The Power to Change

Campbell Macpherson’s central argument is both sobering and empowering: most change fails because it ignores human emotion. In The Change Catalyst, he shows that success isn’t about clever strategy or immaculate planning—it’s about understanding fear, emotion, and purpose, then guiding people through uncertainty with clarity and empathy. He urges leaders to stop designing change for systems and start designing it for people.

The Hard Truth: People Resist Change

You begin with a simple truth: people fear loss more than they desire improvement. Whether it’s a reorganization or a new process, employees instinctively resist because change threatens identity, competence, and comfort. Macpherson breaks resistance into five emotional drivers—fear of failure, fear of the unknown, fear of blame, victimhood, and lack of support. Like Rosabeth Kanter noted, many prefer familiar misery to uncertain possibility.

Fear is rational: Bain’s study shows only 12% of major changes succeed. To counter paralysis, leaders must lower personal risk, make the unknown known, and remove blame incentives. If people feel change is punishment, they disengage. Instead, create safety nets, coach managers, and treat support not as an afterthought but as an enabler of courage.

Emotion Trumps Logic

Macpherson draws on Antonio Damasio’s neuroscience: without emotional processing, humans can’t decide even basic things. Emotions guide choice. So your logical business case is necessary but not sufficient—what moves people is meaning, pride, and identity. Corporate studies confirm this: emotional commitment multiplies performance. Advertising and politics offer proof, from Coca-Cola’s joy to Brexit’s appeal to national pride. Change isn’t sold with spreadsheets—it’s won with stories that reach the heart.

Clarity—Define the Destination and ‘Why’

Fear and emotion subside when people understand where they’re going. The book insists every initiative answer four questions: What are we achieving? What does success look like? Why must we change? And what’s in it for me? These questions transform vague PowerPoint missions into concrete outcomes (e.g., ‘reduce process time by 40% in 12 months’). They build ownership when teams translate corporate goals into local relevance.

The Role of the Change Catalyst

Enter the Change Catalyst—a high-EQ, outcome-obsessed leader who complements the Project Manager’s process focus. This is the person who keeps emotional buy-in alive, translates vision into behaviour, and bridges between stakeholders and results. Whether internal (best for sustainability) or external (best for acceleration), the Change Catalyst holds accountability for impact, not paperwork. They prevent excellent processes from producing mediocre outcomes.

From Culture to Strategy Execution

Change lives or dies by culture. A blame-heavy, risk-averse environment kills learning; an experimental, psychologically safe one fuels innovation. Macpherson and other thinkers (like Edgar Schein and Daniel Goleman) argue that emotional and cultural intelligence define long-term adaptability. Culture must shift deliberately: diagnose reality, align incentives, model leadership behaviours, and make continuous improvement normal practice.

Finally, execution is everything. 90% of strategies fail not because of poor ideas but weak follow-through. The author integrates market analysis, business design, and delivery oversight into the same logic: if governance, communication, and people alignment falter, your well-written plan still collapses. The mid-course ‘pause for reflection’ lets leaders correct course without shame—a simple act that saves millions.

Core Insight

Change succeeds when you address emotion before logic, culture before process, and clarity before action. Strategy, governance, and talent tools matter—but only when they serve human engagement. The true catalyst of change is empathy tied to execution.

Through vivid case studies—from iPipeline’s digital transformation to Anaplan’s data-driven agility—Macpherson shows change is not mystical. It’s disciplined leadership rooted in emotional intelligence, cultural understanding, and brutally clear purpose. If you want to be the one-in-eight that succeeds, lead hearts before minds.

Every transformation starts—or stalls—with clarity. Macpherson argues that change fails when people cannot answer what’s changing, why it matters, and how they benefit. Four questions anchor successful strategy: What are we trying to achieve? What does success look like? Why must we change? What’s in it for me?

