Burn Your Ships: Generating Momentum for Sustained Change

How Leaders Build Commitment, Courage, and Lasting Continuous Improvement

Creating change is hard. Sustaining it is even harder.

Many organizations launch improvement initiatives with enthusiasm—only to see momentum stall when fear, resistance, or competing priorities take over. The result is change fatigue, skepticism, and stalled progress.

In this on-demand webinar, Taryn Davis explores what it truly takes to generate sustained change by embedding continuous improvement into the foundation of organizational culture—not treating it as a temporary initiative.

Using the powerful metaphor of “burning your ships,” this session challenges leaders and improvement professionals to examine the hidden assumptions, habits, and safety nets that quietly undermine commitment to change.

What You’ll Learn

• Why sustained change is fundamentally different from one-time improvement efforts

• How fear influences decision-making, momentum, and leadership behavior

• What “burning your ships” means in a modern organizational context

• How leaders can model commitment in ways that build trust and credibility

• Practical ways to engage others without forcing compliance

• How small, intentional risks help organizations avoid bigger failures later

Key Insights

Sustained change isn’t about pushing harder—it’s about choosing differently.

One of the core insights of this session is that improvement stalls when leaders leave themselves an easy way back to the status quo. When teams sense hesitation or retreat, commitment erodes quickly. Momentum comes not from urgency alone, but from visible leadership alignment and follow-through.

Another key takeaway is the role fear plays in improvement work. Fear doesn’t disappear—but when leaders allow it to quietly drive decisions, it limits creativity, learning, and trust. The webinar reframes fear as a signal to slow down, examine assumptions, and lead with intention rather than reaction.

Finally, this session highlights that buy-in is built through relationships, consistency, and service—not persuasion or authority. Leaders who focus on people first create environments where improvement becomes part of daily work, not an extra burden.

Who This Webinar Is For

This webinar is ideal for:

• Continuous improvement, Lean, and operational excellence leaders

• Executives and senior leaders responsible for driving change

• Managers navigating resistance or change fatigue

• CI practitioners seeking stronger cultural adoption

• Leaders who want improvement to last, not just launch

Whether you’re early in your improvement journey or struggling to sustain progress, this session provides perspective and practical guidance you can apply immediately.

Watch the Webinar On-Demand

Fill out the form to access the full recording and explore how leaders can generate real momentum for sustained change.

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About the Presenter:

Taryn Davis holds her Master's of Library and Information Science from the University of Denver and has a background in Continuous Improvement and Organizational Development.

She is a thought pioneer in organizational excellence and seeks to bring people into a space where work is workable for all employees, from the upper echelons of the C-Suite to the line workers on the shop floor. Her passion is engineering processes and products that serve the well-being of the people responsible for and to them.