Disrupt 2026 London - Building AI that works and bringing your people on the journey at scale — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Heat up
2. 0:29here. Heat. Heat.
3. 1:04Heat. Heat.
4. 1:34In any one day, hundreds of thousands of
5. 1:37DHL employees will deliver excellence
6. 1:40for our customers all over the world,
7. 1:43creating millions of connections with
8. 1:45our brand. Everything they do has the
9. 1:48hallmark of DHL quality, trust, and
10. 1:51reliability. Every shipment processed,
11. 1:54every heart touched, every email
12. 1:57answered, every floor swept, every care
13. 2:01taken, every detail matters for our
14. 2:05sustainable growth.
15. 2:09They're
16. 2:14the next.
17. 2:29Wow.
18. 2:30Yeah. Don't play it again.
19. 2:33Make sure it's going to go to the right
20. 2:35bits.
21. 2:40Okay, it's going to start playing
22. 2:41another video, which I don't think it
23. 2:43should be doing. Oh, there we are. Yay,
24. 2:45we got there. Thank you. I feel
25. 2:47immensely immensely proud to represent
26. 2:50DHL and DHL Express today. Um, and I
27. 2:54first came to disrupt four years ago
28. 2:56when I first transitioned into this
29. 2:58industry. And at the time, I thought I'd
30. 3:02made a terrible mistake. Not by coming
31. 3:05to disrupt, don't get me wrong, but I
32. 3:08was desperate to get back to the
33. 3:10commercial world that I knew. However,
34. 3:13it was coming to this environment when I
35. 3:16saw the possibilities, the potential,
36. 3:20the passion
37. 3:21and I was inspired to be a disruptor.
38. 3:25And that changed my future and it
39. 3:27changed my career to the point that
40. 3:30three years later I was now sat on the
41. 3:32board for DHL Express UK. Something I
42. 3:36never thought was possible. So when
43. 3:38Sabier approached me and asked me to
44. 3:40share my story, I was really intrigued
45. 3:42to understand what was it about DHL's
46. 3:45approach, scalability or customer focus
47. 3:48they wanted me to share. But no, what I
48. 3:51got back instead, which was in a
49. 3:53Glaswegian accent, was no Jen, we want
50. 3:56you to share what you got wrong.
51. 3:58So last year I led one of the UK's
52. 4:02largest digital transformations that
53. 4:05spanned four departments and over a
54. 4:07thousand people and it didn't go to
55. 4:10plan. And I instantly learned that with
56. 4:13complexity comes fear and fear doesn't
57. 4:16announce it shelf itself. It shows up
58. 4:20with resistance, control, and failure.
59. 4:24So, I'm going to share what I got wrong,
60. 4:28what I learned, and what leadership
61. 4:31should and shouldn't look like when the
62. 4:33ground is moving beneath your feet and
63. 4:35the future looks uncertain. And what I
64. 4:38learned was uncomfortable and necessary.
65. 4:41And I'll share my first quote, which is
66. 4:43my theme for today, which is if you fear
67. 4:46going in, then in you must go.
68. 4:49And at DHL, our purpose is simple.
69. 4:52connecting people and improving lives.
70. 4:54And we do that through the world's most
71. 4:56global connected network of 220
72. 4:59countries and territories. And our brand
73. 5:02represents
74. 5:04millions of customers every single year.
75. 5:07But we're not just a logistics business.
76. 5:10We're also a people's business.
77. 5:13And we have over 111,000 employees,
78. 5:164,000 in the UK. And if you combined all
79. 5:19five divisions, we're over 400,000.
80. 5:23Culture, compassion, care, and
81. 5:25responsibility matter at this scale. And
82. 5:28I'm immensely passionate about people,
83. 5:30but I'm really, really passionate about
84. 5:32our fleets. I love our fleets. And every
85. 5:34night, hundreds of our aircraft take off
86. 5:37carrying our customer promise of
87. 5:39excellence simply delivered. And I'm
88. 5:41that geeky about our planes that when I
89. 5:44stay at our UK hub every week by East
90. 5:46Midlands airport, I stay just at a hotel
91. 5:49just outside East Midlands and I time my
92. 5:52evening runs so I can watch the Boeing
93. 5:55trip 7 and 767 from Cincinnati and
94. 5:58Lifcick coming into van coming into land
95. 6:02and they for me are a physical
96. 6:04representation of that trust,
97. 6:06reliability and speed.