Focusing the Destination

Leaders often confuse ‘mission statements’ with purpose. Vague phrases like ‘empowering excellence’ create fog. Replace them with tangible goals—‘cut approval time by half’—that invite measurement and pride. In Macpherson’s examples, projects collapsed when trying to serve four contradictory roles. Prioritize one aim and deliver that before you expand scope.

Defining Success and ‘Why’

Numbers without narrative lack motivation. Zurich’s ‘Top 5 insurer’ aspiration proved hollow because it could be met by external events. Define success by outcomes you control: experience quality, process efficiency, cultural behaviours. Pair them with honest ‘why’ statements—whether survival (costs must fall) or aspiration (growth awaits). Daryl Conner’s ‘burning platform’ analogy remains useful, but mix consequence with opportunity; adults engage better when respected as partners.

Personal Meaning—the WIIFM Effect

The most powerful motivator is personal gain or meaning. Employees rarely resist helping the company but resist when they see no benefit for themselves. Translate strategic intent into local relevance—how it improves their workflow, recognition, or purpose. Cofunds’ workshops exemplify this translation: turning a CEO vision into departmental commitments built ownership and energy.

Emotion Over Logic in Practice

Damasio’s and CEC’s research underline emotion’s power. You move people by aligning the change story with their human needs: pride (achievement), belonging (recognition), and progression (growth). Managers drive this daily—they are the primary conduits of emotional commitment. Equip them with empathy, not just slide decks.

Insight

Clarity creates confidence; emotion sustains momentum. When people know what success looks like and feel it connects with their identity, resistance gives way to ownership.

For you as a leader, the lesson is to pair logical precision with emotional resonance. Define, explain, and then inspire—facts start the engine, feelings make it move.

Macpherson’s Change Catalyst is a hybrid leader—part strategist, part coach, part diplomat—who obsesses over outcomes. Where project managers track milestones, Catalysts track adoption, energy, and impact. They are the emotional core of transformation, ensuring process never eclipses purpose.

Defining the Role

Change Catalysts integrate business understanding with emotional intelligence. They see change as a relationship system, not a checklist. Drawing from Daniel Goleman’s EQ model, Macpherson lists self-awareness, empathy, persuasion, and coaching as critical traits. The Andersen Consulting example shows what happens when IQ dominates EQ—you alienate stakeholders and lose traction despite brilliant logic.

Internal vs. External Catalysts

Internal Catalysts embed long-term capability; they can sustain momentum after consultants leave. External Catalysts accelerate early wins but must transfer skills fast. The most effective approach combines both—exterior expertise endorsed by internal ownership. Zurich’s use of mixed partnership illustrated how outside credibility and internal buy-in strengthen change.

Catalysts in Action

Real success cases—iPipeline, Anaplan, IFDS—show the Catalyst ethos. Each began with obsessive customer focus and humility. Tim Wallace wrote personal thank-yous to reinforce community; Michael Gould turned a technical platform into an empowerment tool; IFDS diversified before crisis hit. The Change Catalyst sculpts conditions, not commands—building relationships that move hearts and deliver results.

Practical Reminder

A Change Catalyst is not a new job title—it’s a mindset. If you lead, coach, or influence outcomes, you are a potential Catalyst. Think less about authority and more about emotional credibility.

To become one, cultivate outcome obsession, empathy, and resilience. Your mission is simple but hard: hold people’s confidence while holding leadership accountable for results.

Change dies without proper governance. Macpherson’s case studies of failed PMOs prove that flawless paperwork and templates don’t equal success. You need lean decision structures, clear accountability, and periodic reflection—not bureaucracy.

Governance Essentials

• Define a single accountable Client (often CEO or Board).
• Keep Steering Committees small and decisive.
• Bring together Project Managers, Catalysts, and specialists into practical working groups.
• Pre-agree a mid-term ‘pause for reflection’ to evaluate direction objectively.

Governance shouldn’t smother initiative—it should empower adaptation. The ‘pause for reflection’ mechanism prevents sunk-cost blindness, giving leaders room to redirect intelligently. Culture must accept that changing course isn’t failure but strategic evolution.

