Why the Clean Transition Stalls Between the Boardroom and the Organisation — and What Leaders Can Actually Do About It

Every organisation has mandates that were decided at the top and never quite landed at the bottom. The clean transition is the most consequential example of this problem right now, and the most honest one, because the stakes make it impossible to ignore.

Net zero targets, sustainability mandates, and ESG commitments are not failing because of weak strategy or insufficient capital. They are failing at the execution layer. The management structures were never rebuilt to carry them. The governance architectures were never redesigned when sustainability targets were added. The leadership population understands the direction but does not know what to do differently when they leave the room.

This is a structural problem. It exists in every organisation navigating significant change. And it has a precise anatomy.

This session is a 60-minute facilitated dialogue for leaders who recognise this gap in their own organisations, whether the mandate driving it is climate, transformation, or any other strategic commitment that is not yet fully operational. A practitioner-led conversation that names the mechanisms clearly and works through what leaders can specifically do to close the gap.

Three movements: the Diagnosis, where the structural failure modes are named precisely so the problem is no longer invisible; the Dialogue, where participants surface what they are experiencing inside their organisations; and the Close, where key insights are named and participants leave with a clear framework for recognising where execution breaks down in their own context, along with an open invitation to continue the conversation one-on-one.

Led by Sam Elmansoury, Founder and President of Precision Learning, an 18-year management consulting and executive advisory practice based in Paris and New York, working with senior leaders and institutions on the execution conditions that determine whether strategic commitments actually change how organisations operate. Mandates have included the Council of Europe Development Bank, S&P Dow Jones Indices, Henkel, Rutgers Business School, and one of the largest US philanthropic foundations. Sam is an Adjunct Professor at EM Normandie Business School, where his teaching on Organisational Behaviour examines how human systems and decision-making patterns shape, and too often undermine, sustainability commitments at the strategic level. He holds an International MBA from the Sorbonne. Sam also serves on the Advisory Boards of New Leaders Council and World Faith, and has been a BMW Foundation Responsible Leaders Fellow since 2012.

For senior business leaders, sustainability and transformation leads, HR and L&D directors, and responsible leadership practitioners across sectors. Attendance is capped to preserve the quality of dialogue. Confirmed attendees receive joining details via email.