Before I built a career in business transformation, operational excellence, and organizational change, I spent several years working in politics. I ran for office twice before the age of 30, and have helped lead political campaigns at every level of government in Canada.
Most people might think that politics and business transformation are worlds that couldn't be farther apart.
Certainly, one is associated with campaigns, legislation, massive fundraising efforts, and public debate. The other focuses on process improvement, technology, governance, and organizational performance.
In reality, many of my earliest lessons in politics are things I encounter on a nearly daily basis in business transformation.
Fraser during his time at Queens Park
Surprisingly, these two worlds have more in common than you'd think.
1. Change Is Never About The Process Itself - It Is About People
When I was still in University, I worked for the Hon. Kevin Flynn, who was the Member of Provincial Parliament for Oakville. I was mostly responsible for what we called 'community engagement'. Broadly speaking, it meant that I would often represent Minister Flynn or accompany him to community meetings and events.
It was in this role that I learned that facts alone rarely, if ever, change minds.
I saw hundreds of instances of voters of all stripes who supported Minister Flynn in countless elections because they had positive personal experiences with him. The number of times I heard "When I call him, he picks up the phone" or "I know if I contact his office, I'll hear back right away" or my favourite "I don't care about his Politics, Kevin is a good man".
Overwhelmingly, and I've seen it time and again, people will vote based on whether a politician is perceived as 'trustworthy' rather than the politician's stance on any single issue.
I've found this same principle applies in business transformation.
Organizations often invest enormous effort into designing better processes, implementing the newest technologies, or creating/refreshing a governance framework.
Yet many transformation initiatives struggle because leaders underestimate the human side of change.
Whether you're proposing a new public policy or a new operating model, people need to understand why the change matters, how it affects them, and what success looks like.
Just like in politics, genuine engagement and trust-building are often more important than the technical solution itself.
Politics taught me that winning support is rarely about having the best idea. It's about helping people see themselves in the future you're creating.
2. Stakeholder Management Is Everything
In politics, every issue has stakeholders with competing interests. Business transformation is no different.
Throughout my transformation work, I've partnered with leaders across technology, operations, finance, procurement, security, and corporate services. Each group has different objectives, priorities, and concerns.
Successful transformation requires understanding these perspectives before trying to drive change.
Working in politics (and surviving, for that matter) teaches you how to:
- Actively listen
- Identify people's strengths and enable them to be strong contributors
- Identify shared interests and build coalitions around those interests
- Find solutions that create mutual value
In my transformation work, my most successful projects have always been the ones where stakeholders feel they are participants in the change, not recipients of it.
In politics, I'm reminded of the time I went knocking on doors as a kid to collect signatures to save Brookdale Public Pool, which the local government was threatening to close. My family and I rallied stakeholders around a shared interest and built a strong coalition that ultimately saved the pool. It was not saved because keeping it open was the right thing to do; it was saved because stakeholders mobilized and political leaders recognized the consequences of closing it.
3. Progress Matters More Than Perfection
Politics teaches humility.
No policy is perfect. Every decision involves trade-offs. Leaders must often choose between multiple good options while working within financial, operational, and political constraints.
The same reality exists in transformation.
Too many initiatives stall because teams spend months pursuing the perfect solution. Meanwhile, opportunities for even small improvements go unrealized.
One of the most valuable lessons I learned from politics is that progress matters more than perfection.
One of the key messages I often bring up in my business transformation work is the importance of Minimum Viable Products: practical early versions that deliver value quickly and can be improved over time.
'Why build Ferraris when we can build Toyota Corollas?' is something I have probably said 1000 times in my career by now. But it's true. If I can implement a transformation initiative and deliver some wins in a few short months, that is always the more appealing option.
The best political and transformation leaders I have known understand when to stop refining and move forward with a solution that delivers measurable results.
4. Communication Is a Leadership Capability
Political professionals spend an extraordinary amount of time communicating. They explain, persuade, negotiate, simplify, and repeat key messages over and over again.
Business transformation requires exactly the same discipline.
A transformation strategy that exists only in a PowerPoint deck will never create value. Leaders must continually communicate priorities, progress, risks, successes, and expectations.
In my experience, the most effective transformation leaders are not the most technical people in the room. They are the people often asking the 'silly questions' and who can connect strategy to everyday work and help others understand why change matters.
5. Resistance Often Contains Useful Information
In politics, opposition is inevitable. Heck, my early days in politics were spent strictly studying opposition. Understanding how other parties, people, groups, constituents, etc. view and are responding to a situation is one of the most valuable skills I learned.
Experienced political leaders know that resistance often contains valuable information that should not be ignored.
When people push back, the instinct for many is to view that resistance as a problem to overcome, but we need to take the opposite approach.
When employees question a new process or challenge a proposed solution, they're often highlighting risks, unintended consequences, or implementation challenges that leadership may have overlooked.
Highlighting areas for improvement and solving for those issues is literally what made Toyota arguably the most successful car company in the world.
I've learned that resistance should not automatically be viewed as negativity. Sometimes it is an organization's early warning system.
The goal is not to eliminate resistance; it is to understand it.
6. Every Transformation Needs a Clear Narrative
Political campaigns succeed when they tell a compelling story about the future. Transformation initiatives require the same approach.
True organizational transformation needs more than project plans and performance metrics. We need a clear understanding of where the organization is going and why the journey matters.
In my experience, the most successful transformation efforts create a narrative that connects daily improvements to a larger vision of organizational excellence, resilience, customer value, or mission delivery.
In both politics and transformation, people support what they understand and, more importantly, they will champion what they believe in.
Final Thoughts: The Overlap of Politics and Business Transformation
The tools may be different today, but the work is very much the same. Instead of election campaigns, I now lead transformation initiatives. Instead of policy proposals or draft legislation, I help redesign processes and leverage technology to improve organizational performance. But beyond the different tools and settings, the core challenge continues to be helping people move from where they are today to a better tomorrow.
And that's what both politics and business transformation should always be about.
Fraser collecting the Business Transformation Leader of the Year award from the 2025 Business Transformation World Summit.