Strategy Delivery Pyramid

Macpherson’s execution pyramid offers structure: top-tier strategic blueprint by leadership, mid-tier departmental business plans, and a small oversight team led by a Change Catalyst. This hierarchy keeps action tethered to vision. Each layer defines deliverables, risks, and interdependencies, ensuring accountability cascades coherently.

Execution Truth

90% of strategies fail because leaders stop at planning. Governance without courage is paralysis. Build mechanisms that allow learning, redirection, and commitment to outcome—not compliance to process.

If you combine rigor with reflection, outcomes with empathy, your process becomes an enabling framework. Execution isn’t glamorous—it’s disciplined persistence, supported by governance that learns and adapts.

Culture determines how people interpret and act on change. Macpherson treats culture not as mood but as behaviour—how work gets done daily. To create a change-ready culture, leaders must promote experimentation, accountability without blame, and emotional safety. If your culture punishes mistakes, adaptation dies.

Building a Change-Ready Culture

Start by diagnosing reality through surveys or focus groups. Reward learning and empower managers—they anchor emotional commitment. Remove toxic blame, celebrate learning episodes, and make executives model transparency. Organisations like Four Seasons and Facebook illustrate different aspects of learning culture: one avoids the term ‘failure,’ the other treats iteration as progress.

Cultural Intelligence (CQ)

CQ bridges diverse workplaces and nations. It combines Drive, Knowledge, Strategy, and Action—translated as head (understanding norms), body (adapting behaviour), and heart (empathy to persevere). Ealey and Mosakowski categorize six CQ profiles from Provincials to Chameleons—the latter adeptly mirrors context while staying authentic. Leaders must learn to read silence, face-saving rituals, and consensus patterns, especially across Asia or the Middle East, where consultation norms differ.

Practical rules: take time, persevere, respect deeply, and engage genuinely. Never shame in public or rush consensus—you’ll violate local honour systems. CQ isn’t theory; it’s active listening, curiosity, and humility in action. When you lead abroad, your own cultural reflexes can mislead you—observe them. Those who master CQ-Action become global Catalysts who can generate cross-border trust.

Bottom Line

Culture eats strategy for breakfast—but Cultural Intelligence serves the meal. You can’t demand alignment across borders; you earn it by understanding how honour, time, and trust translate differently.

Whether at home or abroad, culture must be led deliberately. When people feel psychologically safe and culturally respected, they choose growth over fear—the heart of sustainable change.

To sustain change, design your system to enable it. Organisation Design starts with purpose and ends with people—not charts. Macpherson’s eight-step OD model links strategy to behaviours, showing that structure is a consequence, not a starting point.

Eight-Step Design Logic

• Clarify purpose, vision, mission.
• Define what success means and what you’ll be famous for.
• Map implications, success factors, and risks.
• Identify key processes and capabilities.
• Design structure options and integrating mechanisms.
• Set success metrics and governance.

Every design has trade-offs—cross-functional gaps, overlapping accountability. Name them openly and decide how to mitigate. Transparency builds resilience.

Making Leadership Teams Extraordinary

High-performing leadership teams balance three effectiveness dimensions: individual (results), team (collaboration), and leadership (developing others). Clarity, alignment, respect, and agreed behaviours make them function as one. Without trust, politics overrule performance.

Talent Tools: Nine-Box and Choice Grid

The Nine-Box Grid plots performance against potential—simple but revealing. Use it to plan succession and development honestly. Complement it with the Performance Choice Grid, which maps attitude and competence, defining four profiles—Owner, Learner, Victim, and End Zone. These diagrams provoke real dialogue about growth and accountability. They are humane instruments for candour.

Key Message

People build structures, not vice versa. When you design clear roles, empower aligned leaders, and talk honestly about potential, your organisation becomes adaptable from within.

Design and talent aren’t separate domains—they’re twin engines of credible change. Strategy must live in the people who deliver it.