98. 6:09But that doesn't end on the runway. That
99. 6:11extends to our nearly 500 strong
100. 6:15customer service team and the experience
101. 6:17that they deliver every single day. Now,
102. 6:21we operate in a really complex
103. 6:23environment. And don't talk to me about
104. 6:25dimminimus or Trump or geopolitical
105. 6:28challenges, but in CS, we have to adapt
106. 6:32as the race unfolds.
107. 6:35But the beauty of DHL is that we're a
108. 6:38global connected network. Not just in
109. 6:41logistics, but also in customer service.
110. 6:43And whether you contact us in Argentina,
111. 6:46Austria, Australia or Austin, Texas, you
112. 6:50get the high level quality of service.
113. 6:53And we are a network and we work as one.
114. 6:56We have the same daily monthly KPIs. So,
115. 7:00eight daily, 15 monthly, and a scorecard
116. 7:03that is always in motion. And the
117. 7:06pressure is real, but the pressure is
118. 7:08not an excuse for control. And the thing
119. 7:11that I love and I'm passionate about is
120. 7:13the space and freedom in between those
121. 7:15metrics and those KPIs,
122. 7:18the creativity, the flexibility, and
123. 7:20what I call the plumbing and the poetry.
124. 7:23And that is where the magic happens.
125. 7:26However, these KPIs are taken deadly
126. 7:29seriously and if I miss one element on
127. 7:32one day, a vast amount of important
128. 7:35people are notified, including the
129. 7:36global CEO, to go, "Jen messed up
130. 7:39today." I just want you to remember that
131. 7:41point because it's fundamentally a place
132. 7:43that you do not want to be. However, my
133. 7:46ambitions and my team's ambitions go far
134. 7:49beyond just hitting KPIs. We want to be
135. 7:52a loyalty engine, a revenue generator, a
136. 7:55data and insight center for the rest of
137. 7:57the business, a strategic voice at the
138. 8:00table. To be a part of the solution and
139. 8:02the product, not there to fix the
140. 8:04problem, to be a true business partner
141. 8:06to sustainable growth, to be a true
142. 8:09innovator and to represent the voice of
143. 8:11the customer. Now, going into 2025,
144. 8:16we were building our new tech and our
145. 8:19new tools. And I believe our ambition
146. 8:22and our tools need to be built for the
147. 8:24world that is becoming, not the one that
148. 8:27we have today or the one that we wish it
149. 8:30still had or was.
150. 8:33Now, we had a great change culture and
151. 8:35when I first came into role 18 months
152. 8:37ago, I set up a project called Project
153. 8:39Evolve and that was about making sure
154. 8:42that our people were agile and adaptive
155. 8:44to change. They were used to
156. 8:46enhancements and development of our
157. 8:49tools and we had gone full automation as
158. 8:52much as possible on the tools that we
159. 8:54had and we had dipped our toe in the AI
160. 8:57waters
161. 9:00and we used our tools for what mattered.
162. 9:03So things like knowledge, learning, even
163. 9:06well-being which we could measure on a
164. 9:08weekly basis,
165. 9:14but it was about removing friction from
166. 9:16our people and our customers.
167. 9:19Engagement was high and we were
168. 9:22considered a role model around the
169. 9:24world. Not only how we had used our
170. 9:26tools but also how my amazing team had
171. 9:29helped shape them.
172. 9:32So, the last few years, DHL globally has
173. 9:35been rolling out a cloud-based CRM
174. 9:37system, which is with Service Now, and
175. 9:40we were due to go live in June 2025.
