There has never been a better moment for ambitious leaders to unlock the full value of their transformation programmes. New research from McKinsey reveals that the gap between an average transformation and an outstanding one comes down to a handful of well understood, entirely fixable behaviours.
Only 30 percent of transformation programmes currently deliver or even exceed the value their leaders hoped for, but the reasons behind that gap are more fixable than most leaders assume. They are rarely about market conditions or competitors, they come down to a handful of human behaviours that, once understood, are pretty straightforward to address.
This put control back in the hands of leadership. Rather than waiting for external conditions to improve, chief executives can unlock significant extra value simply by changing how their organisation works together. The research identifies five recurring patterns, calls them collective-action problems, and shows that every one of them responds well to clear, confident leadership.
Aim higher, and mean it
The first opportunity lies in ambition. Many transformation goals end up smaller than they need to be, not because people lack drive, but because teams naturally settle on targets they know they can hit. This may seem like a logical to set goals we know team members can achieve, however, it leaves real value on the table for the business as a whole.This upside of aiming higher is huge. Organisations that commit fully to their potential, despite their comfort zone, see transformations deliver more than twice the value leaders originally expected.
Google’s founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page set goals so bold that employees often questioned them at first. Sundar Pichai, now chief executive, has spoken about how that scale of ambition gradually pulled the whole organisation forward. The lesson here is to set goals based on what is genuinely possible, not what feels safe, and pair an achievable plan with a bolder stretch target so people have something exciting to reach for.
“If you don’t fail sometimes, you are not being ambitious enough.” Sundar Pichai, CEO, Alphabet Inc. and Google
Redesign incentives so that people who chase big goals and fall just short are rewarded generously, while those who hit small targets easily are not treated as the bigger success. This single change encourages people to act with ambition rather than caution, and it tends to energise teams rather than pressure them.
Share with Team
The second opportunity is around openness. When information flows freely across an organisation, everyone benefits. Teams can spot problems early, allocate resources wisely and move with confidence because they are working from the same facts.
When people hold information back, often simply because they are busy or unsure how it will be used, small issues can grow unnoticed and decisions get made on guesswork rather than evidence. It is a simple fix, build one clear, shared view of progress that everyone can see, so nobody has to wonder what is really happening.
Paint a bigger picture
The third opportunity is helping people see how their work contributes to something larger. It is natural for teams to focus on their own goals and successes, but when everyone does this at once, the organisation can end up busy without being truly aligned.
Purpose is a performance driver. Research from McKinsey highlighted that employees who find real meaning in their work perform 33% better and are 75% more committed to their organisation. People are motivated by different things, including benefit to society, the company, customers, their team or their own growth, so the most effective leaders speak to several of these at once rather than relying on financial results alone.
Incentive design reinforces this further. Organisations that link rewards to financial goals see 24% stronger shareholder returns, rising to 31% when non-financial goals are included too. It is clear to see the benefits of setting aside part of any incentive pool specifically for collaboration across teams, not just individual wins, because this is what turns separate efforts into one shared push forward.
Grow more leaders
The fourth opportunity is building leadership capacity. Most organisations naturally rely on a trusted group of twenty to forty people during periods of change, simply because they have proven themselves before. This is understandable, but it limits how much the wider organisation can grow.
Transformation is one of the best leadership development tools available, and it would be a missed opportunity not to use it fully. Programmes that actively build new capability are twenty times more likely to succeed, a striking number that shows just how much is gained by investing in people. Giving promising but less experienced leaders real stretch responsibilities helps them grow quickly while easing pressure on the inner circle.
The average transformation involves just 2% of employees and the most successful ones involve 20 to 30%. Smaller initiatives, often overlooked, can together account for half of a transformation’s total impact. Scale matters here, so actively inviting wider participation means more people contribute, therefore more ideas are shared and thus result in faster progress and a stronger bench of future leaders.
Build change into the business
The fifth and final opportunity is ensuring transformation becomes part of how the business runs every day, rather than a separate project that fades once the motivation has. Treating change as a side initiative can feel manageable at first, but it often means good new habits disappear once attention moves elsewhere.
Lasting transformation is what actually shows up in long-term performance, not just in short-term reports. The most effective approach is to have the same leaders who run the business also own the transformation, with shared targets, shared accountability and one consistent way of tracking progress. Shifting regular business reviews to focus on what happens next, rather than explaining what already happened, helps embed this thinking into everyday routines.
The goal is to have change that lasts well beyond the programme, becoming the way the company naturally operates.
Turning insight into action
Set goals based on full potential, not past comfort, and reward people generously for ambitious efforts even when they fall slightly short. Build one shared, transparent view of progress so everyone works from the same facts. Connect daily work to a bigger purpose and reward genuine collaboration alongside individual success. Use transformation as a real opportunity to grow new leaders and involve far more of the organisation than usual. Finally, embed new ways of working into everyday business routines so that progress, once achieved, simply becomes how things are done.