Ambrose Ameh
The Convention Hall of Eko Hotel & Suites was filled with anticipation last week as executives, entrepreneurs, policymakers and emerging leaders gathered for the SHIFT Conference, convened by leadership strategist and global speaker Dr. Sam Adeyemi.
Adeyemi who is also the founder, Sam Adeyemi Global Leadership Consulting and author of Six Steps to Transform Your Mindset and Elevate Your Leadership has spent more than three decades shaping leaders across corporate and public sectors. At SHIFT, his focus was not on policy documents or strategy presentations but on the human mind as the true engine of transformation.
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His message was clear and urgent. Sustainable change begins internally. Nations do not transform because of slogans. Organizations do not evolve because of retreats. Individuals do not change because of temporary inspiration. According to Adeyemi, lasting shift requires deliberate reprogramming.
If a nation is to shift, he told the audience, its leaders must first experience a personal shift. Inspiration may ignite excitement, but without mental restructuring, that excitement fades and old patterns return.
To illustrate the principle, Adeyemi shared a case study from global consumer brand Nestlé. For years, the company struggled to establish coffee consumption in Japan, a culture deeply rooted in tea drinking. Heavy advertising failed to deliver results. The breakthrough came when marketers recognized that taste preference had to be cultivated. By introducing coffee flavored sweets to children, they gradually shaped new preferences. Those children eventually became adults who consumed coffee naturally. The taste had been programmed over time.
For Adeyemi, the lesson is profound. Human beings operate on internal systems formed by repeated thoughts, habits and beliefs. Once embedded in the subconscious, these systems function automatically and often override conscious goals.
This dynamic, he argued, explains why many transformation efforts collapse. Individuals set ambitious resolutions. Organizations unveil bold strategic plans. Governments issue inspiring declarations. Yet months later, little has changed. The misalignment between new goals and old programming ensures that the existing internal system prevails.
He likened the process to learning how to drive. At first, every action requires conscious effort. With repetition, the process becomes automatic. The same principle governs leadership behavior, corporate culture and even national identity. What is practiced consistently becomes embedded.
Adeyemi challenged participants to reflect deeply on their own routines and institutional cultures. Many individuals, he suggested, arrive at destinations they never intended simply because their internal systems default to familiar patterns. The same can be true for organizations and nations.
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He urged leaders to go beyond publicly declared values and examine the behaviors that are actually rewarded within their systems. Beneath visible values lie unspoken rules that shape decision making and define what people believe is necessary for survival. Without confronting these deeper drivers, change remains superficial.
For Nigeria and other emerging economies, the implications are significant. Transformation cannot depend solely on policies or economic blueprints. It requires a rewiring of collective mindset through intentional habits, reinforced narratives and rewarded behaviors until they become cultural norms.
By the close of the conference, it was evident that SHIFT was more than an annual gathering or a book spotlight. It was a call to reengineer leadership from the inside out.
