Volkswagon
Volkswagen: Turning Problems Into Paths Through
“When things arrive to us, they don't arrive to us anymore like a problem. They arrive to us as a way to see a path through. No Matter What.”
Jesus Hernandez, Head of Market Management & Communications, Volkswagen AG
About VW
Volkswagen AG is one of the world's leading automotive companies with 111 production facilities and 663,000 employees. Doing over 321B in revenue, they’re based out of Wolfsburg, Germany and are working towards innovative and sustainable technologies for the future of mobility.
Our approach
Keynote
Panel Discussion + Q&A
The audience:
Over 250 person digital development team & leadership
CLIENT CHALLENGES:
Change created uncertainty
Volkswagen was navigating a period of significant uncertainty: budget pressures, potential factory closures, longstanding ways of working in flux, and a rapidly evolving digital environment, all at once.
Layered onto that complexity was a harder problem: how people across the organization were responding to it.
The real challenge was mindset
Leadership recognized that many of the external challenges were symptoms of a deeper issue: people needed to change the way they approached uncertainty and difficulty. As Jesus Hernandez described it, the organization needed a message that could break through and help people move forward "in spite or because of those challenges." The opportunity was to shift the conversation away from circumstances and toward personal responsibility.
Turning discomfort into movement
Transformation requires people to do things differently, and doing things differently often means moving outside what feels comfortable. The challenge was helping people recognize that discomfort wasn't something to avoid — it was part of the process of growth. Rather than treating every challenge as a problem to solve, leaders needed a framework that could help teams find a path forward.
THE RESULTS
A shift from problems to paths forward
The biggest change was in how people approached challenges. Instead of seeing them simply as problems, they began looking for a path through. That shift started with recognizing that meaningful change begins with the individual, and that discomfort is part of growth rather than something to avoid. It made people more willing to step outside what they knew, and the combination of the keynote, training, and discussions helped create an environment of greater collaboration and movement.
"When things arrive to us, they don't arrive to us anymore like a problem. They arrive to us as a way to see a path through."
More than a keynote
For Jesus, the real value of Sterling's approach was that it created a framework the organization could keep using, not a message that ended when the keynote did.
"It's a framework in itself that can be reused over and over again."
The experience changed how Volkswagen approached challenges and gave leaders a shared way to keep moving forward.
"I would bring Sterling back any day, any time."
Learning to hunt for discomfort is a powerful way to move through uncertainty and achieve what you want. No Matter What.
“Sterling and his team don’t just preach, they actually live through it. So it's a different way of communicating, I think, and a different way to address a whole problem completely.”
Our Methodology
Breakthrough cultures drive breakthrough performance. We’ve built a 12 week, 5-step process to identify and solve for root problems to deliver maximum impact before, during and after events.
Growth No Matter what starts here.
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