Here are three provocative questions that emerge from this Change Signal conversation with Kate Lye:

Why do executive teams excel at functional expertise but falter at systems thinking?
Can CEOs transform their organizations without first transforming themselves?
What happens if change leaders never secure permission to call out executive sabotage?

For decades, Kate Lye has watched change programs fade into irrelevance, and she knows why. As a performance partner to CEOs, she’s seen how even the sharpest executives unintentionally sabotage transformation by clinging to their comfort zones.

The real obstacle isn’t employee resistance. It’s leaders who mistake cheerleading for leadership, or strategic talk for actual work.

Lye explains how to spot the moment when a change effort quietly slips from priority one to priority nowhere. She argues that contracting conversations with CEOs — where you establish the right to challenge and hold them accountable — aren’t optional. They’re essential.

Most provocatively, she points out that while executives thrive in functional expertise, they struggle with systems thinking. That’s why they so often hand off the heavy lifting of change to others while reserving for themselves the figurehead role.

If you’re tired of watching transformation initiatives stall, Kate’s insights will shift how you see executive engagement. This isn’t about winning buy-in — it’s about getting leaders to own the role they play in whether change succeeds or fails.

Change Signal. Cut through the blather, the BS, and the noise to find the good stuff that works in change. If you’re a transformational leader seeking modern change mastery, you’re in the right place.

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Joy White, "Terraformed: Young Black Lives in the Inner City" (Repeater Books, 2020)