Kepemimpinan di Era Transformasi: Refleksi 30 Tahun

Kepemimpinan di Era Transformasi: Refleksi 30 Tahun

Saya telah spend 30 tahun helping organizations—mostly in water, finance, infrastructure sector—navigate transformation. Dari corporate utilitas air besar, ke family-owned businesses, ke government agencies. Satu learning yang konsisten emerge: organizational transformation is fundamentally about leadership.

Bukan tentang technology, bukan tentang process, bukan tentang methodology. Semua itu important—tetapi secondary. Transformasi hidup atau mati based pada quality of leadership.

What Do Leaders Actually Do?

Dalam my experience, effective leaders di transformation melakukan tiga hal:

1. Articulate Credible Vision

Vision yang powerful answer tiga questions:

• Where are we going? (Destination)
• Why does it matter? (Purpose)
• How will we know we succeed? (Metrics)

Bad vision adalah “improve efficiency by 10%"—abstract, disconnected dari real value.

Good vision adalah: “In 5 years, kita akan serve 2 juta customer dengan reliable water supply, predictable bill, dan response time <24 jam untuk customer issue. Ini enable growth untuk city, improve health untuk families, dan create sustainable business untuk utilitas air.”

Why matters:

• Improvement bukan abstract—it’s connected to real human benefit
• Metrics are clear (customer count, reliability, bill predictability, response time)
• Timeframe is specific (5 years, not “someday”)
• Scope is clear (what will change, what won’t)

2. Build Trust Through Consistency

Transformation require sustained effort—usually 3-5 years minimum untuk meaningful change. People won’t sustain effort unless they trust leaders.

Trust built through:

• Telling truth: Admit challenge, gap, mistake. Honesty may create short-term discomfort but create long-term trust.
• Walking the talk: Leader demand change dari organization, tapi change themselves first. CIO mandate cybersecurity, tapi CIO herself weak pada password security? Lost credibility.
• Following through: Make commitment, deliver result. Miss deadline, miss target—people notice. Do it repeatedly, trust erode.
• Taking responsibility: When things go wrong, take accountability (not blame people/system). When things go right, give credit to team.

3. Create Enabling Environment

Leaders create condition untuk people to do their best work. Specific strategies:

Remove obstacle: Team frustrated karena slow procurement? Fix approval process. Slow IT system? Invest dalam better infrastructure. Team don’t understand why transformation matter? Communicate more clearly.

Clarify authority: People paralyzed karena unclear who can decide. Publish RACI matrix. Empower people to make decision dalam their scope.

Provide resource: Transformation require investment. Budget for training, technology, external expert. Expect people to transform dengan zero budget = unrealistic.

Celebrate progress: Big transformation feel overwhelming. Celebrate milestone—even small one. “We completed phase 1 on schedule” is worth celebration (not just eventual completion).

Model desired behavior: Culture change through leader modeling. Want collaborative culture? Leaders must collaborate across silo. Want data-driven decision? Leaders must demand & use data.

Common Leadership Mistakes

I’ve seen transformation fail because leaders:

1. Underestimate Change Resistance

“People don’t like change”—true. But specific reason behind resistance usually rational:

• “I don’t understand why this change is necessary” → Need better communication
• “I don’t have capability untuk new way” → Need training & support
• “This change threaten my status/job” → Need honest conversation & clear commitment untuk no layoff (if true)
• “System not designed untuk support this change” → Need to fix system, not just force people change

Leaders who dismiss resistance sebagai “people are lazy” atau “people resist change naturally” never solve root cause. They expect people to change tanpa addressing their concern.

2. Lose Sight of “Why”

Transformation start dengan clear purpose. But as project drag on—schedule slip, cost overrun, difficulty hit—leaders start focus on “finish the project” rather than “achieve the purpose.”

Result: Project complete, but objective not achieved. New system implemented, but people still work like old way. Money spent, but value not realized.

