Copy of Keep It Simple, Keep It Human: What Xylem Teaches Us About Operating Model Overhauls (TPL Insights #285)
- May 11
- 4 min read
By Rob Andrews
Most operating model redesigns are like corporate root canals: necessary, painful, and often followed by lots of post-op regret. But every now and then, a company figures out how to do it without breaking its teeth or its spirit. Enter Xylem, a global water solutions provider that just might have cracked the code by keeping things radically simple and deeply human.
At a time when most companies would rather diagram a ten-layer org chart than face the music on culture, Xylem did the unthinkable: they started with people. Not structure. Not technology. People.
And it worked.
Claudia Toussaint, Xylem’s chief people and sustainability officer, and let’s just pause to appreciate how rare that combo is, broke it all down. Her insights are a masterclass in leading change without losing your soul (Weddle & Toussaint, 2024).
First, Simplify the Mission
Before the consultants out there break out the Post-its and swim lane diagrams, take a breath. One of the smartest moves Xylem made was trimming the corporate jargon fat from their purpose statement and boiling it down to something everyone could remember: build a water-secure world.
That was it. No 47-word vision statement. No five-pillar mission map. Just a clean, punchy purpose.
And it worked because it mattered. When your work involves preventing water loss in a world where over 2 billion people lack safe drinking water, purpose is not a feel-good bumper sticker. It is a strategic engine (World Health Organization, 2022).
Xylem’s purpose helped unify 23,000 employees across 150 countries: engineers, technologists, analysts, and even some adorable pipe-crawling robots (yes, really), around one crystal-clear goal (Weddle & Toussaint, 2024).
Culture Before Org Charts
Here is where most companies get it wrong. They shuffle boxes on a PowerPoint slide and call it a transformation. Xylem flipped the script.
Instead of defaulting to structure, they asked, “What kind of culture will let this new model thrive?” Then they built everything else around that. As Toussaint put it, “We looked at culture as a derisking mechanism” (Weddle & Toussaint, 2024).
Translation: If you ignore culture, your shiny new model is just a ticking time bomb with a logo.
Xylem got its top 150 leaders involved early. Not in a performative, “let us loop them in after the decisions are made” kind of way, but with transparency and real input. These leaders were not just told what was changing; they were developed, coached, and empowered to drive it. That is how you build grassroots momentum at scale.
Alignment Is a Verb
One of my favorite moments in the interview came when Toussaint unpacked the difference between agreement and alignment.
Everyone says they agree with change. That is easy. But alignment? That is where the rubber meets the budget.
Being aligned means you are actually allocating your financial and human capital differently. You are making different calls. You are showing up with your calendar, your capital, and your behavior aligned to the strategy. And that is where Xylem’s executive team walked the talk. They went through change leadership workshops together. They practiced giving feedback. They even turned “calling people out” into “calling people in”—a subtle but powerful shift in language and mindset.
As one McKinsey study noted, transformation success rates jump 79 percent when leaders model the change (Weddle et al., 2021). Xylem lived that principle.
Structure That Speeds Up, Not Slows Down
Once the cultural groundwork was laid, Xylem did tackle the structural side of things. And again, they took the road less traveled.
They ditched the overly matrixed model that had people attending 17 meetings a day just to make one decision. In its place, they created vertically integrated business units, clear lines, clear roles, and faster execution.
And for those of us who have sat in meetings wondering, “Why am I here?” Xylem introduced a simple litmus test: are you shaping the discussion, or are you just being informed? If it is the latter, you do not need to be in the room.
That kind of intentionality around meeting roles is a game-changer, especially in a world where collaboration overload is one of the biggest performance drains in corporate life (Cross et al., 2016).
Yoga, AI, and the Art of Moving Fast
Toussaint is a longtime yoga practitioner, and she likened the hardest parts of the transformation to holding a tough pose; you grow when it starts to hurt. That metaphor hit home.
There were moments when the transformation felt overwhelming. But Xylem leaned in, kept moving, and learned that speed, while painful, is often the best antidote to uncertainty.
And they did not do it alone. Toussaint emphasized the value of external partners, real-time data, and metrics that measure progress, not just activity. The company also embraced AI not as a threat, but as an augmentation tool, especially in HR and talent development. Smart move.
As the World Economic Forum (2023) has pointed out, the future of work belongs to organizations that embrace AI as a capability enhancer, not a job killer.
Final Thoughts: Leadership That Listens, Learns, and Leans In
So, what is the takeaway for leaders thinking about launching their own operating model redesigns?
Start with culture. Clarify your purpose. Align your behavior before your org chart. Move fast. And above all, stay human.
Xylem reminded us that resilience is not just about bouncing back. It is about bouncing forward—with clarity, purpose, and a whole lot of trust.
And if you are lucky, maybe even a robot that crawls through pipes to save you from a water main disaster.
Not a bad metaphor for great leadership, now that I think about it.
Warmest,
Rob Andrews
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Celebrating 28 years of Executive Search, Leadership Advisory, and Interim Executive Excellence
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References
Cross, R., Rebele, R., & Grant, A. (2016). Collaborative overload. Harvard Business Review, 94(1), 74–79.
Weddle, B., & Toussaint, C. (2024). Operating model transformations: Focus on people, processes, and purpose. McKinsey & Company.
Weddle, B., Jones, T., & Hall, B. (2021). Building a transformation that lasts. McKinsey & Company.
World Economic Forum. (2023). Future of Jobs Report 2023.
World Health Organization. (2022). Drinking-water.
