You’ve set the vision, built the plan, rallied the team, implemented key changes, and measured progress.
Now comes the hardest part:
How do you make the transformation stick?
Step 7 in our model is to embed and sustain the transformation. Without this, momentum fades. People revert to old habits. And the gains—however promising—erode.
Here’s how we approached this challenge across three very different companies.
1. Large Manufacturing Company
We needed to shift the identity of finance—from reporter to advisor. That shift wouldn’t last without reinforcement.
We embedded the transformation by:
- Making business partnership a core competency in hiring and promotions
- Institutionalizing training for new finance staff on strategic engagement
- Aligning recognition programs with impact, not just accuracy
Over time, this became “how we do things here.” And when new leaders came in, they inherited—not invented—the new way.
2. Mid-Size Electronics Manufacturing Services Company
Here, we had changed a lot: structure, strategy, metrics, and mindsets. To sustain it, we:
- Codified our new vision and values into onboarding and performance reviews
- Rewired incentives to reward behaviors aligned with our long-term goals
- Developed internal successors who had grown through the transformation
The culture began reinforcing itself. Not perfectly—but enough to carry the momentum forward.
3. Global Internet Payments Company
This was a fast-moving organization. Sustainability depended on clarity and repeatability.
We focused on:
- Creating a more defined, documented and daily demonstrated new culture and ways of working together so new hires ramped faster and aligned quicker
- Instituted shared incentive compensation through profit sharing
The result: institutional memory. New people didn’t restart the journey—they joined it.
What Embedding Looks Like
- Systems support the new behaviors
- Stories reinforce the new identity
- Successors build on what came before
Reflection Questions
- What will keep the transformation alive after you’ve moved on?
- Where might the old ways quietly creep back in?
- What rituals, systems, or structures can you put in place to reinforce the change?
In At C-Level #18, we’ll reflect on all three transformations and draw out common threads, big lessons, and takeaways you can apply—no matter what kind of change you’re leading.