The Experience
An ambitious team needed to transition its strategy to survive.
It meant letting go of everything that had made the team successful and building something fundamentally new, under pressure, at pace.
The urgency was undeniable. The strategy was clear. And yet, change simply wasn't landing. Despite genuine commitment from capable people, initiatives stalled, momentum fragmented and frustration grew. The team could see exactly where they needed to go but they were stuck. To unlock progress, they decided to investigate how they were focused.
The Initiative
PROPHET was introduced to give the team an objective, evidence-based picture of their preferences and motivations, and to reveal why, despite their best efforts, transformation wasn’t sticking.
The Process
- Each member of the team completed the PROPHET psychometric instrument, receiving personalised insight into their behavioural traits, strengths and working preferences.
- These profiles were brought together to reveal the team dynamic as a whole.
- Their direct reports’ teams followed, building a picture across both layers of leadership.
- Five members of the HR team became certified to use PROPHET internally, embedding the capability within the business for the long term.
“ Our problem wasn’t effort - it was preferences. Once we could see that clearly, everything changed. We stopped trying to create our way forward and started building the conditions for real execution. PROPHET gave us the language, the insight and the confidence to lead differently.”
The Insight
The data revealed the team all had the same motivations and approach; seeing the gap meant they could fix it.
When analysed together, the team’s profiles showed a group of people who were all energised by initiating change: creative, flexible, ideas-driven and naturally drawn to what’s next. In isolation: a strength. In the context of a complex, digital transformation requiring rigorous delivery, disciplined follow-through and structured execution: a critical blindspot that no one had noticed before
The natural question was whether the team might provide the counterbalance. They didn’t. They were similarly ideas-oriented and innovative. The result was an organisation with two layers of leadership both wired to spark ideas, and too few people inclined to deliver them.
The key was to describe this as nobody’s personal failing, but as a pattern; one that could be understood and planned for. Perhaps for the first time, the team could see the disconnect between the demands of their strategy and the preferences of the people leading it.
Taking Action
Understanding people’s preferences meant they could be aligned to the right roles.
Armed with this insight and targeted coaching support, the team made a deliberate shift in how they worked. One actionable step proved particularly transformative: giving their most structured, execution-focused people the empowerment and authority they needed to deliver and then holding them firmly to account on milestones
Previously, highly structured thinkers had been under-utilised, operating in a culture that moved too fast and changed direction too readily for their strengths to take root. By deliberately creating space for these individuals to own delivery, set the rhythm and drive programmes to completion, the unlocked capability that had always been there but never fully activated.
Alongside this, the team shifted their focus to episodic goals and Key Performance Results, breaking the transformation into defined, deliverable phases rather than pursuing continuous, open-ended change.
PROPHET Tip: If your team is made up of like-minded individuals like this team - and many are - it’s important to harness any outliers with balance in mind. Once this team had a clear picture of their profiles, they could deploy the right people that would thrive across the full business lifecycle.
The Transformation
The experience removed blame and replaced it with understanding.
The problem had never been motivation or capability; it had been preferences. Once those preferences were visible, they could be worked with honestly and strategically.
Leaders gained a clearer sense of their own strengths, a sharper appreciation of the colleagues who complemented them and a practical framework for building and leading teams with genuine balance. Culture change, which had previously felt urgent but elusive, became something they could see, name and act on deliberately.
The Impact
PROPHET led to:
- Faster, more disciplined execution across the transformation programme
- A leadership culture recalibrated around delivery, accountability, and structured follow-through
- Structured thinkers empowered and valued, with their contributions finally given room to land
- Harnessing the wider team and redesigning strategies to build balance across the business lifecycle
- An internally certified HR team capable of sustaining PROPHET across the organisation
- The business successfully completed its transformation
