Impact Report 2025

The Strategic Change Leadership programme

For organisations and professionals serious about strengthening change capability and improving transformation outcomes.


1. The Mission / The Problem

Across sectors, a consistent pattern is visible:

Highly capable change professionals are positioned as delivery support rather than strategic partners.

At the same time, organisations are increasing the volume and pace of transformation without proportionately increasing behavioural leadership capability.

The external context makes the risk clear:

  • Only 32% of leaders are effective at driving healthy adoption of change (Gartner, 2025).

  • 82% of managers step into management without formal training (Chartered Management Institute).

  • Many organisations are running concurrent initiatives beyond sustainable change capacity.

  • The Capability for Change Survey continues to show that change is often engaged too late and positioned tactically rather than strategically.

The result is predictable:

Transformation portfolios grow.
Behavioural capability lags.
Risk compounds.
Benefits erode.
Senior leaders carry accountability without structured behavioural insight.

The Strategic Change Leader Programme exists to address that gap.

Its purpose is clear: To strengthen the strategic positioning, commercial fluency and behavioural risk capability of change professionals and leaders so they can protect value at scale.


2. The Approach

The Strategic Change Leader Programme is designed as a capability shift, not a knowledge transfer.

It is built for professionals who already understand change frameworks but want to operate at a more strategic level, influencing earlier, speaking commercially, and shaping decisions rather than reacting to them.

The programme combines structured modules with 12 months of live mentoring and peer calibration to ensure the shift is embedded in real organisational work.

What It Develops

Across six focused modules, participants strengthen the capabilities that modern transformation demands:

Executive Presence & Personal Brand Authority
Clarifying leadership identity and building visible, consistent presence that earns trust in senior forums.

Stakeholder Influence & Visibility
Navigating power dynamics with confidence and communicating in terms executives recognise, ROI, risk, sequencing and outcomes.

Strategic Storytelling & Business Acumen
Linking behavioural insight to commercial performance and reframing activity into measurable impact.

Confidence, Calm & Boundary-Setting Under Pressure
Building resilience and clarity so strategic influence is sustainable, not exhausting.

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) & Managing Change
Using language and questioning techniques to reduce defensiveness, guide thinking and strengthen trust.

Applying Systems Thinking
Understanding how people, process, incentives and structure interact — and influencing decisions at design stage rather than post-implementation.



How It Is Delivered

  • Six structured learning modules (on demand)

  • 12 months of live group coaching sessions

  • Real-time application to participants’ live transformation programmes

  • Access to the Strategic Change Leader Playbook

  • Ongoing peer challenge and support within the THINK TANK community

  • Session recordings and extended access to reinforce learning

The extended mentoring model is intentional.

Strategic presence, commercial fluency and behavioural confidence are not built in a single workshop. They are developed through repetition, reflection and application in live environments.


Design Philosophy

The programme is human-first, strategy-aligned.

It integrates behavioural psychology with commercial awareness.

It prioritises application over abstraction.

Participants are not asked to memorise models.
They are expected to test language, refine positioning and shift behaviour in real forums.

The objective is practical:

To move capable practitioners and leaders from managing change to shaping it, strengthening organisational performance in the process.





3. Activities & Outcomes

Activities Delivered (First Six Months)

  • 3 cohorts delivered

  • 18 participants

  • Representation across multiple countries and industries

  • 200+ years of combined change experience

  • 12 live group coaching sessions

  • 12 months’ access to the THINK TANK community to embed learning in live programmes

The programme combines:

  • Commercial translation skills

  • Behavioural risk insight

  • Executive presence development

  • Live case application

  • Peer calibration

  • Ongoing mentoring and challenge

Outcomes Observed

Across the first three cohorts:

  • 100% report increased clarity in how they articulate the value of change.

  • 83% now describe their role using commercial or risk-based language rather than task-based language.

  • 78% report clearer boundaries between strategic oversight and delivery execution.

  • Over 85% describe a measurable shift in how they show up in senior conversations.

  • Several participants secure new roles, broader remits or increased strategic visibility within 3–6 months.

Participants report:

  • Earlier involvement in planning conversations

  • Increased executive trust

  • Greater confidence challenging unrealistic timelines

  • Stronger alignment between behavioural insight and commercial performance


4. Data & Evidence

Behavioural & Positioning Shifts

  • Over 80% identify reframing tasks into outcomes as a defining shift.