176. 9:44And we weren't necessarily the first
177. 9:45wave of countries to go live, but we
178. 9:47were certainly one of the biggest. And I
179. 9:50understand upgrading your CRM system
180. 9:54isn't just a tech upgrade. It
181. 9:56fundamentally changes the way that you
182. 9:58work.
183. 10:00See, legacy systems are built for
184. 10:02stability
185. 10:04and cloud-based systems are built are
186. 10:06built for potential possibility and
187. 10:10adaptability. And it's that adaptation
188. 10:13that really matters because just like in
189. 10:16F1, you can't wait for certainty. You
190. 10:19need to read the race as it unfolds.
191. 10:22And even during transformation, we knew
192. 10:24that progress would feel harder and
193. 10:26things would feel more difficult. And in
194. 10:29this rollout system, we were going from
195. 10:31the legacy system to the cloud-based
196. 10:33system overnight.
197. 10:36But based on the ambitions and the
198. 10:37success that we had, we decided to go
199. 10:40big bang. So something no other
200. 10:42countries had done before. And that is
201. 10:45full tool adoption, full automation from
202. 10:48day one. But we understood what had got
203. 10:52us here was not going to let get us to
204. 10:54the next level of performance.
205. 10:58I believe in pragmatic enthusiasm and
206. 11:00grounded optimism when it comes to
207. 11:02driving change and I drive my team mad
208. 11:05with that.
209. 11:07But I don't believe people respond to
210. 11:09pessimism. They belong they are impacted
211. 11:13by belief, clarity and momentum.
212. 11:17So we started driving change with
213. 11:20engaging communications that had a
214. 11:22simple goal of building confidence in
215. 11:25the direction that we were heading. We
216. 11:28did hands-on testing, but we didn't have
217. 11:30a live environment because of the
218. 11:32complexity of our network. We did
219. 11:35targeting training that focused on
220. 11:37confidence, not just compliance. And
221. 11:39something that Scott can relate to, due
222. 11:41to resource challenges, we were actually
223. 11:43training people weeks and weeks in
224. 11:46advance of the system going live. And we
225. 11:49had a launch,
226. 11:51great launch that would was filled in
227. 11:54with purpose and energy. And our aim was
228. 11:57simple to take our people from
229. 12:00uncertainty to clarity and to continue
230. 12:03on that se successful change momentum
231. 12:06that we had.
232. 12:13So, some of you may recognize this
233. 12:15image.
234. 12:18So, this is from Star Wars Empire
235. 12:21Strikes Back. And this is Dabar just
236. 12:24after Luke crashes his X-wing into the
237. 12:27swamp.
238. 12:29So, his intention was right and his
239. 12:32mission was right, but suddenly nothing
240. 12:34looked and felt like he had expected.
241. 12:37just like my it's falling out.
242. 12:43And this in many ways was where we found
243. 12:45ourselves.
244. 12:46Our intention was right, but we had
245. 12:49massively underestimated the impact on
246. 12:52our people and the fear and identity
247. 12:55that the change brought. Our tech had
248. 12:58moved faster than our people and our
249. 13:01processes. And like I said, we had
250. 13:04pushed f really hard on that full
251. 13:06adoption from day one. But instead of
252. 13:09finding ourselves in some kind of new
253. 13:11hope, we found ourselves in some kind of
254. 13:14false hope. And what was the impact?
255. 13:20So well-being and engagement. So we
256. 13:23measure well-being on a weekly basis.
257. 13:26and well-being had dropped so low so
258. 13:29instantly. It was only comparable to a
259. 13:32time which was two years ago where two
260. 13:35people had passed away in quick
261. 13:36succession and impacted our well-being.
262. 13:39So my people were feeling the pain.
263. 13:44Absence increased. Average handle
264. 13:47average handling time went through the
265. 13:48roof. And we were dealing with queue
266. 13:51sizes that we'd never dealt with before.
