Small Steps, Big Changes – Masterclass Inspired Future Managers

Can small changes truly transform a company?

Fátima Carneiro, Director of Process Transformation and Digitisation at Altri, believes so, and visited Lusófona University – Porto University Centre on 10 November to encourage students to rethink how they view organisational evolution and the role leaders play in that evolution.

In a rapidly changing business world, where digital transformation has become inevitable, the guest speaker demonstrated that continuous improvement within a company does not occur through major leaps, but through small, consistent steps. She made it clear that “Small adjustments can make all the difference in a company.”

For Fátima Carneiro, empathy lies at the heart of the matter, emphasising that change starts with people. “It’s no use having the best technology if people don’t use it,” she stressed, arguing that any modernisation process must place employees at the forefront. This is where the role of the leader and leadership within an organisation becomes essential.

For companies to keep pace with digital transformations and new processes, the leader plays a crucial role, as they are “the engine of change”. This change can only be achieved if the leader “sets an example”, “creates psychological safety” — allowing people to fail — involves people, listens to them, “celebrates progress” and “removes barriers”. According to the speaker, inspiring others is a daily responsibility, because “a leader doesn’t change everything, but changes enough to inspire others to change.”

The engineer also shared practices that companies can implement to achieve meaningful change, such as Daily Kaizen, which encourages continuous improvement through, for example, short and structured meetings between employees and leaders aimed at increasing efficiency and autonomy. Organisational culture, she explained, is built just like Rome: “not in a day, but by laying one brick every day.”

In addition to discussing the main theme, Fátima Carneiro also spoke briefly about her personal and professional journey and what she learned at each stage of her life, highlighting failure as a driving force behind many of her learnings. She believes that failure is important and that people should not see it as a setback but as an opportunity. Failure, she argued, should be analysed with perspective, transformed into learning, and later turned into an advantage.

She also offered advice to future professionals — although hard skills may carry more weight in the first three years of a career, the balance between technical skills and soft skills becomes essential in order to grow in the job market and lead.

What Fátima Carneiro wanted to emphasise most clearly is that transformation is achieved through the consistency of small actions which, together, shape the future of an organisation.

Just like the masterclass with Rui Rio, this session — organised by the Bachelor’s degrees in Management and Commercial Management — was equally inspiring, “bringing into academia the best of what exists outside,” noted Professor Gabriela Leite, from the programme leadership team, reinforcing Lusófona University’s commitment to preparing professionals capable of understanding, managing, leading, and transforming the future of organisations.

View the Event Photos on ULusófona’s Facebook Page

Text
Susana A. Oliveira

Coverage
Paulo Renato

Editing
Lara Sousa