Charles Crawford is a public speaking and negotiation expert. A former British diplomat with 28 years of experience in the U.K. diplomatic service, mainly dealing with the strategic policy issues arising from the end of communism and apartheid. He served as British Ambassador to Poland, Serbia /Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. He has given a TEDx talk on The Physics of Diplomacy.

Crawford a two time winner of the prestigious Cicero Awards for speechwriting, a commentator on international issues with appearances on BBC, Sky, ITV and CNN has asserted that leaders must communicate their vision and strategy effectively to ensure clarity and alignment across the organisation.

Charles Crawford, who spoke in an interview session on the website of TEXEM UK, announced that he would be a faculty member at the TEXEM live virtual session on “Resilience in a Volatile World: Inspiring Transformation Successfully” from 8th to 22nd February 2025.

Crawford also elaborated more on excerpts that would lead to lively discussions and peer to peer learning during the coming programme.

“Here are highlights on some of the topics I will be exploring in TEXEM’s upcoming programme”.

What steps can organisations take to sustain change and prevent backsliding? How can leaders ensure that the changes they implement are embedded into the organisational culture?

It’s vital to show your teams that success breeds success. That may include giving extra rewards to ‘change champions’ – people who really try to make the changes work and are seen to be doing so. It’s no less important to honest about the strengths and weaknesses of the current situation, and the benefits and disadvantages of the proposed new way of doing things. It’s all too easy to focus on the likely upside of ‘change’ and ignore the new problems that may arise.

Maybe above all the top leadership have to be openly committed to the new changes. Teams immediately smell weakness or half-heartedness or cynicism from their leaders. If the senior management members are not going to back the changes, send them on their way! If some people at lower levels are deliberately obstructing things, replace them. Not easy.

Can you share examples of organisations that have successfully sustained change over the long term?

The Otis Lift company and IBM are two good examples of huge corporations that have adapted (sometimes painfully) to new technology. That meant thinking completely differently about what they were trying to do, and being at times quite brutal about stopping old practices dead in their tracks.

Measuring Impact

What role does feedback play in measuring the impact of change initiatives?

Far too often organisations don’t sensibly measure what they’re actually doing each day, and how they’re doing it. This of course is harder to do in public sector organisations where ‘outputs’ necessarily can be harder to pin down. But even there a lot of procedures tend to carry on unhappily because no-one is think about them: ‘That’s the way we’ve always done things’. Good leaders find scope for reducing useless process: ‘Would anything seriously bad happen if we just stopped doing X in this way?’ But that requires a lot of energy and hard work, and maybe a willingness to be unpopular or to take risks that won’t be rewarded any time soon.

What are the most effective ways to measure the success of organisational transformation?

There probably is no one way to measure the success of organisational change. What looks smart today may turn out to be a major weakness in five years’ time. To help think about that, there’s no substitute for clear if not ruthless thinking at every stage. What EXACTLY is wrong with what we’re doing? How to tell? If we do decide to change, what is the test of success – and the test of failure?

How can leaders use data and metrics to drive continuous improvement?

Not always easily! Metrics only measure things that can be measured. But what if there are a lot of other factors in play (morale, commitment, loyalty, annoying leadership habits and so on) that can’t easily be measured? If a business is running a production line, it ought to be good at measuring what goes in, what comes out, and what the wastage is in the process. Moving those disciplines into public sector organisations is much harder, and often creates new problems.

Communication and Leadership

How can leaders effectively communicate their vision and strategy to ensure clarity and alignment across the organisation? What are the best practices for leaders to maintain open and transparent communication during times of change?

These days there are lots of ways to use technology to make senior leaders more ‘visible’ or ‘accessible’. But don’t overdo it – it’s important to be positive and friendly, but also to be honest/realistic and maintain a sense of appropriate hierarchy.

The key thing is to be clear and straightforward. If everyone knows what they have to do and what general standards are expected, that makes their lives easier. The radical changes being brought in by the new Trump Administration in Washington give lots of examples of clear new instructions and expectations. The new US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s message to State Department employees is blunt: “Every dollar we spend, every program we fund, and every policy we pursue must be justified with the answer to three simple questions:

Does it make America safer?

Does it make America stronger?

Does it make America more prosperous?”

Time will tell if this approach pays off.

How can leaders use storytelling to inspire and motivate their teams?

Stories (told well) are a powerful way to share ideas and motivate people. But the stories have to be relevant, simple and convincing – sharing a simple and maybe unexpected message. Too often a person telling a story can drift into too much irrelevant detail, and the audience drifts away.

How can leaders navigate the complexities of cross-cultural communication in a globalized business environment?

No easy answer. But there are plenty of resources these days to help leaders understand different cultures (including their own). In my experience friendly good will goes a long way and translates easily across cultures. By contrast trickiness or double-dealing tends to be obvious – and intensely resented. Emphasising listening rather than talking usually helps. President Trump likes to talk about foreign policy in terms of ‘doing deals’. Most cultures understand the language of deals, even if reaching a deal may involve a lot of tough cynical bargaining.

What strategies can leaders use to handle misinformation and maintain a positive organisational image? How can leaders leverage digital communication tools to enhance engagement and collaboration within their teams?

It’s impossible to stop ‘misinformation’. Just focus on what you do well and be quick to be honest if things have gone wrong: The truth is the best story.

As for communicating with their own teams, don’t overdo it. Once a team has its instructions, let them get on with the job without interruptions. One important leadership feature is to be clear about the consequences of a team’s mistakes. How to learn from them, and improve? How to avoid such mistakes happening again? What EXACTLY went wrong to cause the mistake? Getting this right and having speedy mechanisms to reward especially good work is always effective. If an organisation has a team Intranet, why not post every week an example of especially good work so that everyone sees what sort of work is appreciated?

For more information, please contact TEXEM at +447983128450 or email [email protected] or register at https://texem.co.uk/resilience-in-a-volatile-world-inspiring-transformation-successfully/

Bradley Jones, Executive Director, UAE – UK Business Council and Dr. T. B. (Mac) McClelland, Jr., a global advisor and former US Marine are two other faculties that would help deliver the live sessions of the programme. The programme would entail one hour of flexible self-paced study daily, complemented by immersive four-hour live virtual sessions every Saturday for three weeks.