Irresistible Change

A blueprint for change leaders to learn from one of the largest transformations in corporate history

Irresistible Change:A Blueprint for Earning Buy-In and Breakout Success details one of the largest and most formidable transformations in corporate history: to shift the foundations of work for IBM’s nearly 400,000 employees and thousands of interdisciplinary teams across 180 countries and help them become more entrepreneurial, agile, and customer focused. Written by Phil Gilbert, IBM’s former General Manager of Design and architect of this ambitious change effort, this book is part narrative and part field guide. Irresistible Change describes how the choices made at IBM affected the Change Program Office’s development at each stage of its growth and provides readers with key insights they need to conduct transformational change within their own organizations.

This book includes insights on:

• Getting buy-in for change, the biggest challenge that holds back even the most ambitious change efforts, by making it something exciting rather than inevitable
• Seeing change as a high-stakes “product” deserving of the same resources and rigor as your top-performing business lines
• Recognizing today’s newly empowered and often skeptical employees who resist authority and value autonomy and stability

PHIL GILBERT is best known for leading IBM’s transformation as their General Manager of Design. After selling his third startup to IBM in 2010, Phil was asked by IBM in 2012 to use design thinking, coupled with agile, to update how IBM’s teams worked. The transformation became the subject of a Harvard Business School case study, the documentary film The Loop and feature articles in the New York Times and Fortune magazine.

Phil’s 45-year career spans startups, large corporations, and board memberships, where he has led organizations ranging from solo ventures to those with 400,000 employees.

In 2018, Phil was inducted into the New York Foundation for the Arts’ Hall of Fame. In 2019, the State of Oklahoma (Phil’s native state) named him an Oklahoma Creativity Ambassador for his achievements in the world of creative thinking and innovation.

Phil retired from full-time operational responsibilities at IBM in 2022 in order to focus on helping the next generation of entrepreneurs, business, and military leaders understand how to impact culture at scale, to improve innovation and team performance. Phil lives in Austin, Texas.