the danger of insulting the old system, and how transformation can be ambitious without making everyone freak out. If you lead change in a large organization, this is a practical conversation about how to make change real — not by adding more noise, but by giving people work worth doing. 🎯 What You’ll Learn • Why “go execute” can quietly undermine change • How to give people real agency without using abstract leadership language • What Roger Martin means by “choice chartering” • Why respecting the current system can make transformation easier • How to make change part of the work, not extra work piled on top 💡 About Roger Martin Roger Martin is a writer, strategy advisor, speaker, and one of the world’s leading management thinkers. He is the former Dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, the author or co-author of numerous books, including Playing to Win, and a trusted advisor to CEOs and senior leaders around the world. 👉 Resources & Links • Get the Change Signal newsletter: https://thechangesignal.com/newsletter • Listen to more Change Signal episodes: https://thechangesignal.com/podcast • Roger Martin’s website: https://rogerlmartin.com • Playing to Win: https://rogerlmartin.com/lets-read/pl... 🏷️ Tags #ChangeSignal #ChangeManagement #ChangeLeadership #Transformation #Strategy #RogerMartin #OrganizationalChange #Leadership #PlayingToWin