The Heart of Transformation

Michael Leckie is the former Chief Learning Officer for the Digital Industrial Transformation at General Electric (GE) and is currently founding partner of Silverback Partners, LLC, an organizational consultancy based in Ridgefield, Connecticut. He also held the position of Managing Vice President in Gartner's Executive Programs business, managing teams that provided executive coaching, strategic guidance and research-based advisory services to Gartner's C-suite clients. He speaks, coaches and advises all over the world and across most industries: public, private and non-profit.

Chapter - 00: Introduction: Learning to swim;
Chapter - 01: Getting Started with a Heart of Transformation;
Chapter - 02: Why Does Our Digital World Demand a Human Solution?;
Chapter - 03: The Challenge of Change;
Chapter - 04: Exploring Before Executing;
Chapter - 05: Learning Before Knowing;
Chapter - 06: Changing Before Protecting;
Chapter - 07: Pathfinding Before Path Following;
Chapter - 08: Innovating Before Replicating;
Chapter - 09: Humanizing Before Organizing;
Chapter - 10: Your Heart of Transformation—Making It Strong;

"Change is hard, and this book is a thoughtful guide to all the amazing people who are engaged in leading it. Michael passionately shares, in a voice and vulnerability which I have come to love, a collection of heart-felt questions and insights to help you navigate your way through."

"This book reminds me how insightful Michael is as a thought leader, adviser, and change agent, both in writing and in person. Michael combines a deep understanding of the human condition, business, and technology. His focus on dealing with the personal aspects of transformation, and the six capabilities we need to succeed, makes this book much more real and usable than many dry, high-level transformation frameworks. Powerful stuff."

"Transformation is an internal fundamental evolution of conscious choice and when it's done right, transformation has an enduring impact. This book offers a timely and needed strategic playbook that forces us to examine behaviors and capabilities required to drive change and transformation, and how to recode our brains for change. It is replete with actionable examples and a must-read for anyone driving a change agenda."

"Michael's passion jumps off the page in this guide to operationalizing curiosity and caring. We have to challenge ourselves to not get bogged down by the 'digital' words of the day, but ask ourselves to get reacquainted with our assumptions and our heart."

"Michael distills his many years of transformation work experience into this amazing, must-read book. His insight into adaptive change and the growth mindset helps us see that transformation is all about people, starting with you, the leader. Michael brings a refreshing approach, showing us that no one framework will ever be superior to an amalgam that morphs to the given contextual challenges. It's not just about delivering suggested paths toward change, but actually starting with yourself first and modeling the change through execution. The lessons are also delivered with real-world narrative that makes it fun to read and hard to put down."

"When I first met Michael, I was deeply interested in how passionate he was about our collective abilities to help organizations to transform. We talked extensively about how learning could facilitate this as an outcome and the role of leaders in empowering this. What I love about this book is that it reminds me of those conversations as it is written in the same way. It is enjoyable and reminds you of the things that inspire you the most."

"Michael's quest for knowledge and his ability make very complex concepts relatable and applicable transcend through this obvious labor of love book. As the great conversationalist that he is, reading this book felt like having a conversation with Michael: interesting, thoughtful and full of curiosity. This book teaches us great lessons about how to ask very simple questions in order to help us build open teams, tackle change, and to continuously learn."