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Coaching for Leaders

770: How to Make Change Irresistible, with Phil Gilbert

Coaching for Leaders

Dave Stachowiak

Management, Careers, Business

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 16 February 2026

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Phil Gilbert: Irresistible Change

Phil Gilbert is best known for leading IBM’s 21st-century transformation as their General Manager of Design. The transformation became the subject of a Harvard Business School case study, the documentary film The Loop, and feature articles in the New York Times and Fortune Magazine. He is the author of Irresistible Change: A Blueprint for Earning Buy-In and Breakout Success (Amazon, Bookshop)*.

We’ve all been through mandated change initiatives more times than we can count. But what if change wasn’t a mandate, but an offer – or even an invitation? In this conversation, Phil and I explore how to make change irresistible.

Key Points

  • Change should be regarded as a high-value-add product.
  • Don’t mandate change. Offer change.
  • Your goal is sustained cultural adoption, not improving immediate competency.
  • Start small, but cover all your bases on a reduced scale. Make a great cupcake instead of a mediocre wedding cake.
  • People buy brands, not products. Branding change allows you to define the values and message that goes with it.

Resources Mentioned

  • Irresistible Change: A Blueprint for Earning Buy-In and Breakout Success by Phil Gilbert (Amazon, Bookshop)*

Interview Notes

Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required).

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Transcript

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0:00.0

We've all been through mandated change initiatives more times than we can count.

0:05.2

But what if change wasn't a mandate, but an offer, or even an invitation?

0:10.7

In this episode, How to Make Change Irresistible.

0:14.6

This is Coaching for Leaders, Episode 770.

0:18.7

Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential.

0:26.9

Greetings to you from Orange County, California.

0:30.2

This is Coaching for Leaders, and I'm your host, Dave Stahofiak.

0:34.9

Leaders are born, they're made.

0:37.1

And this weekly show helps leaders thrive at key

0:40.3

inflection points. One of the key points that's an inflection point for almost every leader is

0:46.1

leading change. Leadership is the answer to change. And change is ever present for all of us.

0:53.6

And yet it is a challenge that really confounds so

0:58.4

many of us in leadership of how do we lead change well and not just do it, but do it in a way

1:03.9

that it really stays with an organization. Today, I'm so glad to welcome a guest who's going to

1:08.5

help us to look at change, not just in a way of managing

1:11.3

it, but actually to make change irresistible. I'm so pleased to welcome Phil Gilbert.

1:16.0

He is best known for leading IBM's 21st Century Transformation as their general manager of design.

1:22.7

The transformation became the subject of a Harvard Business Review case study, the documentary

1:27.1

film, The Loop,

1:28.5

and feature articles in the New York Times and Fortune magazine.

1:32.0

He is the author of Irresistible Change, a blueprint for earning buy-in and breakout success.

1:38.1

Phil, what a pleasure to have you on.

...

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