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Step Up, Step Back: How to Really Deliver Strategic Change in Your Organization
Many strategic change efforts fail. And virtually all of them are harder than they need to be. Why is this? And what can we do to make change more likely to stick?
SystemShift’s founder, Dr. Elsbeth Johnson, has spent a decade researching how to deliver strategic change in practice. Based on asking managers what they needed from leaders, rather than just asking leaders what they did, her resulting ‘Step Up, Step Back’ approach challenges some of our most fundamental beliefs about how to lead change – and indeed, about what we even consider to be 'leadership'.
The Step Up, Step Back approach suggests leaders need to step up and do more than they typically do in the early stages of the change – in specific ways and at specific times; and then step back and do less than they typically do in the later stages of the change – again, in specific ways, at specific times. The result is not only change that sticks, but empowered, motivated managers who can get on with delivering change, without needing ongoing input or cover from leaders.
Using real-world examples of how to apply the science in practice, ‘Step Up, Step Back’ gives you a roadmap for how to deliver strategic change in your organisation.
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Articles
Harvard Business Review:
Why Aren’t I Better At Delegating?
September/October 2025 Issue
“All leaders—from new managers to seasoned executives—must delegate tasks to free up time and attention for the big-picture work their more-senior roles demand. But too often leaders find themselves caught in the weeds of execution. By understanding the four challenges that make delegation difficult and then adopting the proven ways to overcome them, leaders are able to get much more out of their teams, while freeing themselves up for the more strategic, long-term work they need to focus on.”
“What drives big, breakthrough innovations? Often it’s constraints — limitations that force designers to rethink the problem and come up with something completely new to solve it. But some constraints spur big thinking, while others limit it. So what are the two constraints that leaders should impose if they want to drive real innovation? And which ones are best avoided – although all too frequently used?”
Harvard Business Review:
Innovation Starts With Defining The Right Constraints
April 2021
“Why is it that innovation seems more possible during a crisis? More importantly, how might organizations sustain similar levels of innovation once the crisis has passed? Understanding the five interdependent conditions that make it easier to develop new ideas and drive change during an emergency can help leaders innovate even in the absence of a crisis.”
Sloan Management Review:
What A Crisis Teaches Us About Innovation
Winter 2021 Issue
Harvard Business Review:
What The West Gets Wrong About China
May/June 2021 Issue
“Many people have wrongly assumed that political freedom would follow new economic freedoms in China and that its economic growth would have to be built on the same foundations as in the West. This belies three false beliefs about modern China: (1) that economics and democracy are two sides of the same coin; (2) that authoritarian political systems can’t be legitimate; and (3) that the Chinese live, work, and invest like Westerners. Until Western companies and politicians understand the error inherent in these assumptions, they will continue to get China wrong.”
“In times of deep uncertainty, there are two things leaders need to get right. First, they need to balance comfort and discomfort in making their decisions. Second, they need to give people clarity even when they can’t give them certainty. That clarity might only be temporary—a view held until new data suggests a different approach. But defeating ambiguity while embracing complexity is an essential executive ability today. By doing this in a disciplined way, leadership is possible even in the most uncertain of conditions.”
Journal of People & Strategy:
How To Make Strategic Choices in Uncertain Conditions
Winter 2021, Vol 44, Issue 1
Dialogue:
The Four Delusions of Leadership
Q2 2020 Issue
“There are four delusions that organisations and their leaders regularly succumb to. These delusions – the Magic Delusion, the Activity Delusion, the Drama Delusion and the Agency Delusion – mean that leaders’ strategic change efforts are made harder than they need to be, and often fail altogether. So how do each of these four delusions work, and what should leaders do to mitigate them?”
“Sending the right signals to our organizations is important at any time, but especially during times of strategic change. In my research asking followers what they need from leaders during times of change, there are three main ways in which leaders too often send confusing signals to their organizations. Get them right, and you can signal clearly and effectively; fail to pay attention to how and what you are signalling in these three modes, and you will have confusion at best — and at worst, the opposite of the strategic changes you’ve asked for.”
Harvard Business Review:
How to Communicate Clearly During Organizational Change
June 2017
Harvard Business Review:
How Leaders Can Focus on the Big Picture
November 2016
“Every leader knows that they shouldn’t micromanage — even if some of us still do. But while we understand the downsides of micromanaging people, many leaders still haven’t sufficiently embraced the upsides of not micromanaging. In other words, they’re still not making the most of their time to manage at a higher level in their businesses, by focusing on the big picture and by asking and answering very different questions about how their businesses could be more successful.”