The insight is brilliant, the deck is gorgeous, everyone nods, and then nothing happens. Brianna Sylver calls this the activation gap, and it has less to do with strategy than most leaders think.
The founder of Sylver Consulting and author of Leading Through Free Fall joins Sana to explain why change hits people like a grief curve, why decks alone never activate anything, and how one simple exercise turned a room of resistant employees into believers.
About the Guest:
Brianna Sylver is the founder and president of Sylver Consulting, an innovation research and strategy firm. She is the author of Leading Through Free Fall: How Innovators Turn Turbulence into Trust, featured by Forbes as one of five books to elevate leadership and drive change.
Key Takeaways:
- Most organizations think they have a strategy problem when they actually have an activation gap.
- People experience change like a grief curve, with resistance as the first stage, not a red flag.
- A deck can express an action, but it can never be the source of the action.
- Naming resistance in the room out loud can disarm it faster than pushing through it.
- Pushback from a team isn't proof of failure, it's often the cost of building something real.
Connect With the Guest:
Website: https://sylverconsulting.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/briannasylver/
Book: Leading Through Free Fall: How Innovators Turn Turbulence into Trust (available on Amazon and major bookstores)
Free chapter: https://leadingthroughfreefall.com/chapter1
Episode Chapters:
[00:00] Opening: the idea that dies quietly inside a slide (approx.)
[09:40] Why organizations mistake an activation gap for a strategy problem
[16:08] The research graveyard: why good insights never get used
[21:16] Scoping projects with your eyes open
[28:15] The group loop: turning a room of resistant employees around
[36:57] Power over versus power with leadership
[38:59] How to stay steady long enough to reach the landing
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