Driving Change in My Own Life and Career

Priyanka Murthy, INSEAD Executive Master in Change (EMC) 2024 graduate, is an Organisation Development Leader who is well-versed in the mechanisms of change management and the tools and frameworks required for driving change in global organisations. For well over a decade, she has held HR roles in some of the best-known organisations in the world, including Deloitte in the past and in her last held role at Novartis. In her words, “In my career spanning 15 years, I have applied many techniques of effectively managing change in organisations and have always wondered what can organisations do to make change more appreciable, welcoming and fit for all. Where can organisations “refocus” to make change interventions more fruitful?”

With this utilitarian outlook, she set forth to explore the EMC programme at INSEAD in 2022, which helped her to delve deeper into the psychodynamic forces and resistance to change that are often prevalent at an individual, team and organisational level.

“Reading about the programme, I was instantly attracted to what it offered in terms of learning objectives,” she says. “And I was also drawn by the diversity of previous cohorts. I was really open on pursuing a learning journey that integrated different people from so many different backgrounds: HR professionals, senior executives, entrepreneurs, mothers and fathers from all over the world.”

Making the decision to enrol on an Executive Master’s degree—as opposed to a shorter, focused programme—was also driven by a desire to “go deeper,” she says. “I was definitely looking for something truly immersive. I wanted a programme that could cover a broader range of areas—change management, organisational development, and things like coaching; but also core principles of organisational psychology."

 

"As an OD professional, I have experienced the concept of using ‘Self as an instrument’ of change, and the EMC modules largely helped me to enhance my craft in not only this critical area but also offered more key concepts in managing self and others.”

As Priyanka was relocating from her native India to Singapore, the INSEAD Executive Master in Change programme provided her with the exciting opportunity to build and diversify her network in Singapore and meet colleagues from different walks of life who could help expand her understanding, perspective and outlook. She was keen to build a support network at INSEAD that could help her progress through the programme, but also reorientate her own career moving forward.

"Coming to Singapore was a big change for us as a family. We were also expecting our first child in 2023, so I knew that things would be very different at the end of the programme."

"In a way I was experiencing my own very profound personal and professional change, while pursuing the EMC programme, which made my learnings and reflections even more meaningful. I was fortunate to have all the leverage and nurturing care that my truly global business school and ecosystem provided me with."

Defining change and understanding it in all of its dimensions, is a key starting point with the EMC, says Priyanka. It’s a challenge to explore all of the undercurrents that come with change, and to reframe it as something multi-faceted and systemic. 

One of the key “eureka” moments of the programme came to her within the first few modules with the introduction of the Bridges Transition Model: a way of seeing change as ending old ways of doing or thinking, a neutral zone of adaptation and surging forward to a new beginning. Musing over her course-work pushed Priyanka to develop her own, novel way of interpreting this—one that came to be the focus of her EMC thesis.

“The word change can be broken down between the first letter, C, and the final letter, E. Between those framing consonants is the word “Hang.” And I came to see change like this: a kind of ‘hanging in there’ with all the concomitant psychological undercurrents, between two inflexion points C -Commence somewhere with the change & E -Engage & Explore what is emerging with the change.”

“To me, this was a really new and different way of understanding the complexity of the processes and the dynamics prevalent in the lifecycle of an organisational change” she says. Thereby she started appreciating the fact that often times, several critical elements go amiss while navigating through organisational change interventions.

Going through the EMC has furnished Priyanka with a deeper grasp of the human emotions that accompany change—why it is hard and how to get people on board with the imminent transformations expected, in the fast-moving, ever-evolving and highly competitive business landscape that we witness today. "In my experience prior to the EMC, I could see the rationale behind leadership communication in events such as global town halls that outline the need for change from a corporate perspective—For better productivity, efficiency, and cost-savings.

"Today, I feel far more conscious and appreciative of the unspoken, discredited undercurrents in an organisation during major change interventions: the need to prioritise the importance of people's willingness, commitment and personal contributions in making the organisational change possible."

As she opines, the true superpower of any company is its people. And change-making is all about unleashing more of the power of people. Priyanka’s thinking about change has shifted profoundly, she says, from intervention-orientated “tick-boxing,” to seeing the organisation as a “living and breathing organism” and catering to all of its` dynamic, moving pieces.

"I now think of the ‘art of making a business successful’ more like Yoga, which is another of my great passions. Yoga practices operate on three realms: body, mind and soul. And with any business, you could say that the body is the organisation, the mind is the people who are doing the thinking and decision-making, and the soul is its culture—its values, behaviours, structures and systems. And any change programme or intervention has to address all three of these elements to make the business successful."

Coming out of the EMC, Priyanka is clear about the powerful impact the programme has had on her thinking and on her understanding of her own role as an Organisational Development & HR Leader. The notion of self as an instrument for change has informed the way that she sees the evolving role of HR as a function in being an impactful partner to organisations; a shift in focus from merely driving change management frameworks to honing the skills of coaching, consulting and influencing organisational leaders as the real agents of change.

“The Executive Master in Change programme immensely helps to drive more self-awareness and reflection”

“I went through a 360-degree assessment with my peers, and I was able to fully explore the effectiveness and impact of the interpersonal relationships that I had built in my career-span. I also received group-coaching from faculty and put together, all these aspects largely helped me to become more aware of my own reactions, responses and decisions. And as an HR Leader, and as someone in the business of people, this is mission critical.”

“Cognisance of this self-knowledge is enormously empowering because I started to learn how to create distance between myself and another person or situation—distance that gave me space and time to create more engaging and powerful conversations. It is helping me to “humanise” myself and the impact that I can drive during organisational interventions.”

As Priyanka emerges from the EMC and continues her own journey in change, building her network and starting to explore professional opportunities from her new base in Singapore, she does so with a deeper appreciation of the dynamics of her own self and of the vigorous, thriving organisational life.

“The EMC has equipped me with advanced skills in leadership, psychological insights and strategic transformation which are the real frameworks, tools and capabilities I will need to drive change in my own life and career.”

Priyanka Murthy attended the Singapore section of the INSEAD Executive Master in Change (EMC), an 18-month part-time programme for senior executives. 

By integrating business education with a range of psychological disciplines, the EMC prepares participants to assume roles in leading organisations, drive individual and organisational development, and successfully execute change management. Download the programme brochure to find out more.