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Transformational Leadership Meeting

Leaders Meeting June 2025 | Event: In-Person | Location: London | Audience: 65 Leaders

The Challenge

We supported our client – a leader in designing, licensing process technologies, and manufacturing catalysts for the energy, chemicals, and petrochemical industries – through a transformational leadership meeting. Prior to the event, the company learned they were being purchased by a competitor.

Leaders were facing intense pressures: ambitious targets, cultural integration, and uncertainty.  Failing to inspire confidence risked stalled momentum, anxious decision-making, and underperformance.

Yet this was also a rare chance to build a culture of belief, resilience, and collaboration – driving growth and extraordinary results.

The approach – behavioural insights lead conference programme

1 – Beliefs Drive Outcomes

“Think you can, think you can’t, you’re right.” (Henry Ford).

  • Evidence shows that beliefs strongly shape outcomes
  • The choices we make are calibrated at a subconscious level
  • Simply recognising this is the first step to recalibrating beliefs and unlocking new possibilities

2 – Uncertainty Drains Energy

Ambiguity depletes cognitive resources – even bad news is easier to handle than none.

Use “Certainty Anchors”:

  • Tell people what you know
  • Be transparent about what you don’t know
  • Commit to sharing updates as soon as you can

Communicate little and often – even small steps restore energy and confidence.

3 – Challenge Fuels Growth

  • A growth mindset sees challenge as opportunity
  • We reframed performance management into performance optimisation – the same principle used in elite coaching
  • Encouraged leaders to seek feedback and help others do the same
  • Shifted negativity into a culture of continuous improvement and shared success

4 – Belonging Boosts Performance

  • Major change often triggers a “loss of home” feeling – leaving people uncertain about where they belong
  • Leaders who proactively create connections across teams, functions, and geographies:
    • Reduce stress
    • Build trust
    • Accelerate performance
  • Consolidating around culture is the fastest way to restore belonging and confidence

5 – Culture is Strategy in Action

  • Great corporate cultures are the behavioural expression of commercial strategy
  • CT’s client-centric culture is a resource to be shared and amplified across teams
  • Culture is not “soft” – it’s a hard business asset that will drive success in the new environment
  • Consolidate around your culture to thrive through change

6 – Role Models Shape Behaviour

When leaders demonstrate belief and resilience, their teams mirror it.

Become your own role model and access the innate resources you already have but may not realise.

Be a role model of change leadership.

 

 

The solution

– Designed Interventions

Storytelling & Metaphors
We used inspiring stories, including Ernest Shackleton’s journey, optical illusions, and the ‘Lobster’ metaphor, to reframe challenges as opportunities and create deeper emotional connections.

Thought Experiments
Interactive ‘Pop-Up’ breakouts revealed hidden biases and demonstrated how beliefs shape outcomes. Examples like the Placebo Effect illustrated the subconscious influence on decision-making and results.

Transformation Wall
Insights and commitments were captured as a dynamic visual tapestry, forming a lasting artefact of transformational beliefs and a powerful communication tool for leaders to cascade.

See / Hear / Say / Do Model
This behavioural framework codified desired actions into observable, repeatable behaviours, enabling measurement of ongoing change leadership effectiveness.

Practical Application
Every intervention was deliberately aligned with behavioural levers, driving real-world action and impact.

The outcome

What made this project a success, and what single insight or quote best captures its lasting value?

  • Applied behavioural science to shift beliefs and behaviours, not just share information
  • Recalibrated subconscious programming and challenged limiting beliefs
  • Targeted the right levers, designed immersive experiences, and measured outcomes to help leaders understand and embody change
  • Unlike traditional communication, it changed what people believed, which changed what they did
  • Provided leaders with the “Instruction Manual” for extraordinary human performance and practical guidance for using it

Defining Comment

“Super well organised, super engaging, innovative and creative – not a typical leadership meeting. It gave us belief, tools, and shared ownership of the mission.”
– Participant

Our Work

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