In any company, Human Resources (HR) is essential for success. HR leaders play a vital role in navigating the business through changes. They build engagement, manage talent, and guide the company toward excellence. Among the most influential HR leaders today, Louise Ellekilde Fogstrup, Founder of Enabling Change stands out. With a solid academic foundation in economics and a specialization in motivational theory, Louise brings a wealth of knowledge to her role. Her consultancy, Enabling Change, has garnered recognition as one of Europe’s top Organizational Development (OD) companies, a testament to her expertise.
Through her visionary leadership, Louise is driving transformative change within organizations and elevating the impact of HR leaders on the corporate landscape. Her dedication to bringing structure to challenging change environments, encouraging change leadership education, implementing new dynamic ways of working and inspiring professionals and stakeholders to create long-lasting change make her a noteworthy figure in the field of Sustainable Change Leadership and Strategic Organizational Development.
Discovering Motivation
Louise Ellekilde Fogstrup’s career started from a strong interest in understanding human behavior and motivation, especially in the complex world of organizational dynamics. This often involved working across various cultures, locations, and hierarchies.
Having studied economics, Louise initiated her career in finance, where she gained valuable insights from working in a cross-border, multicultural organization, particularly from a financial perspective. In spite of that, she soon recognized that something else held her interest.
With two decades of hindsight, Louise Ellekilde Fogstrup candidly acknowledges grappling with self-assurance issues at that juncture, making it challenging to admit any educational misalignment. However, instead of dwelling on perceived failures, she conscientiously focused on the latent opportunities for learning and personal growth stemming from her experiences. This perspective has since become a foundational element of her journey, which she passionately imparts to others.
In her view, every circumstance presents invaluable lessons and prospects for personal development, a philosophy that influenced her parenting approach and her commitment to volunteer work. For Louise, there are no failures, only opportunities to experiment, learn, and skillfully apply newfound wisdom to future endeavors.
Journey into Change Leadership
When asked about her focus on change, Louise Ellekilde Fogstrup shares her journey from curiosity about human motivation to her current dedication to change management. Beginning her career in a prominent consultancy, she was drawn to the engagement, the constant learning, and the dynamic environment. The art of change and its implementation genuinely captivated her, becoming the core of her focus. In this arena, she witnessed the tangible benefits of her efforts.
Working on large-scale implementations spanning countries and cultures, Louise delved deep into the mechanics of successful journeys. She identified active leadership and structuring intangible processes as critical factors in achieving success. This resonated with her long-standing interests, and she gradually transitioned from project management to leading programs and engaging with senior leadership teams. Her work evolved to assist these teams in navigating organizational changes driven by shifts in strategy, mergers and acquisitions, or new areas of responsibility.
Today, at Enabling Change, Louise Ellekilde Fogstrup and her team concentrate on aligning leadership and teams to enable sustainable journeys for organizations. The company’s mission revolves around helping organizations and leaders find their way and guiding them toward new directions. It is a testament to the beauty the company sees in assisting organizations and leaders in their transformative endeavors.
Enabling Change: A Vision for Balance
In recounting the origins of Enabling Change, Louise Ellekilde Fogstrup reveals a long-standing dream of building a business that could provide both professional fulfillment and a balanced life. She was inspired to create Enabling Change to thrive in her career while enjoying the flexibility to attend to personal priorities, including her family and well-being. Rejecting the notion that one must choose between a successful career and family life, Louise chose the path of entrepreneurship, cherishing the freedom to pick up her children from school and engage in activities that brought her happiness.
This alignment of personal and professional aspects, especially her passion for “Turning business unusual into business as usual”, as her business tagline says, became the foundation of Enabling Change.
These core principles, emphasizing the importance of work-life balance and flexibility, have defined Enabling Change’s culture and guided its ongoing expansion efforts. The company is dedicated to pioneering new ways of working that enable individuals to achieve balance across various facets of their lives. Louise Ellekilde Fogstrup and her team firmly believe that such equilibrium fosters exceptional performance, underscoring their commitment to promoting this vision in organizational development.
Pioneering tomorrow’s Work Methods
Louise Ellekilde Fogstrup is dedicated to shaping the future of work methodologies. She believes this endeavor is underpinned by the fundamental principles of enabling change, which form the cornerstone of the organization’s ethos. Enabling Change’s name underscores the company’s focus on enabling and Louise proudly refers to herself as an enabler. The company’s core mission is facilitating transformative journeys and transitions, empowering leaders and organizations to implement sustainable change successfully.
Crucially , Enabling Change’s approach emphasizes that the company doesn´t engage in one-off interventions. Instead, it prioritizes transferring skills and knowledge to the leaders and organizations it collaborates with, ensuring that these entities can independently navigate future change initiatives. This is the key to creating enduring and sustainable change.
While the roots of change management spurred its journey, the company has evolved into a team of international-minded enablers with core competencies spanning strategic leadership, executive coaching, high-performance team development, learning and development, change engagement, and communication.
