LEARNING FROM THE FRONTLINE OF CHANGE AND IMPROVEMENT
Most organisations set out with clear goals and good intentions.
But change is rarely simple. It’s often messy, non‑linear, and full of surprises.
GEMBAfication is PMI’s new podcast for improvement professionals looking for an honest view of what improvement really looks like in practice. Because in our world, every experience is valuable.
Hosted by Susannah Clarke, Managing Partner at PMI, the series goes behind the scenes with leaders and practitioners who’ve driven change in their organisations. Sometimes with great success, sometimes with unexpected setbacks. You’ll hear about the methods that helped them mobilise, measure, and deliver results, and what they learned when things didn’t go to plan. These are candid conversations about what it really takes to improve, adapt, and lead when change meets the realities of day-to-day work.
GEMBAfication explores change as it really happens.
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Stepping Back to Move Forward: How St Andrew’s Healthcare Fixed the Problem, Not Just the Symptoms
When compliance failures lead to more checks and reminders, it’s easy to focus on getting people to follow the process rather than asking whether the process is helping them succeed. That was the challenge facing Anca Palade and the team at St Andrew’s Healthcare when recurring issues with medical emergency bags weren’t being resolved by the existing interventions. But stepping back to understand how the process worked in practice changed how the team understood the problem and where they loo...
16 Sept 2026
Problems Before Platforms: How Informa TechTarget Learned to Keep Transformation Grounded in Process
Bringing teams, products, and systems together at Informa TechTarget created opportunities to simplify ways of working. It also created pressure to move quickly. Karen Winter, Chief Transformation Officer, reflects on the realities of leading transformation through complexity, the role of process in shaping better decisions, and the risks of starting with the solution before fully understanding the problem. "We should have spent more time understanding the process problems first." In this ep...
19 Aug 2026
The Choice to Change: How Comrod Helped People See That Effort Doesn’t Always Equal Value
The results of improvement work at Comrod were significant, with sites doubling turnover while reducing team stress and increasing operational productivity. Yet Lean Manager, Frode Steinsland, reveals that 90% of the effort went into helping people see what was really happening and recognise that change was needed, because when teams are already working hard, simply being told things need to change isn't always enough. “People were working hard. A lot of effort was not creating value.”...
22 Jul 2026
Capability in New Places: How BCN is Introducing AI Into Established Ways of Working
What happens when the ability to build solutions starts to outpace understanding of the problem? That tension is very real at BCN. Fraser Dear, experienced improvement practitioner and Head of AI and Data Innovation, reflects on the highs and lows of introducing AI into environments already built on structured, trusted ways of working, and the growing gap between doing more and doing what adds value. “Stop thinking ‘I have this tool - how can I ram the tool into the problem?’” I...
17 Jun 2026
Creating a Shared View: How the NHS Made Work Visible Across Complex Teams
When everyone is working towards the same goal, it’s easy to assume everyone can see the same picture. Carla Smith, Innovation, Strategy and Planning Programme Manager at the Midlands Cancer Alliances Life Science Hub, reflects on what it took to bring more structure and visibility to a complex mix of stakeholders, priorities and communication styles across NHS and industry partners, and what she learned about data, ownership, and different ways of working along the way. “There are completely...
20 May 2026
From Suggestions to Solutions: How Currys Made Colleague-Led Improvement Manageable at Scale
As improvement activity grew at Currys, so did the number of ideas. Phil Knowles shares what happened when that pipeline became harder to manage, and how focusing on specific operational challenges, with clearer governance and faster feedback, helped create the conditions for improvement to work across the business. “If colleagues only see the polished success stories, then they assume that failure is unacceptable.” In this episode: 00:00 Introduction and the challenge of scaling improvem...
15 Apr 2026
Beyond the Toolkit: How Tesco Built a Sustainable Continuous Improvement Culture
An honest conversation with Fraser Cowe about readiness for change, bottom-up improvement, and why success in one part of the business doesn’t guarantee success everywhere else. “We assumed the capability was there. It wasn’t. And that was on us.” In this episode: 00:00 Introducing Continuous Improvement at scale in Tesco’s contact centres 03:21 From hearts and minds to boot camps: building frontline capability 08:47 Why facilitation skills matter as much as C...
18 Mar 2026
Fixing Call Transfers in the Contact Centre: How OVO Energy redesigned the customer experience
Alannah Martin shares what really happened when her team replaced a traditional Interactive Voice Response telephone system with natural language technology in a live contact centre. “We knew that understanding our customers’ needs and why they were contacting us was fundamental to being able to improve anything.” In this episode: 00:00 Introduction and the problem with call transfers 02:08 Why traditional phone menus fail customers 05:23 Testing ...
2 Mar 2026
Introducing GEMBAfication
Most organisations set out with clear goals and good intentions. But change is rarely simple. It’s often messy, non‑linear, and full of surprises. GEMBAfication is PMI’s new podcast for improvement professionals looking for an honest view of what improvement really looks like in practice. Because in our world, every experience is valuable. Hosted by Susannah Clarke, Managing Partner at PMI, the series goes behind the scenes with leaders and practitioners who’ve driven change in their organi...
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