Across large-scale transformations—digital, product, AI, operating model, and culture—a recurring three-wave pattern appears with striking consistency. I have seen it repeat across organizations, industries, and leadership teams for more than fifteen years.
Over the past fifteen years, I have worked inside a wide range of large-scale transformations—digital, product, organizational, and cultural. In some cases as a consultant, in others as a fully employed leader, often embedded close to executive teams while change was unfolding.
What became clear over time was not how unique these transformations were, but how similar their structure turned out to be.
Regardless of industry or ambition, the same dynamics kept appearing. Strong strategies were approved at the top. Large implementation programs were launched. And yet, somewhere between intent and everyday practice, momentum often weakened. The organization technically “completed” the transformation, but the new way of working never fully took hold.
Initially, this looked like execution problems. Later, it became clear it was something else.
Across many transformations, a consistent three-wave pattern emerged:
- An initial phase focused on strategy, diagnosis, and executive alignment
- A second phase focused on implementation, rollout, and scale
- And a third phase—less explicit, often unstaffed—where strategy had to become lived behavior inside teams
The first two waves are well understood and well supplied.
The third is where value is either realized—or quietly lost.
This article introduces Wave 3 transformation: a thin but decisive leadership layer that embeds inside the organization at the most fragile moment of change—when strategy must become lived practice.
The Three Waves of Transformation
Wave 1 – Strategy & Diagnosis
Wave 1 is typically led by top-tier consultancies such as McKinsey, BCG, or Bain. It is short, expensive, and board-sponsored. Its role is to diagnose the situation, define ambition, design the target operating model, and align executive leadership.
Wave 1 does one thing exceptionally well:
it creates permission to change.
Boards and executive teams often need external, high-brand validation to approve significant shifts in direction. Once that permission is granted, motion begins.
But permission is not practice.
Wave 2 – Implementation & Scale
Wave 2 focuses on execution. Large implementation partners or interim consultant armies translate strategy into programs, governance structures, KPIs, and rollout plans.
This wave builds containers:
- Processes
- Operating models
- Reporting structures
Wave 2 delivers output.
But it rarely builds ownership, confidence, or habit.
This is where most transformations begin to lose momentum.
The Evidence: Why So Much Value Is Lost
The data is consistent across decades of research:
- ~70% of transformations fail to fully achieve their stated objectives (McKinsey).
- 20–40% value erosion commonly occurs within 18–24 months after implementation.
- 60–75% of employees experience change fatigue, reducing engagement and productivity.
- Leadership bandwidth is structurally constrained—senior leaders cannot both run today’s business and personally build new capabilities at scale.
- Attrition spikes of 10–20% among key talent are common following major change programs.
These failures are rarely due to bad strategy or poor execution discipline.
They happen in the space between.
Why Wave 3 Is Structurally Under-Served
CEOs and senior leaders are expected to:
- Keep the business running
- Sponsor transformation
- Manage risk
- And simultaneously change how work happens day to day
In reality, they can sponsor change—but they cannot inhabit it continuously.
At the same time, large consultant programs are optimized for scale and compliance, not for cultural fluency, trust-building, or capability transfer.
Traditional interim roles are designed for continuity or crisis—not for embedding new behaviors and then deliberately stepping aside.
What’s missing is a playing coach inside the system.
Wave 3, Lived From the Inside
I did not arrive at the Wave 3 insight from theory.
I arrived there from working inside transformations—as both a consultant and a fully employed leader.
When Strategy Becomes Scripture
While I was at Yahoo! – invited to join the Design Leadership team in a strategic effort from the then visionary CEO Carol Bartz, the company went into a a major restructuring, where I saw the pattern first: BCG arrived on campus and worked exclusively with the executive leadership team. Among the broader leadership group, we jokingly referred to them as “the Black Death squad.” Not out of cynicism—but realism. When firms like BCG or McKinsey arrive, people know that big change—and often layoffs—follow.
Wave 1 had done its job. Direction was approved. Motion began.
But understanding what that direction meant in daily leadership practice was still unresolved, and the company kept spiraling in multipe change cycles following that, long after I had left the company.
When I joined Novo Nordisk Development a decade later, BCG had just completed a large digital transformation reset. They left behind exceptionally dense and comprehensive slide decks—strategically correct, modern in language, and filled with best practice.
Middle management struggled to make them actionable. The material earned nicknames like “the Bible” or “the Books of Moses.” Not because it lacked intelligence—but because it lacked operability.
Wave 2 followed, with local consultants translating strategy into governance models and operational manuals. Containers were built.
What was missing was culture.
Making It Lived at Novo
Wave 3 work for me at Novo focused on turning product thinking into habit:
- How to involve users meaningfully
- How to experiment safely
- How to make iteration part of everyday work
Culture is not compliance.
Culture is rhythm, habit, and permission.
Over time, this led to real shifts: designers became a natural part of R&D, new talent profiles emerged, and product-centricity moved from aspiration to practice.