267. 13:53and we simply didn't have the resources
268. 13:56to be able to deal with the customer
269. 13:57demands
270. 13:59and therefore my KPIs were impacted
271. 14:03and in the first week I had four red
272. 14:06KPIs four notifications sent to the
273. 14:10global CEO to say Jen messed up again
274. 14:13today
275. 14:19customer experience was impacted
276. 14:22and I was getting a lot of noise and I
277. 14:25also could feel the impact from the rest
278. 14:27of the business
279. 14:30and I knew I was impacting our brand
280. 14:32integrity.
281. 14:34At the time I was only four months in
282. 14:37role sitting on the board and I knew
283. 14:39going into that process that I was not a
284. 14:42favored candidate. The CEO that had put
285. 14:44me in position was no longer there and
286. 14:47we had a new CEO who I'd only met once
287. 14:50prior to the roll out.
288. 14:52So if honestly I felt like my reputation
289. 14:55was in tatters.
290. 14:59However, the thing that really bothered
291. 15:01me more than anything is I genuinely
292. 15:04care for my people and I felt like I'd
293. 15:07let them down. There was real moments of
294. 15:10frustration and genuine tears all
295. 15:13around.
296. 15:14And on the second week where things
297. 15:16weren't getting better and I just got my
298. 15:19fifth red KPI and I'd met my CEO for the
299. 15:23second time. This was an image that was
300. 15:26snapped of me one evening by one of my
301. 15:29team and I'm really glad I've got this
302. 15:32image to look back on. But I was in my
303. 15:34very own swamp
304. 15:36and just like Luke, I had to go into the
305. 15:39cave and face my fears. And there was
306. 15:42real misalignment to what I thought I
307. 15:45knew and what the reality was.
308. 15:48So what did I do?
309. 15:51I knew that hundreds of people were
310. 15:52relying on me and thousands of
311. 15:54customers. So I needed to lead from a
312. 15:57place of presence and not panic. And if
313. 16:01knowledge is power, knowing what you
314. 16:03don't know is wisdom. And it was really
315. 16:06really clear there was a lot I didn't
316. 16:08know. However, with the amazing support
317. 16:12of my team, we took a step back and
318. 16:15tried to look at how we could recover,
319. 16:18how we could listen and to rebuild our
320. 16:20performance.
321. 16:22So, first things is we stopped trying to
322. 16:24please everybody and as a natural people
323. 16:26pleaser, I find that really, really
324. 16:28difficult. We looked at where we could
325. 16:30get quick wins and incremental gains
326. 16:32from a performance perspective. And that
327. 16:34fundamentally meant protecting certain
328. 16:37people, areas, and KPIs more than
329. 16:40others. And you can imagine that wasn't
330. 16:42necessarily the most popular solution.
331. 16:45The thing that I love that shouldn't
332. 16:47have come up there, that heyi ho. The
333. 16:50thing that I love more than anything was
334. 16:54hunting the good. So one thing that we
335. 16:56started doing is we started being
336. 16:58attuned to what was working well even in
337. 17:02in amongst the chaos and the whirlwind
338. 17:06and we spotlighted models of excellence
339. 17:08and we created new best practices.
340. 17:13So this going back to my well-being
341. 17:14graph because it should have come on the
342. 17:16last slide. You can see the dip there
343. 17:18which was the service now roll out and
344. 17:20two years prior to when we had had two
345. 17:23people pass away in quick succession.
346. 17:26So back to so we hunted the good and we
347. 17:29realized that tech determines what we do
348. 17:32but it's the culture that determines
349. 17:34whether it works. We had clear measures
350. 17:36of success and we chose data over dogma.
351. 17:39I repurposed my knowledge retention tool
352. 17:43to tell us whether people were feeling
353. 17:46confident about the tool. And we used
354. 17:49this tool to tell us which areas, which
355. 17:52departments, which individuals needed
356. 17:54more focus, attention, and training. So
357. 17:56rather than doing a scatter gun
358. 17:58approach, we could be really targeted to
359. 18:00make sure that we got the right support
360. 18:01to the right people quick enough.
361. 18:04We created trust and engagement which
362. 18:07sounds easy but it really really is not.
