David Williams is Impact’s Founder and CEO.
Leading change
The popular quote, often attributed to Henry Ford, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got”, fails completely when applied to the complex, fast-moving world we live in. If it were true, CEOs would be delighted to rely on repeatable actions that create predictable profits year after year.
The reality is that to survive and grow, organisations must continually innovate at the same time as focusing on their core business activities.
Often referred to as organisational ambidexterity, this strategy maintains a focus on everyday operations that keep the business afloat (business as usual), at the same time as developing, experimenting and innovating different ways of doing things or doing different things (business as unusual).
It’s about balancing exploitation of existing competencies, such as maintaining and improving existing processes to maximise efficiency and profitability; with exploration, discovering new opportunities and experimenting with different ideas for future innovation.
How do we balance innovation with business as usual?
Striking the balance between maintaining day-to-day, tried-and-tested operational activity whilst also encouraging risk taking, ambition and courage can be a daunting task for top leadership. It’s a very different approach to managing people in a consistent business process. Innovation happens best with small, entrepreneurial groups of people who are trusted and supported to experiment with new ideas. Failing fast, moving at pace, learning from mistakes.
If it’s handled well, new innovations will quickly become reality. If it’s handled badly, the innovation process will be hampered by existing constraints and could even disrupt business as usual.
In my experience, leaders who rely on a command and control approach to change management will stifle creativity and kill entrepreneurship. A systems-led approach may rely on data, history and prediction, rather than encouraging risk taking and experimentation, and a management-led approach may well indicate what must change, but the people who are expected to make change happen may not be on board.
What appears to be a daunting task can be achieved more readily with a human-centred approach to change and innovation. Here are four top tips for balancing innovation with business as usual:
1. Employee engagement: The human side of change
Innovation isn’t just about new products or technologies. It’s about people. And people don’t change because they’re told to – they change when they feel connected to a purpose. That’s why successful change initiatives start with empathy, curiosity, and trust.
Rather than relying on fear-based urgency or top-down mandates, human-centred leaders create the conditions for change by:
- Engaging people emotionally with a clear 'why'
- Provoking reflection through storytelling and cross-functional dialogue
- Disrupting old patterns to spark new thinking
This approach builds trust, surfaces unexpected insights, and lays the groundwork for meaningful innovation.
2. Create the right structure for innovation
Innovation thrives in environments that balance creativity with structure. Leaders can foster this by:
- Facilitating safe spaces for experimentation and storytelling
- Encouraging divergent (big picture) and convergent (focused) thinking
- Supporting teams to ideate, test and refine ideas collaboratively
When people are empowered to explore and reflect, they build the confidence and capability to lead change from within.
3. Empower self-belief to spark action
At the heart of innovation is self-belief. Even the best ideas won’t go anywhere if people don’t feel empowered to act. That’s why Impact's leadership model (Notice, Decide, Act) isn’t just about setting direction – it’s about helping others believe they can make a difference.
Leaders can build this belief by:
- Listening deeply to understand blockers
- Encouraging people to step outside their comfort zones
- Supporting reflection and learning through action
4. Activate a learning culture
Innovation isn’t a one-time event; it’s a continuous process of learning, experimenting, and evolving. This is at the heart of experiential learning. When learning becomes part of the work itself, organisations build resilience, agility and momentum for change.
Encourage teams to ask:
- What did we try?
- What did we learn?
- What will we do differently next time?
This mindset turns everyday work into a platform for growth and transformation.
Ready to lead change differently?
At Impact, we’ve spent over 45 years helping organisations around the world lead change through experiential, human-centred learning – with real results. Balancing business as usual with business as unusual is a crucial skill for leaders navigating today’s complex global context. Whether you’re looking to build innovation-ready teams, design a structure for sustainable change, or activate a culture of learning, we’re here to help.