If you want change to last, start with your leaders. Real transformation happens when the people inside your organization take the lead and inspire their teams to learn by doing, support each other, and build new habits.
One online marketplace did just that. They’re now scaling improvements across another 70 auction houses.
Lasting change will never be created by external consultants handing over a set of instructions and hoping for the best. Or top-down “solutions” being enforced by management. It comes from your own leaders leading the change themselves.
When managers take part in workshops, listen to feedback and challenge their own assumptions, you create an environment where people feel empowered to do the same. That kind of leadership builds trust, removes uncertainty and makes continuous improvement part of the daily operations.
How one marketplace is scaling training internationally
One of our customers is an online marketplace connecting more than 70 auction houses across the European market. They turned to us last year to get a clearer picture of the possibility to improve their end-to-end flows, to decrease long and unpredictable delivery times. By gathering a cross-functional team, spanning the flow from items arriving to the warehouse to final delivery, important bottlenecks were pinpointed. With everyone involved from start, they were able to start making real improvements right away.
The result? Lead time reduced from 17 days to 7.
Now they are taking the next step, scaling the successful transformation to auction houses across their network. By building a team of internal trainers to lead and facilitate the training of others, the goal is to upskill their European colleagues to make the same transformation journey.
Building Capacity to Scale
This “train-the-trainer” approach is the foundation for leader-led transformation. When leaders are trained to teach others, knowledge and methods spread naturally throughout the organization. That’s why we equip managers, and team leads with the tools and abilities to take an active role in applying new routines and keep the improvement engine running.
Internal trainers are not only trained in tools and methods, but they also gain the confidence to lead conversations, support change in their areas and coach their teams as part of daily work.
When change is driven by your own people, the results don’t just come faster but they also last longer. Here’s why:
- Involvement fuels motivation. When people are part of the solution, they care more.
- By owning the analysis and development work, teams build their own muscle for improvement.
- Internal teams understand the business, so they can start making changes right away.
- Knowledge and capability stay in-house. That means you don’t just get results; you keep them.
Real Learning Happens by Doing
Since leadership is key to driving transformation, lasting change is achieved by building real capability in people, across the organization. That means helping them think in new ways, apply new methods and understand how their roles connect to the bigger picture.
To do this, learning needs to move out of the conference room and into daily work. Structured training combined with coaching allows teams to learn by doing, build new habits and make actual progress.
When people start taking responsibility for analyzing challenges and driving improvement, they can apply it to their work and build the skills to sustain progress.
Start with Better Questions
When you want to change the ways an organization works, you need to ask yourself a few questions first. What are we trying to change and why? What behaviours do we need to alter to succeed? How will we make sure the capabilities we build remains in our teams?
You don’t need more complexity, you need clarity, direction and the confidence to move forward. Transformation isn’t something that’s done to people. It’s something people do. That’s why the cornerstone of is building capability not just in systems or tools, but in human beings.
Key takeaways
- When managers take part in change, they create the psychological safety for others to follow
- A train-the-trainer approach helps spread knowledge across teams and locations
- Change works best when people learn by doing, not just by being told what to do
- Internal teams are quicker to act, better informed, and more motivated to make improvements
- To succeed, focus on building skills in people
Want to try it out? Pick one conversation to start this week about how your teams build capability.
If you want support to get started, let us know!