LEGO: Wave 3 as an Embedded Vendor, Not an FTE
At LEGO, my Wave 3 work was done as an approved external vendor, not as a full-time employee. This distinction matters.
It worked because there was:
- Clear executive sponsorship
- Proven early results
- A shared desire to anchor capabilities internally—not outsource them
The organization had undergone a significant SAFe transformation—a classic Wave 1 and Wave 2 effort. Teams had extensive documentation, portfolio structures, and planning artifacts.
But no product culture to inhabit them.
Leadership described having hundreds of Epic headlines with little substance. Teams could not translate them into meaningful solutions.
I stepped in explicitly as a playing coach, with one condition:
I would not bring a team. I would work with theirs.
We selected a small group of internal leaders and specialists and solved one carefully chosen pilot problem together. Then another. Momentum grew through real wins, not rollout.
After several sprints, leaders trained and habits embedded, I stepped out.
Wave 3 completed.
What Wave 3 Actually Is
Wave 3 is not a specialized role like Scrum Master or Product Coach.
It is a cross-disciplinary, cross-organizational leadership capability.
Wave 3 leaders:
- Operate inside teams, not above them
- Translate strategy into lived behavior
- Build trust, cadence, and decision clarity
- Leave organizations stronger—not dependent
Think of it as a pilot guiding a ship through narrow, dangerous waters—then stepping off once open sea is reached.
Why Interim Wave 3 Leadership Matters Now
This leads to the question McKay Consulting now deliberately asks:
Why don’t we intentionally bring Wave 3 leadership in on an interim basis?
My experience shows that after 18–24 months, when habits are embedded and teams are fluent, the role is complete. At that point, optimization leaders—not cultural builders—are the right fit.
Wave 3 leaders carry new sentiment, values, and ways of working. They are innovators—but the lab is culture and lived work life.
In a world shaped by geopolitical instability, rapid technological change, and AI-driven shifts in how products and organizations are built, the need for this leadership layer has never been greater.
You cannot opt out of this change.
Why Interim Wave 3 Leadership Matters Now
This leads to the question McKay Consulting now deliberately asks:
Why don’t we intentionally bring Wave 3 leadership in on an interim basis?
The Wave 3 playing coach is not a permanent role by design. It is a situational leadership function, activated during periods where the organization must change how it thinks, decides, and works—while still delivering on its existing commitments.
From experience, this phase typically lasts 18–24 months. That is the time it takes to:
- Establish new habits and working rhythms
- Build confidence in new decision models
- Develop leaders and teams who can operate fluently in the new context
Once this is in place, the organization enters a different phase. The work shifts from capability building to optimization. At that point, leaders who excel at efficiency, scale, and continuous improvement are the right fit. Wave 3 leadership has done its job.
What the Wave 3 Playing Coach Actually Does
A Wave 3 playing coach operates inside the organization, not alongside it.
The role is to:
- Translate strategic intent into daily leadership behavior
- Help teams learn by doing, not by instruction
- Reduce ambiguity around priorities, decisions, and trade-offs
- Establish a sustainable cadence that replaces heroic effort with repeatable flow
This is not about introducing new frameworks.
It is about making existing ones work.
Wave 3 leaders work across boundaries:
- Between business and technology
- Between legacy practices and new methods
- Between formal structures and informal power
They bring new sentiment and values into the system—not as slogans, but as lived experience. The “lab” is not a pilot team or innovation unit. The lab is culture, habit, and everyday work life.
Why This Cannot Be Solved by Roles or Processes Alone
Traditional roles—Scrum Masters, Product Coaches, Change Managers—are often scoped to specific domains or methods. They focus on subjects.
Wave 3 leadership focuses on context.
It requires:
- Deep organizational fluency
- Credibility with senior leadership
- The ability to move between strategic and operational levels
- The trust to challenge assumptions without triggering resistance
This is why Wave 3 leadership rarely fits neatly into existing role catalogs—and why it is often missing entirely.
Why Now
The conditions facing organizations today make the Wave 3 leadership layer more critical than ever.
Geopolitical shifts are reshaping markets and supply chains.
AI is fundamentally changing how products are built, how work is automated, and how decisions are made.
The pace of change continues to increase—while organizational tolerance for disruption decreases.
In this environment, organizations must trim, retrain, and reorient continuously. This cannot be achieved through episodic transformation programs alone.
You cannot opt out of this change.
But you can choose how deliberately you lead through it.
This is where the Wave 3 playing coach comes in—not as a permanent fixture, but as a focused, interim leadership force that helps organizations cross the most fragile part of transformation and emerge stronger on the other side.
A Message to CEOs and Senior Leaders
If your transformation is stalling, it is unlikely because you need:
- More strategy decks
- More frameworks
- More implementation partners
More often, what’s missing is the right leader inside the system at the right moment.
Wave 3 is not optional.
It is where value is protected, culture is built, and change becomes real.
This is the work McKay Consulting exists to do.
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