It’s easy to believe that there is.

Models for leadership and delivery are advertised as the route to success. Consultants convince others to adopt their favoured frameworks, and leaders advocate universal ways of working to every corner of their global organisations.

Reality, however, is not so simple.

Frameworks that are suitable and beneficial in one team can harm others, and far less discussed, many popular ideas have little or no actual proof in the first place. Consequently, our results often end up some distance away from our original targets and the spotlight turns on us.

With our reputation on the line, what next? Do we try to be more agile, more authentic or more purposeful? Do we roll back, or push on and fund another transformation?

In this talk, Stephen argues that there can never be an optimal model for leadership or delivery, and no framework or structure can guarantee results. We need a different perspective, and that begins with a deliberate step away from one-size-fits-all models.