Service Design Book Club with Phil Gilbert
Phil Gilbert is our guest speaker for the online book club event in January.
Book: Irresistible Change
Guest Speaker and Author: Phil Gilbert
Chapter for discussion: Chapter 3: Designing the Leadership Team
Join us for an engaging conversation with Phil and fellow service design enthusiasts!
Event details
Date: Friday, January 30, 2026
Time: 11 am to 12 pm (EST) | 5 pm to 6 pm (CET) | Time zone convertor
Location: Online event
Agenda
Introductions - 5 minutes
Overview of the chapter by Phil - 20 minutes (will be recorded)
Conversations with Phil - 30 minutes
Note: The Zoom link will be shared with participants after registration.
About the guest speaker
Phil Gilbert
Former Head of Design at IBM, Culture and Change Management Keynote Speaker, and Innovator in Design Thinking & Agile Transformation
Phil Gilbert, Sr. is a recognized leader in design, culture, and organizational transformation, known for driving innovation at scale.
Shortly after selling his third startup to IBM in 2010, Phil was tasked with one of the largest and most formidable change initiatives in history: to transform the foundations of work for IBM’s nearly 400,000 employees across 180 countries.
Knowing that people would be skeptical and that typical change initiatives wouldn’t work, Phil reinvented how to achieve transformational change at scale. He did this by leading change like a product, making it irresistible.
The transformation became the subject of an HBS Case Study, the documentary The Loop, and feature articles in the New York Times and Fortune Magazine.
During his tenure at IBM, Phil also co-chaired the company’s Global Women’s Executive Council and founded the Racial Equity in Design team—both initiatives reflecting his commitment to diversity, empathy, and systemic innovation as essential drivers of business success.
His contributions earned him induction into the New York Foundation for the Arts’ Hall of Fame in 2018, as well as recognition as an Oklahoma Creativity Ambassador in 2019 for advancing creative thinking and innovation globally.
Since stepping away from full-time leadership at IBM in 2021, Phil has dedicated his career to helping organizations embrace Irresistible Change™, a framework that transforms resistance to change into a natural strength. By fostering human-centered, agile, and adaptable cultures, he equips leaders and teams to thrive in today's rapidly evolving world.
countries.
Through his Ten X Labs initiative, Phil mentors first-time founders, sharing decades of experience to help them build resilient and innovative companies. He also works closely with global organizations on topics like design governance, change leadership, and cultural transformation.
Drawing on over 30 years as a startup entrepreneur and executive, Phil brings a rare combination of practical insight, creative vision, and empathetic leadership to every engagement.
A sought-after speaker, Phil inspires audiences with stories from his work at IBM and beyond, offering actionable strategies for building modern, high-performing organizations that embrace change and unlock innovation.
He graduated as a Pe-et Scholar—an honor for the top ten graduating seniors—from the University of Oklahoma and now resides in Austin, Texas.
When he isn’t mentoring or speaking, Phil continues to explore how design, creativity, and leadership intersect to solve some of the most pressing challenges facing businesses and society today.
About Service Design Book Club
Please read about our first meet-up on Medium, visit our website, and follow our LinkedIn page or LinkedIn newsletter for information about the upcoming events.
If you have any questions before our meet-up, please feel free to send them to [email protected].
Code of Conduct
Service Design Book Club is dedicated to providing a harassment-free event experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), or technology choices.
We do not tolerate harassment of event participants in any form.
We value your attendance!
(This document is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.)