Effective leaders continuously reconnect team kepada original purpose: “Remember, the reason we doing this IT upgrade is to enable customer self-service. Are we achieving that? If not, what do we need to change?”

3. Try to Transform Everything at Once

Organizational transformation is like dieting. People who try to change everything instantly (diet, exercise, sleep, stress)—most fail. People who focus pada one area first (diet), then add next (exercise)—more sustainable.

Similarly, organization trying to change technology, process, culture, structure all at once—usually burn out. Better approach: prioritize one or two critical area, deliver visible success, then expand.

4. Blame External Factor

“We can’t do transformation because budget cut”—valid constraint, but incomplete. “We can’t do transformation because regulation uncertain”—valid concern, but some progress still possible.

Effective leaders work within constraint: “Given limited budget, which transformation area will deliver highest ROI?” “Given regulatory uncertainty, what can we do to strengthen governance regardless?”

Weak leaders use constraint sebagai excuse untuk inaction.

5. Neglect Talent Development

Transformation require different skill. Organizations usually try to accomplish dengan same people with same skill—and expect different result.

Effective leaders:

• Invest in training (technical, leadership, mindset)
• Bring in external expertise (consultant, specialist, role model)
• Celebrate new competency acquired
• Adjust role & responsibility as people develop

Weak leaders hope people figure it out themselves—or worse, bring in external team untuk execute while internal team stay same (create dependency, kill internal capability).

What Makes Transformation Stick

Some organizations transform—then few years later, revert to old way. I’ve observed pattern di organizations yang sustain transformation:

1. Embedded dalam structure: Change embedded dalam job description, KPI, reporting system—not just “temporary project”
2. Institutional memory: Document lesson learned, best practice, process—not rely on people memory
3. Continuous reinforcement: Regular communication, training, feedback—transformation is never “done,” always live
4. Succession planning: When key champion move, transformation continue—not die dengan them
5. Realistic expectation: Organization understand improvement adalah incremental—not expect to transform dalam 1 year dan then relax

Leadership for Uncertainty

Today environment particularly uncertain—regulation change, technology evolve, market shift, external shock (pandemic, climate, geopolitical).

Old leadership model (predict future accurately, plan accordingly) doesn’t work in high uncertainty. What work:

1. Clear principle: Not detailed plan—but clear principle that guide decision

   • Example: “We prioritize data security over convenience” guide decision when tradeoff arise
   • Example: “We consult customer before major change” guide engagement approach

2. Scenario thinking: Not “what will happen”—but “what could happen & how would we respond”

   • Scenario planning reduce surprise, enable faster response

3. Experimentation: Not “perfect solution first try”—but “pilot, learn, scale”

   • Piloting new technology, new process, new approach in limited scope
   • Learn what work, what doesn’t
   • Scale what work, discard what doesn’t

4. Adaptive strategy: Not “lock strategy untuk 5 years”—but “strategy is fixed, approach adapt to circumstance”

   • Goal (e.g., “achieve cost recovery”) is fixed
   • How to achieve (technology choice, process design) adapt as you learn

The Hardest Part

If I had to identify the single hardest part of leading transformation—it’s personal transformation of leader themselves.

Most leaders develop implicit theory: “This is how organization work, this is how people are, this is how decision made.” Over decades, theory become so automatic they not even aware of it. When transformation require different approach—it threaten their identity.

I’ve seen leaders resist transformation not because “impossible”—but because transformation success require them to lead differently. And changing self is harder than changing organization.

Transformation leaders must ask themselves:

• What belief about organization/people do I need to release?
• What capability do I need to develop?
• What would I have to stop doing (even if it made me successful before)?
• Am I willing to be vulnerable—admit mistake, learn from others, change?

Answer “yes”—real transformation possible. Answer “no”—transformation will be superficial & short-lived.

These reflection come from seeing what work & what doesn’t in 30 years. Every organization different—so these are principle, not prescription. My hope adalah that leaders akan reflect deep tentang their own leadership—what serve them well sebelum, what might need to evolve untuk new era.