Executive Sponsorship: Closing the Leadership Involvement Gap

Executive Sponsorship: Closing the Leadership Involvement Gap

Active sponsorship is the single factor most closely tied to whether a change sticks, and it is the one most often assumed rather than built. IMA Worldwide helps leaders close the involvement gap using the Accelerating Implementation Methodology (AIM). AIM defines Six Non-Delegable Leadership Tasks that a sponsor cannot hand to a project team, from communicating the business case to aligning rewards and cascading through the management line. It also weights leadership action through the Express, Model, Reinforce sequence, at a ratio of roughly 1x to 2x to 3x, because visible reinforcement moves adoption far more than announcements. Organizations that sustain active leadership through a change see two to three times the adoption of those that do not.