Many multinationals try to roll out the same change strategy in every country, as if everyone played by the same rules. In this episode of Jugando en Serio (in Spanish), Carlos Vargas, a cultural transformation expert and founder of Beyond Success, shares what he has learned in more than 20 years of guiding change across countries, and how to adapt it to each context.
Cultural transformation: there is no universal recipe
Vargas moved from treasury at Citibank, where 9/11 caught him in Florida, to a Swedish firm that designed custom games to help leadership teams execute their strategy. He has done the same ever since: helping people change behaviors with the help of technology.
His thesis is clear: the problem may be similar everywhere, but each region sees it from a different part of the picture. Given one minute in front of a global committee set on replicating the same strategy in every country, he would build scenarios reproducing the situation in North America, Latin America or Europe to show that each tackles it in its own way. As Harvard professor Linda Hill argues in Collective Genius, providing context is what helps people learn and execute better.
One workshop, two cultures and a shared goal
His favorite story: a session in Peru for a Chinese company that leads its market. The conditions were demanding: a minimum rating of 4.5 out of 5, or only part of the fee would be paid; materials in Mandarin for the Asian half of the group, the session in English and questions answered in Spanish for the other, Peruvian half. And the tables, which compete against each other, were mixed.
The first day was stressful, but on the morning of the second came the breakthrough: competition did the rest. The session went well and the client still works with him.
Everyone wants to win, and everyone will do whatever it takes to win, including having to understand the person who doesn't understand a word they're saying.
Designing change so it hurts at first
In his simulations, the first decision cycle is deliberately designed to make teams struggle: profitability drops and both customer and employee experience suffer, just as in any real change. That's why every experience needs a recovery phase, where emotions come into play and teams see that the proposed changes actually work: in the second or third year, the results arrive, along with the «aha» moment.
To make sure learning doesn't stay in the classroom, he uses a simple habit. At the start, each participant shares a challenge the transformation poses for them. At the end, they find someone they don't usually work with, state a concrete intention and email it to Vargas. With those commitments, he shows the client the business impact.
Three keys to better team decisions
When a team gets stuck, Vargas watches three things, following the model of a colleague he has worked with for many years. The first is framing: what decision is actually being made? Type 1 decisions can't be undone; type 2 decisions can be made gradually and reversed without much impact.
The second is how information is used: looking at the data that matters without getting tangled up in what doesn't. He explains it with his mother's washing machine: he compared prices, energy use and noise, but all she wanted was a white one with two compartments. The third is team engagement: often one person dominates and the rest follow without questioning anything, just as in real teams.
Gen Z and empathy: the levers of change
If he designed a video game for change, it would have three ingredients: the experience must be fun, relevant and applicable to real life, and intentional, with a before, a during and an after that connect. Each person should live it from their own context, and that context is changing with Gen Z: according to Vargas, they grew up amid economic crises and a pandemic, and the classic models of feedback, careers and onboarding no longer work for them.
His final advice fits in one word: empathy. For Vargas, putting yourself in the shoes of those living through change is what makes transformations move faster.
I would ask organizations to raise their levels of empathy towards how people experience change. If you put yourself in the other person's shoes, you'll be able to achieve much longer-term results.
