🫨😱The Noise vs. The Real Work

Every morning, I scroll through my LinkedIn feed. And almost without fail, I’m met with an endless wave of “new” "overnight" experts, in change, in transformation, in AI adoption.

Post after post. Idea after idea. Conceptually agreeable, sure. But when you step back, they’re little more than surface-level slogans dressed up as thought leadership.

If I imagine myself not as a transformation expert, but as a CEO, a business unit leader, or an executive sponsoring change, here’s how I’d read that feed:

“Yeah, I agree with you… but exactly how am I supposed to do this?”

“I’ve seen that written a zillion times, yet we’re still stuck with the same problems.”

“I get it, our consultants say the same thing. But nothing is really moving the needle.”

And let’s be honest,  what begins as conceptually agreeable often hardens into doubt, slides into hesitation, and eventually sours into quiet cynicism.

When Likes Don’t Equal Leadership

It’s hard to ignore a post that racks up 500+ likes. But if the post is yet another “Change is not communication” or “Transformation should be human-centric,” I can’t help but think… of course it’s human-centric. We’re not designing for aliens. Of course, communication matters. Of course, strategy and execution need to align.

These are not breakthroughs. These are table stakes.

And while the noise grows louder, the realities on the ground tell a different story. Transformation doesn’t fail because we don’t say the correct slogans. It fails because we stay at the surface.

A Story From the Ground

I once sat in a boardroom where a transformation program was summed up in three bullet points: communicate better, be human-centric, and align strategy with execution. Two years later, the program had burned millions and delivered little. Why? Because nothing had been done to create the conditions of success.

That’s not a lack of slogans. That’s a lack of traction.

What We Keep Getting Wrong

We recycle outdated models, chunk up change into sprints, run 100 engagement workshops, choose the vendor that we know will deliver the shiny object but leave the business behind drowning in adoption and real business traction issues, freeze & unfreeze change, culture is an aftermath, working around toxic behaviors and tolerating what we know slow us down ...  in a world that has long moved on.

Or the talk about “bridging the strategy–execution gap,” but here’s the truth: there is no gap, and that's the problem. The real issue is how organizations leap straight from a lofty North Star to a list of projects, skipping the messy but vital middle where traction is built.

As someone who has lived and breathed global change and transformation ... seen it succeed brilliantly, seen it fail spectacularly, and earned my own scars, I believe we owe it to ourselves, and to the organisations we serve, to dive deeper.

Shared Responsibility: the Two-Way Street

And let me be clear: this isn’t just on practitioners. Organizations themselves carry a heavy share of responsibility. Too often, they fail to create the conditions of success.

They want change but don’t provide the space to think differently.

They want bold moves but don’t allow the risk appetite needed to make them.

They want transformation outcomes, but suffocate the breathing room required for transformation to even take root.

It shows up in leadership behaviors, too:

• Sponsors who delegate accountability but withhold real authority.
• Executives who demand speed but resist integration.
• C-level that just don't want to hear about the dysfunctions and can't be bothered.
• Business unit leaders who want ownership of outcomes but won’t share ownership of the process.

When that’s the environment, even the best practitioners are swimming upstream. And when practitioners themselves stick to surface-level slogans instead of cutting through, the whole system feeds into a cycle of noise without traction.

It goes both ways. Responsibility sits on both sides, those advocating for change, and those sponsoring it. If either side defaults to noise, shortcuts, or posturing, transformation collapses under its own weight.

What To Do Instead

So what does “deeper” look like?

• Organizations: create oxygen. Give transformation space, authority, and permission.
• Practitioners: bring clarity. Translate the high-level into the day-to-day, connect vision to reality, and hold the mirror to leaders.
• Leaders: model courage. Show your people it’s safe to experiment, to fail forward, to grow.

It’s not about adding more noise. It’s about creating the conditions where traction is inevitable.

And if you are asking How.. I share a lot of this in the Change Makers Corner Community (in podcast episodes, resources, and learning resources), my emails, and my LinkedIn.

And if you have a specific question and want to offload what's on your mind, feel free to comment or message me privately, and ask away, or let's meet, and you can ask away. No sales, no pitch - just real talk about change and transformation.

The Heart of It

At the end of the day, transformation isn’t just about shareholder value or strategy slides.

It’s about whether people can come to work and feel proud.

It’s about whether customers experience something better.

It’s about whether leaders leave behind a legacy they can stand by.

That’s the heart of it.

From Icebergs to Submarines

If we get caught up in the noise, no one benefits.

The iceberg metaphors no longer cut it; the tip of the iceberg has become its own mountain. The gold isn’t in widening the mountain of noise, but in diving like a submarine into the depths where the real work, the real traction, and the real breakthroughs live.

That’s where careers are made. That’s where organisations shift. That’s where fulfilment, impact, and growth sit waiting.

It’s time to stop skimming the surface.

It’s time to dive ... together.

Want Credibility and Influence? It is closer than you think…

One of the most overlooked places where this depth shows up, or quietly leaks away, is in the rooms we run. Workshops, meetings, off-sites.

They’re not neutral. They’re auditions. Every time you step into a room, you’re either building influence, credibility, and traction… or quietly leaking it.

That’s why I’ve designed the Workshop Designer Masterclass. It’s not about running “good” workshops; good isn’t enough. It’s about running impactful ones that cut prep time in half, using our 24/7 AI Workshop Coach to help you design and deliver impactful workshops, to prevent workshop hijacks, recover from curveballs, and establish you as the leader who commands the room and creates traction.

This isn’t theory. It’s the real work behind influence in transformation.

Want to Learn more about this September's Masterclass on Workshops? Check out the link below  👇 https://www.transformationleadership.institute/workshop-designer-masterclass

Warm Regards,

Jess Tayel

Founder of the Transformation Leadership Institute and People of Transformation membership & community.

Enable organisations to become future-fit through their Transformations & Change efforts.

Elevate Change & Transformation high-performing leaders to soar above the sea of sameness and achieve new heights in mastery, influence, & impact without the drag of going solo or slow progression.