Paul Cook of The Transformation Guide has spent 30 years in change management, and he's here to prove it isn't boring. His route in was unexpected: a maths degree, a first job as a statistician measuring the UK economy at the forerunner of the ONS, forecasting for a newspaper group, then five years at PwC during the 1990s wave of big enterprise systems, before going solo as a serial programme manager (a former boss once called him 'unemployable', which he took as a compliment).

Now he teaches teams to do change themselves. His starting question is always the same: what is it you're actually trying to do? Using Natalie's own idea for a nonprofit as a live example, he shows change management in practice: explain it clearly, energise people and draw them in. He walks through the levers of change beyond technology (people, products and services, process, structure, customers and markets) and describes the strange split AI has created, with some people adopting it at astonishing speed while others simply aren't getting involved.

Paul's central message is that the answer is already in the building. The people doing the work usually know what's broken, and ideas they help create are far more likely to land. He also explains why he built an AI version of himself as a coach, how he built his own CRM in an evening with Claude's help despite never having written Python, and why accountability can't be outsourced to consultants.

Guest: Paul Cook, The Transformation Guide (thetransformationguide.co.uk), author of the weekly Change Brief newsletter

Recorded for The Technology Show on Voice FM 103.9, Southampton — broadcast 18 September 2026. Listen live on Fridays at 1pm. More episodes: thetechnologyshow.uk