Enabling Change’s holistic perspective identifies all the elements that drive sustainable change with a steadfast commitment to personal and organizational growth. It embraces flexibility in its methodologies, tools, and processes, believing adaptability is essential to success.
Moreover, the company prioritizes the depth of its knowledge and skills, delving deeply into all facets of leading transitions and change journeys, which requires staying current in its field. The company’s collective passion for working across diverse countries and cultures further enriches its capabilities as it strives to pioneer the ways of working for tomorrow.
Balancing Accountability and Freedom
Addressing the creation of tomorrow’s work methodologies, Louise Ellekilde Fogstrup emphasizes the essential connection between this objective and assembling the right team of individuals who share core values. Louise stresses the need for a delicate equilibrium between freedom and high-performance commitment, as solely concentrating on one element would hinder sustainability.
Simultaneously, the company maintains a holistic lifestyle perspective, valuing the freedom and flexibility to engage in diverse pursuits beyond work. Louise framed this approach as the essence of creating a lifestyle beneficial to all parties, underlining that it functions effectively due to the team’s commitment. This dedication is reflected in their ability to deliver on promises, go the extra mile when needed, and exercise the option to decline additional work when it aligns with their well-being—a testament to the innovative ways of working that Enabling Change aims to foster for the future.
Vision for the Future
In contemplating the future of Enabling Change, Louise Ellekilde Fogstrup envisions a company that transcends boundaries, with a presence in all European countries. Her dream is rooted in the ability to support leaders and organizations with a delicate balance—mindful of local cultures and customs while maintaining an international mindset. This equilibrium, she emphasizes, is integral to the company’s future success. For Louise, the accurate measure of success lies in the company’s lasting impact on its clients.
She recounts a pivotal moment when a senior leader in healthcare attributed their success to the knowledge and guidance provided by Enabling Change during a past transformation. Such moments, where clients continue to draw on the company’s expertise years later, reaffirm the sustainable impact it aims to have in change management.
Over the years, Louise Ellekilde Fogstrup has observed a shift in change management, evolving from a niche competence to a fundamental component of a leader’s toolbox. The language and focus surrounding change have also transformed, emphasizing long-term value, competence development, and sustainability. Post-pandemic, there is a heightened emphasis on sustainable change and adaptability in an ever-evolving world.
Enabling Change is dedicated to building competence in real-time, ensuring relevance and effectiveness. The company not only guides organizations through transitions but also empowers leaders and individuals with the necessary change tools to navigate the dynamic landscape. The heartfelt feedback and client messages reaffirm that Enabling Change makes a difference in helping organizations thrive in this dynamic environment.
Guiding Beliefs
Louise Ellekilde Fogstrup’s journey is underpinned by two core beliefs that she considers fundamental. The first belief was instilled in her by an influential leader who emphasized giving without expecting something in return. Louise firmly believes in the power of giving forward, viewing it as both a choice and an obligation to contribute professionally and personally to those in need.
She passionately advocates looking beyond oneself and has dedicated her time and expertise to various causes, including serving on the board of trustees for the Frankfurt International School, acting as an external lecturer at Goethe University, Frankfurt and providing free engagement and advice to organizations focused on children’s development. Louise has witnessed the reciprocity of giving forward, as help often arrives unexpectedly when needed most, affirming her commitment to building a better business and society.
The second core belief that shapes Louise Ellekilde Fogstrup’s journey revolves around continuous learning and curiosity. She derives great joy from acquiring new knowledge and has channeled this passion into exploring diverse client worlds and engaging in external education. As she pursues her Board Director Diploma at IMD, Switzerland, she seeks opportunities to leverage her professional competencies to make a positive impact beyond her immediate sphere. Moreover, she highlights that these values are not confined to her alone; they resonate within the Enabling Change team, where members are driven by the shared ethos of giving back to society.
The Enabling Academy
Louise Ellekilde Fogstrup discusses the exciting initiative of building the Enabling Academy. She adds that the project aims to upscale individuals in various professional domains, enabling them to succeed as leaders, HR partners, and change professionals. The Enabling Academy is currently in the pilot phase and set to launch at the beginning of 2024, marked by commencement of filming. The Enabling Academy will offer a comprehensive learning experience, combining micro-lessons, change tools, and a virtual toolkit.
The objective is to provide valuable resources and knowledge that empower individuals to excel in their respective roles. Louise’s vision for the Enabling Academy aligns with her overarching mission of enabling people to succeed, ultimately contributing to their personal and professional growth.
Enabling Strong Results through a Balanced Way of Working
At Enabling Change, Louise has brought together accountable and passionate advocates of long-lasting change through her community of Enablers.
The team’s ethos is based on balancing competence with passion, and accountability with flexibility.
With a mission to enable leaders, employees, collaborators and organizations to create sustainable change, the Enablers bring clarity and focus to change journeys, making them easier for their clients, regardless of project scale or transformation stage.
The founding members of this community each bring a distinct set of abilities to the team, creating a cohesive alliance that makes a lasting impact on the organizations they serve.