  • More than 75% now frame their work in terms of business outcomes and risk rather than activity.

  • 72%  report increased confidence contributing in senior forums or constructively challenging direction.

  • 61%  secure expanded remits, new roles or earlier strategic involvement within six months.

Capability Indicators

Participants demonstrate increased ability to:

  • Quantify behavioural risk

  • Link adoption confidence to financial exposure

  • Surface hidden resistance before it becomes delay

  • Translate engagement insight into governance language

These shifts reposition change from “support function” to “risk intelligence”.


5. Stories & Case Studies

Case 1: Method → Commercial Influence

One participant described themselves as “too methodological.”
They now lead with governance exposure, delivery risk and benefit protection. In a new role with a larger remit, they influence senior forums as an advisor rather than defending frameworks.

Case 2: Support Role → Strategic Presence

Several participants recognised that executive presence is not about volume, but commercial clarity. Instead of reporting engagement activity, they challenge sequencing decisions and flag behavioural risk in financial terms. Invitations to earlier planning conversations follow.

Case 3: Tasks → Outcomes

Over 80% cite reframing activity into outcome as transformative.
“We ran workshops.”

To:

“We identified and reduced stakeholder resistance that would have delayed go-live by six weeks and put £X of projected benefits at risk.”

This shift moves change from reporting activity to protecting value.

Instead of demonstrating effort, participants demonstrate impact, linking behaviour directly to delivery timelines, cost exposure and benefit realisation.

That shift strengthens credibility, influence and commercial relevance in senior forums.


Case 4: “Soft Skills” → Risk Visibility

One participant writes:

“My work surfaces risks that can only be discovered through trust and deep relationships.”

The programme reframes change as:

  • Risk visibility

  • Trust architecture

  • Adoption confidence

  • Performance protection

Leaders begin to see change capability as early risk intelligence.

Case 5: Overthinking → Deliberate Visibility

Participants move from holding back to claiming strategic space.
They set clearer boundaries, speak with greater authority and build credible professional presence, internally and externally.


6. Lessons Learnt

1. Skill Is Not the Primary Gap

Capability often exists. Commercial positioning does not.

2. Identity Shift Precedes Influence

When participants see themselves as risk managers rather than engagement support, behaviour follows.

3. Live Application Is Essential

Year-long access and ongoing coaching are consistently cited as critical to embedding change in real programmes.

4. Executive Presence Is Trainable

Presence is not personality. It is clarity, framing and language.

5. The Industry Is Ready for Higher Standards

Participants are not seeking more frameworks.
They are seeking stronger positioning and measurable impact.


7. Conclusion

Organisations are accelerating transformation faster than they are strengthening behavioural capability.

If your organisation is running multiple transformations simultaneously, you are already carrying compounded behavioural risk.

Without strong strategic change capability, that risk sits with under-prepared managers and over-stretched executives.

The research is clear: only 32% of leaders are consistently effective at driving adoption, and the majority of managers are leading change without formal training.

At the same time, organisations are increasing the number, pace and complexity of transformation initiatives.

That gap does not close itself.

The Strategic Change Leader Programme strengthens capability where it matters most. It equips change practitioners and leaders to step into earlier conversations, speak in commercial terms, and support the organisation in making better-informed decisions about pace, sequencing, and risk.

The result is straightforward:

  • Because participants learn to translate behavioural insight into commercial language, they are invited into planning conversations earlier, which means sequencing decisions improve before risk compounds.

  • Because they reframe activity into outcomes, executives gain clearer visibility of adoption risk, which leads to more grounded decisions about pace and resourcing.

  • Because they strengthen executive presence and boundary-setting, senior forums shift from activity updates to discussions about risk, value, and performance.

Across the first three cohorts:

  • 83% now describe their role in commercial or risk-based terms rather than task-based language.

  • Over 85% report a measurable shift in how they show up in senior conversations.

  • 61% secure broader remit, new roles or earlier strategic involvement within six months.



That shift matters organisationally.

  • Clearer language leads to clearer decisions.

  • Earlier influence reduces avoidable delay.

  • Stronger positioning increases executive trust.

  • Better behavioural insight protects benefits realisation.

In practical terms:

Better adoption.
Fewer preventable setbacks.
Stronger leadership confidence under pressure.

And ultimately, a higher probability that transformation investment delivers the operational and financial outcomes it was approved to achieve.

For More Information About The Strategic Change Leader Programme:


Email: hello@thegrowthhut.co.uk