The Hidden Weight of Change: Why Alignment, Not Authority, Moves the Ship

We often hear that “AI does the heavy lifting.” But for those of us who have worked in large organisations long before AI became fashionable, that phrase means something very different.

Real change is not powered by automation. It is powered by alignment. It is a collective effort, often invisible, frequently underestimated. I learned this lesson the hard way, navigating a 100,000-employee multinational. It was not a theory. It was practice. And it changed how I lead.

The problem with the top-down transformation.

It’s easy to overestimate how much control leaders have when shifting direction inside a large organisation. On the surface, the organisation appears like a ship: big, strong, and stable. With the right plan and a few steering commands, it seems logical that it would eventually turn. But real movement doesn’t happen because the captain gives the order. It happens when the people below deck pull together.

The reality is this: change doesn’t stall because people resist. It stalls because the effort is fragmented. Each team pulls in a slightly different direction. Leaders assume alignment due to good intentions or clever PowerPoint presentations. But assumptions don’t move ships. Shared conviction does.

Why interfaces matter more than departments.

Large organisations are not machines with discrete functions. They are ecosystems made of interdependent tribes. Sales, compliance, operations, finance, and underwriting: each has its own rhythm, culture, and language. The point of failure is rarely within a team. It’s at the interface between them.

If those interfaces are not respected, reinforced, and managed, small changes become expensive detours. A simple product tweak can unravel the customer journey. A routine pricing adjustment can trigger regulatory delays. The loss doesn’t always appear on the balance sheet, but it compounds over time in lost trust, slower execution, and missed opportunities.

Diversity isn’t cosmetic. It’s structural integrity.

When we speak of diversity, we often stop at the surface, focusing on aspects such as gender, ethnicity, and nationality. But the operational value of diversity is deeper: mindset, role, temperament, and risk posture.

A team made entirely of people like me will not challenge my blind spots. A team made entirely of back-office profiles will miss the frontline reality. A team without compliance risks builds what it cannot legally deliver.

That is why when I form teams for strategic projects, I don’t seek uniformity. I seek friction. Not destructive conflict, but constructive disagreement. Someone who pushes back. Someone who sees the customer. Someone who sees the regulation. Someone who sees the risk. Someone who sees the possibility.

The six hats – and why no one wears them all.

You cannot hold every perspective in your own head. At least not with rigour. That’s where tools like Edward de Bono’s “Six Hats” remain useful. Not because they’re trendy, but because they remind us to look at problems from angles we wouldn’t choose by default.

When leading a transformation initiative, I consciously assign those hats:

• One person who advocates for the idea

• One who questions it

• One who views it from the client’s eyes

• One who ensures operational feasibility

• One who monitors compliance

• One who tracks risk and financial integrity

This is not about bureaucracy. It’s about building solutions that last beyond the launch meeting.

Heavy lifting means shared conviction, not heroic effort.

Early in my career, I believed that my job as a leader was to motivate each stakeholder individually to speak to every department, win them over, and carry the plan through willpower. It didn’t work. Not sustainably.

What did work was something more subtle: building shared conviction. Getting a critical mass of people to believe not just that we could change, but that we should. And once that happened, the movement became self-propelling. What felt like heavy lifting alone became light when done together.

That is the only way to repaint the ship, not one brushstroke at a time, but with a team moving in rhythm.

Practical takeaways for CEOs and executive teams.

1. Stop assuming alignment. Test for it.
   
   Ask each team not just what they’re doing, but why they believe it matters. Misalignment often appears in beliefs long before it manifests in results.
   

2. Design your teams around friction, not comfort.
   
   A safe team isn’t one where everyone agrees. It’s one where disagreement is welcome, and outcomes are tested against multiple realities.
   

3. Pay attention to interfaces.
   
   Invest in the roles, rituals, and platforms that connect teams. Most strategic failure begins where two good teams fail to coordinate.
   

4. Institutionalise the method, not the moment.
   
   Your best team experience shouldn’t be the exception. Turn it into a routine. Make diversity and dialogue the operating model.
   

5. Remember: you are not the power. The alignment is.
   
   Leadership is not about carrying the weight alone. It’s about ensuring the weight is carried together in the same direction.
   

There is no shortcut to structural change. No AI, no framework, no visionary memo will substitute for alignment across real people, doing real work.

You don’t need to be everywhere. But you do need to be in the right places, especially at the interfaces where the weight of change is either lifted or dropped.

Because in the end, leadership is not about force. It’s about direction, clarity, and shared effort. The ship moves when the crew believes.

François Jacquemin