Karen Saunders
An executive coach with a professional background in HR and time spent on leadership teams, Karen has considerable experience of partnering with SMEs and large businesses in complex, ambiguous and sensitive situations in the UK and beyond.
Her areas of expertise include leadership development, change management, developing high-performing teams and organizational development and her clients span across industries such as pharma/healthcare, utilities, engineering, and tech. She excels in collaborative relationship-building, underpinned by emotional intelligence and a pragmatic, positive outlook.
Having navigated internal transformations as an HR Director within a multinational, and now working as an external advisor, Karen offers insights from both standpoints. This dual perspective and ability to relate to her clients, because she has been where they are, is a fundamental strength she brings to the Enabling Change community.
Karen is passionate about enabling personal growth and business success.
Naomi Lockwood
Naomi is a Learning and Organizational Development professional with over 20 years of experience working in public and private sectors as well as NGO’s and Charities, to enhance individual, team and organizational effectiveness. She has held various Director-level roles in Learning and Development, HR, Talent and Organizational Development in global education, UK National Health Service and pharmaceuticals.
She holds deep expertise in facilitation, design and delivery of initiatives and applies her experience and knowledge in psychological safety, leadership development, learning, and culture change to her work across multiple organizations.
Supporting her clients to ensure that their team development strategies align with their organizations’ business strategies, Naomi enables teams to develop the skills, knowledge and behaviours required to perform at their best, achieve their goals and ultimately deliver on RoI. This competence is key to the Enabling Change community mission of enabling clients to create sustainable change.
Michelle Tonnesen
Michelle helps organizations change, people thrive, teams perform, and leaders succeed through tangible results.
Inspired by her 20 years of strategic and operational experience as a consultant and a C-level executive in international companies, she delivers advice, implementation, facilitation and coaching within people and organizational development, change management, cultural enablement, team performance and leadership evolution.
Michelle is an AC-accredited business coach. Her work experience spans start-ups, SMEs and multinational corporations in the e-gaming, telecom, financial services, transport, pharma and biotech industries, as well as Big Four consultancies.
Michelle’s competence bridges Change Management, Strategy Development, People Engagement and Coaching. In practical terms, this means she can approach change initiatives for the Enabling Change community comprehensively, build effective communications strategies that engage employees at different levels and foster cultural organizational transformations all while ensuring that leaders and employees feel supported and equipped to navigate change.
Jane Hoareau
A digital and content marketer with experience in both change management content and overall communications and marketing strategies, Jane has over 15 years of professional content creation and marketing experience across different cultures.
She has worked across various industries, including travel, SaaS, retail, health and well-being, animal health and organizational change providing strategic advice on communication and marketing matters to business owners and organizations especially through periods of change and growth.
She distills the technical aspects of change management into accessible content, making it clear and approachable to diverse audiences.
Jane brings her communication and marketing know-how to educate, inform and promote the Enabling Change community.
Louise Ellekilde Fogstrup
Working as an executive advisor in strategic governance and business transformation, Louise is an experienced leader, entrepreneur and enabler of change leadership as well as organizational development. She is motivated to create impactful and sustainable change and her professional activities cover a variety of private sector industries.
Louise Ellekilde Fogstrup has extensive advisory and board member experience working with stakeholder groups across diverse cultures. Her work involves building organizational competencies for sustainable change leadership as well as strategic planning and sparring for organizational development to ensure increased effectiveness and performance.
She excels in enabling board and executive-level lead strategic change journeys.
A key focus over recent years has been to leverage her understanding of the healthcare landscape and its complex dilemmas to bring results to global healthcare companies as well as BioTech, MedTech and regulatory authorities.
Through founding the Enabler Community, Louise wants to build a strong team of change enablers across Europe with an international mindset yet local understanding. She aims to inspire and support change practitioners to be exceptional as strategic change enablers.
Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
When asked to advise budding entrepreneurs, Louise shares valuable insights from her journey. She emphasized the importance of following one’s dream but stressed the need for a rigorous self-assessment of strengths and competencies. Louise advised aspiring entrepreneurs to focus on their strengths and seek partnerships with individuals who excel in complementary domains. She underscored the significance of vulnerability, open-mindedness, and a willingness to accept feedback, even when it might be critical.
Louise’s guidance also highlighted the essential role of building a team of like-minded individuals who share the same values and possess expertise in their respective fields. Finding this balance between individual strengths and collective alignment is key to entrepreneurial success.
Moreover, she advised entrepreneurs to be transparent about their priorities and the speed at which they develop their businesses. She stressed the significance of relishing the process and sustaining a consistent pace. Louise’s final advice was practical—conducting a worst-case calculation to determine the minimum financial requirements for personal stability, allowing for peace of mind and informed decision-making. She emphasized that this baseline is often lower than expected, providing a valuable perspective for those embarking on the entrepreneurial path.
“At Enabling Change, Louise and her team concentrate on aligning leadership and teams to enable sustainable journeys for organizations.”