363. 18:10We did this through a continuous
364. 18:12improvement rhythm through a see it,
365. 18:15sort it, fix it hub where our people
366. 18:17could come to us and tell us where their
367. 18:19pain points were, whether it be
368. 18:21processes or new like tech or tiny
369. 18:24little issues and we could use that data
370. 18:27and me and my team would ask ourselves,
371. 18:30what can we fix today? And that created
372. 18:33a momentum of trust. But we also faced
373. 18:37the really hard truths, being really
374. 18:40honest with our people about the
375. 18:41mistakes that we had made. And me and my
376. 18:43team found a way to connect with every
377. 18:45single individual within our contact
378. 18:47center. And I went to every department
379. 18:49within my business, especially my
380. 18:51commercial team, with my tail between my
381. 18:53legs. And I was really honest about the
382. 18:55mistakes that I'd made and what I was
383. 18:57trying to do to get out of it.
384. 19:02But most importantly at all of all and I
385. 19:05love this is the human connection. And
386. 19:08again Scott wherever he is could
387. 19:09probably relate to this. The first thing
388. 19:11to go is the engagement, the motivation
389. 19:14and the connection activities. But this
390. 19:16is really important and we made sure
391. 19:19that we still had this effort with our
392. 19:21people because they're not rational
393. 19:23robots or droids. They respond to
394. 19:26belief, identity and belonging.
395. 19:30And just like Luke's X-wing, we didn't
396. 19:33get out of the swamp through force or
397. 19:36control. We did it with patience,
398. 19:39belief, but actually it was the support
399. 19:41of others.
400. 19:44So what do we learn about our
401. 19:46transformation? And we go um live with
402. 19:49Genesis um in September. So we're taking
403. 19:52these things forward, but there is no
404. 19:54app for transformation. Leadership is no
405. 19:57longer about knowing and telling, but
406. 20:00it's about seeing, asking, unleashing,
407. 20:03and provoking.
408. 20:06It's about driving a direction, but also
409. 20:10to build trust with your people because
410. 20:13fear will shut down any innovation and
411. 20:15engagement quicker than any fail tech.
412. 20:18So, engage early. When you don't have
413. 20:20the answers, you don't have the details.
414. 20:23People will catastrophize far more than
415. 20:25anything you could tell them. You have
416. 20:28to learn to lead with ambiguity.
417. 20:31Being open and honest about failure and
418. 20:34the bumps in the road that's going to
419. 20:35happen. We normalize failure as a
420. 20:39natural progression to progress.
421. 20:43We recognize that fear and uncertainty
422. 20:46naturally impacts people's well-being
423. 20:48and it can't simply be talked away.
424. 20:52Feedback loops are critical.
425. 20:55People are engaged with not only what
426. 20:57they help build, but support, but most
427. 21:01importantly, what we learned, they help
428. 21:03fix as well.
429. 21:06Because transformation or leading
430. 21:08through a transformation when there's
431. 21:11disruption, when the map is blank, isn't
432. 21:14about being fearless. It's about being
433. 21:16fluid.
434. 21:19having conviction but also the humility
435. 21:21to change course when reality demands it
436. 21:28and think beyond the initial roll out. I
437. 21:31think what we've all heard today
438. 21:33transformation is no longer an event.
439. 21:36It's a consistent rhythm. It's a cadence
440. 21:41and therefore you need to create
441. 21:42operating systems and habits that allow
442. 21:45change to continue and never stall.
443. 21:49So, where are we now? I will never know
444. 21:52if going big bang was the right thing to
445. 21:55do. And honestly, no other country that
446. 21:58has gone live with this system has done
447. 22:01that. Still, only me.
448. 22:05However, I'm pleased to say that we now
449. 22:08have consistent performance and a
450. 22:11continuous improvement culture. We've
451. 22:14identified our early adopters and we now
452. 22:17have a fail forward and failing
453. 22:20acceptance culture. We are really clear
454. 22:23on our measures of success, but I'm
455. 22:25constantly running little experiments
456. 22:27and what I like to call a little
457. 22:29scientific culture where we move forward
458. 22:32together.
