Impact: 21st Century Change Management, Behavioral Science, Digital Transformation, and the Future of Work

Digital transformation fails when organisations use twentieth-century change methods for twenty-first-century work.

Technology moves quickly. Human systems do not. The harder task is building the culture, capability, learning, judgement, and trust that allow organisations to turn new tools into durable value.

In IMPACT, Paul Gibbons connects behavioural science, complexity, agile methods, digital transformation, and the future of work to rethink how leaders make change happen.

Inside the book

• how digital transformation and global megatrends reshape the context for change
• why leaders must treat workforce learning and upskilling as strategic work
• how behavioural science improves influence, habit change, decision-making, and engagement
• why purpose, empathy, trust, and psychological safety matter more as work becomes more technological
• how technology-enabled dialogue can outperform one-way communication and episodic consultation
• how to design change that is human-centred, systemic, creative, scalable, and fit for continuous adaptation

The central paradox is simple: the more technologically enabled the workplace becomes, the more important distinctly human strengths become—community, meaning, relationships, creativity, and collaboration.

Written for executives, transformation leaders, change practitioners, HR leaders, and anyone responsible for preparing people and organisations for the future of work.

Paul Gibbons is a former investment banker, consultant, professor, and CEO (yes, he is that old.) Today, his writing, speaking, and scholarship focuses on how science and philosophy can provide practical solutions to the problems we face in the 21st century. Paul's most recent book Impact gives leaders 21st-century change tools and models that are based on up-to-the-minute research in behavioral sciences, complexity theory, agile methods, information science, and more. Astute leaders know that upskilling, culture change, and mindset are critical ingredients for successful digital change - but do not know how to change those quickly enough to keep up with pace of technological change. Impact is about those "upgrades" to the human side of organizations, leading, learning, communicating, changing, collaborating, deciding, and engaging. His first book, The Science of Organizational Change, is listed as one of the top-ten organizational change books of all time. The book debunked management double-speak with 21st-century research from the human sciences: philosophy, economics, political science, public health, psychology, neuroscience, sociology, and history. Paul's bigger project could be called "humanizing business and change." The most urgent questions for this century, suggests Paul, are two-fold. First, how can we balance the good business does, lifting billions from poverty, allowing collaboration and innovation on a global scale, and commercializing science for the common good, with its potential for great harm consumer fraud, financial bubbles, environmental damage, shattered communities, and corruption of our democracy? Second, how can we use science and reason, and not pseudoscience, myths, gurus, quacks, and dogma, to make better decisions in our lives and for our society? Paul "bumper stickers?" (1) "Change is inevitable, whether it represents progress is up to us." (2) "As computers do more of our thinking for us, taking over many of our cognitive tasks, our "competitive advantage" is in the social domain." (3) "In a world where advancing human capability is critical, leaders need to lead learning." His popular practical philosophy podcast, Think Bigger, Think Better can be found on Itunes and Stitcher. In 2017, Paul became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. In 2016, he was named a "Top-30 global guru" in organizational culture, and in 2008, CEO Magazine called Paul one of two "CEO Super Coaches". He has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Guardian, and Independent newspapers. Paul has degrees in biochemistry, philosophy, and psychology, and has taught business ethics and business leadership at some of the world's top business schools. He lives in Colorado with two young sons, serves on the board of Denver's Institute for Enterprise Ethics, and competes in "mindsports", chess, bridge, MOBA, and poker.