Actuate

21/10/2026

Driving transformation in large organisations means shifting a complex adaptive system with thousands of people across locations. It's what I've made my life's work - decoding what works and what doesn't.

Alk Brand CEO of Wynnstay Group PLC and previous Group CEO of Westfalia Fruit has done this over and over across industries and territories, and I can't wait for our conversation tomorrow as we launch on a live MS Teams link.

If you are an executive driving large-system transformation and would like to hear some thoughts from a global organisational transformer, request your spot in the form in the first comment.

To register and secure your place, click on the link below:
https://87ov.short.gy/RSVP

16/10/2026

20% will embrace change. 20% will resist it. The other 60%? That’s where real leadership happens. Continuing our Inside Transformation series on the leaders, choices, and messy reality of change, this week we break down how to lead the quiet majority that dictates transformation success.

Join Alk Brand (CEO, Wynnstay Group PLC) and I on 22 October.

To register and secure your place, click on the link below:
https://87ov.short.gy/RSVP

14/10/2026

Slide decks don’t execute strategy. People do.

When you’re driving large-scale change across thousands of employees, most transformations stall in the gap between a polished PowerPoint deck and operational reality.

In our upcoming Inside Transformation session, Alk Brand (CEO of Wynnstay Group plc) and I will chat about what actually happens when the slides close:
- How to handle the quiet resistance
- Why getting leaders aligned takes more than a strategy offsite
- What leaders consistently underestimate when shifting culture at scale

This is an unscripted, peer-level discussion curated specifically for C-suite leaders leading significant change in large organisations. Your questions will be fielded, and we aim to make it as interactive as possible.

Date: Thursday, 22 October 2026
Time: 15:30 SAST / 14:30 BST
Format: Live Vetted Session via MS Teams

Access is curated to maintain a high-value discussion environment for executive peers.








https://lnkd.in/p/dj7d-4fU

To request your place for the 22 October session, click the direct link below: https://87ov.short.gy/RSVP

Slide decks don’t execute strategy. People do. When you’re driving large-scale change across thousands of employees, most transformations stall in the gap between a polished PowerPoint deck and operational reality. In our upcoming Inside Transformation session, Alk Brand (CEO of Wynnstay Group p...

13/10/2026

Transformation looks clean on PowerPoint. In the real world, it’s messy, uncomfortable, and relentless.

When you’re driving large-scale system change across thousands of people, the hard part isn't drafting the strategy—it's aligning leaders, breaking down entrenched silos, and making difficult calls without pretending you have all the answers.

Most corporate webinars offer polished theory. We wanted to build something candid.

On 22 October, I’m sitting down for an unscripted, 90-minute conversation with Alk Brand (CEO of Wynnstay Group plc, former Group CEO of Westfalia Fruit)

Alk has spent over two decades leading complex, multi-continental transformations—turning around massive operational systems, navigating deep cultural resistance, and leading through high-stakes shifts.

Join me on our executive platform, Inside Transformation: The leaders. The choices. The messy reality of change.

What we will be interrogating:
-The 20/60/20 Change Dynamics: How to handle cultural blockers vs. winning over the critical middle.
-The CEO as Chief Repeating Officer: Why over-communicating the why is your strongest lever.
-Avoiding PowerPoint Illusions: What leaders consistently underestimate when driving change at scale.

To ensure a high-value peer group for the live Q&A, this session is limited to senior executives.

Thursday, 22 October 2026; 15:30 – 17:00 SAST / 14:30 – 16:00 BST

Register your interest at the link below. Our team will review registrations and confirm access via a calendar invite.

https://87ov.short.gy/RSVP

12/10/2026

How do you lead someone you’ve never met?
If you’re leading 5,000, 10,000, or 50,000 people, most of the people who ultimately determine whether your strategy succeeds will never talk to you.

Communication isn’t enough.

What you say isn’t necessarily what people hear. What they hear gets interpreted through their own stories. And then gets retold to someone else, and they tell someone else. The good old broken telephone.

A big part of leading change is creating enough coherence that thousands of people can understand the story, believe it, repeat it — and, most importantly, make better decisions because of it.

How do you lead someone you’ve never met? If you’re leading 5,000, 10,000, or 50,000 people, most of the people who ultimately determine whether your strategy succeeds will never talk to you. Communication isn’t enough. What you say isn’t necessarily what people hear. What they hear gets int...

12/10/2026

is an oxymoron!
We've found a more useful framing.

It's kinda like the illicit love child of HR and Marketing.

is an oxymoron! We've found a more useful framing. It's kinda like the illicit love child of HR and Marketing. | 10 comments on LinkedIn

24/08/2026

"The great enemy of communication is the illusion of it."

All successful transformations index highly on the "3Cs" - Clarity, Commitment and Capability.

Watch Kevin Liebenberg chatting about why clarity is one of the most important factors in change on the link below:

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kevin-liebenberg-54144720_strategicchangemarketing-humanisingtransformation-activity-7495787500842614784-OI-x?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAALwu4YBSPehCjNgF3qYKmbJ_H8RkfC1sSw

"The great enemy of communication is the illusion of it." All successful transformations index highly on the "3Cs" - Clarity, Commitment and Capability. Usually the easiest component to improve in a large system setting is CLARITY, but too often "we've communicated" ends up to mean very little. With...

24/08/2026

"All models are wrong, but some of them are useful"

The 3Cs Model developed by the European Learning Alliance and introduced to me by my smart colleague Leon Boyd Swartz is a great way to help your organisation make sense of your transformation, change and strategy ex*****on efforts.

Watch Kevin Liebenberg chat about the 3Cs model on the link below:

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kevin-liebenberg-54144720_humanisingtransformation-strategicchangemarketing-activity-7493193080569999360-e9vy?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAALwu4YBSPehCjNgF3qYKmbJ_H8RkfC1sSw

"All models are wrong, but some of them are useful" The 3Cs Model developed by the European Learning Alliance and introduced to me by my smart colleague Leon Boyd Swartz is a great way to help your organisation make sense of your transformation, change and strategy ex*****on efforts. The model maps:...

16/04/2026

Shift from CEO, COO or CHRO to CRO

By far the biggest challenge in any complex organisational transformation is how few people really understand WHY the change is so urgently required. In every process we run, it's astonishing how even though people might understand the what and how, when pushed for the real strategic rationale for the shift, things get vague. Different perspectives are offered - even contradictory ones. Even at a senior leadership level.

That's why it's so important to build your before you build your transformation plan. When you have a compelling that contains the irresistible combo of then your leadership role is relatively simple - be the

The best leaders don't leave this to chance.

Ex*****on follows the story people believe.

And a bad story, built only on logic, quickly becomes a
constraint that can’t be fixed later.

16/04/2026

"I fired the CEO and got a new one." Wise words from a CEO who was sharing his lessons of an uncomfortable personal and organisational transformation.

We support CEOs and execs in navigating their complex organisational transformations. Frustratingly, there is often a huge blind spot or denial that these very leaders are the ones who have to transform first, before we 'get the organisation to transform'.

Because organisations don't transform, people do. The people whose transformations will have the outsized impact on the rest of their people, will be the system leader and the executive group. If you choose to avoid this emotional labour and discomfort, everything else you do from there will be significantly less effective.

It's simple, but it's hard, and this is where leadership courage and honesty come in.

The CEO I mentioned above was talking about himself.