459. 22:34Credibility has stabilized,
460. 22:36I think.
461. 22:38And although I have lots of pilots going
462. 22:40on, I'm now leading two global pilots.
463. 22:43One which is customs, which is a whole
464. 22:45new world to me, which I'm learning,
465. 22:47which is not very simple. Um, but the
466. 22:50thing I'm most excited about, as of
467. 22:52yesterday, we went live with a more
468. 22:54advanced Aenti pilot with Service Now.
469. 22:58But even in just that roll out, I
470. 23:00learned that AI doesn't reduce
471. 23:02ambiguity, it increases it. you have
472. 23:05more choice, more answers, more
473. 23:07complexity. So, we've made it really
474. 23:10explicit with our people. And I stole
475. 23:12this, by the way, from the snowflake
476. 23:14CEO.
477. 23:16You automate the repetitive. You augment
478. 23:19the creative.
479. 23:21You protect the human where it matters,
480. 23:24but you use AI with intention, not
481. 23:27replacement and not avoidance.
482. 23:31I have a business before function
483. 23:33mindset. I'm no longer looking at silos.
484. 23:37It's about how CS can support strategic
485. 23:40growth for the business. Our strategy is
486. 23:43directly linked to the business strategy
487. 23:45on people, quality, cost excellence, and
488. 23:49sustainable growth.
489. 23:51I no longer have a plan. I have a
490. 23:53direction.
491. 23:56And that direction is really clear. We
492. 23:59have a relentless pursuit for that
493. 24:01customer connection. We need to create a
494. 24:04people culture that we're proud of.
495. 24:06We're striving for continuous and never-
496. 24:09ending improvement, but most
497. 24:11importantly, we disrupt the status quo.
498. 24:16So, when you're scaling AI, leading
499. 24:18transformations, doing pilots,
500. 24:22there's a moment that all of us will
501. 24:25want to pause
502. 24:27and wait for certainty.
503. 24:29But we simply don't have that luxury
504. 24:32anymore.
505. 24:34We need leaders who are brave, who are
506. 24:37willing to move before they're ready.
507. 24:39Not because they're reckless, because
508. 24:42standing still is a bigger risk. And you
509. 24:44may end up in a cave or a swamp just
510. 24:47like me. And I've got absolutely no
511. 24:49doubt in my mind I will end up there
512. 24:51again at some point. But the future of
513. 24:54the leaders in this industry don't
514. 24:56belong to those who are waiting for
515. 24:58certainty. They belong to those who are
516. 25:00willing to step forward while the map is
517. 25:03being drawn. Those who are willing to be
518. 25:05part of the resistance for the status
519. 25:08quo. We've learned that making mistakes
520. 25:11isn't failure. Avoiding them is. And if
521. 25:15you avoid risk, you avoid learning. If
522. 25:18you avoid learning, you avoid
523. 25:20progression. And that is the true path
524. 25:23to the dark side.
525. 25:25You can't scale AI without connection.
526. 25:29And the tools and tech will determine
527. 25:32what you do, but it's your connection to
528. 25:34it will determine whether it works. And
529. 25:37we need leaders who look different.
530. 25:40Leaders who are less certain but more
531. 25:43curious,
532. 25:44less controlling, more empowering, and
533. 25:48build tools, texts, and systems that are
534. 25:51able to be fluid and flex and adaptive.
535. 25:55and leaders that don't freeze when the
536. 25:57path looks uncertain.
537. 26:00And just like in Star Wars, heroes don't
538. 26:04wait for perfect conditions. They move
539. 26:07anyway.
540. 26:09They learn, they adapt, and they make
541. 26:12choices. And what they choose is
542. 26:15innovation over inertia,
543. 26:19courage over comfort. But most
544. 26:22importantly, they choose to disrupt over
545. 26:26default.
546. 26:27And that is the leadership that our
547. 26:29future deserves. Thank you.