The 70/70 Rule: Pete Behrens and David Ritter on Transformation
In this Relearning Leadership episode, Pete and David Ritter—Senior Advisor at Boston Consulting Group and member of the Agile Leadership Journey Guide Community—explore what leaders should know about transformation. Their exchange reveals practical insights about bridging executive intent and team reality.
The Games Leaders and Teams Play
The central question: How do you bridge the gap between the games leaders play and the games teams play?
David introduces the 70/70 rule—transformation should be 70% top-down and 70% bottom-up, because the 40% overlap is where change actually occurs. Pete recognizes this immediately as a new way to think about the intersection between the two games.
Crossing the Barrier
The conversation identifies what's missing: executives don't cross over enough. The simple step that changes everything? Visit the team. Two hours a week at sprint reviews builds the relationship, transparency, and communication that creates transformation.
Pete draws from his experience joining senior leadership on European manufacturing tours—day after day at different plants, seeing the power of management by walking around, even at global scale.
Courage and Patience
Two qualities emerge as essential: courage and persistence. Pete frames the challenge many executives face: "When are we going to land this plane?'—that project-end milestone. You say courage. I agree. I also say patience. The concept of an investment that has to be reinvested takes a patience that I think a lot of executives don't have." That project-end mindset conflicts with transformation as continuous investment.
David's experience confirms the tendency for organizations to revert to the norm is incredibly strong. Without both courage and patience, organizations set expectations they can't meet—sometimes leaving them worse off than when they started.
Two Key Insights
First: Pay attention to something. Put a spotlight on it. Gather people around it.
Second: The 70/70 rule explicitly provides the overlap where transformation occurs—not the typical 50/50 split between cascading and laddering.
The discussion reinforces why executives who drive agile transformation with traditional project plans miss the fundamental shift required: transformation needs continuous improvement, not discrete endpoints.
Pete Behrens | Leadership Insights
Book Pete Behrens for Your Next Event
Pete is available for leadership conferences, executive forums, corporate events, and leadership offsites worldwide. He and his team work with you to build something specific to your audience — not a generic talk pulled from a shelf. Curious whether he's the right fit? Let's talk.
