About this episode

Phil Le-Brun discusses how organizations can overcome outdated structures and management thinking to become more adaptive and effective.

Why do so many smart organizations still feel slow, rigid, and stuck in the past? In this episode, Phil Le-Brun—former McDonald’s executive who helped modernize operations across 38,000 restaurants, and now an executive in residence at Amazon Web Services—joins Jennifer Colosimo to introduce ideas from his new book, The Octopus Organization. Phil explains why the “silent killer” of performance isn’t bad people, but good people trapped in bad rules, outdated structures, and 19th-century management thinking. Using the octopus as a metaphor, he explores what it really means to build a learning, adaptive organization where decision-making lives closer to the work, not just at the top. Phil shares practical ways leaders can move beyond soul-crushing, one-time transformations and instead create continuous, humane change that unlocks potential, accelerates decisions, and helps teams thrive in a world of constant complexity. As a global leadership and organizational performance partner, we give strategy the human edge™. For 40 years, FranklinCovey has helped tens of thousands of leaders, teams, and organizations around the world achieve breakthrough results and transform how they execute…

People in this episode

Host: Jennifer Colosimo

Guest: Phil Le-Brun

Topics covered

• organizational performance
• leadership
• adaptive organizations
• management thinking
• continuous change

Keywords

• organizational change
• leadership strategies
• performance improvement
• management
• adaptive leadership

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: McDonald’s, Amazon Web Services, FranklinCovey

Books & works: The Octopus Organization

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