Building Teams That Don’t Break Under Pressure | Leadership Lessons from Allianz CTO Chris Iwanowski
In the latest episode of the podcast ‘A Human Element’, Chris Iwanowski reflects on the past 12 months leading large-scale transformation programs at Allianz. The conversation explores why high-performing teams aren’t built on perfection, but on trust, transparency, shared ownership, and the ability to learn without fear. For technology leaders, it’s a reminder that sustainable transformation depends less on heroic individuals and more on creating environments where people can experiment, adapt, and grow together.
Transformation Pressure Tests Leadership
Most transformation stories are told through milestones, delivery dates, or technology stacks.
But behind every major release is a team managing uncertainty, setbacks, competing opinions, and the pressure to prove the work is worth backing.
That tension sits at the centre of the latest episode of A Human Element, where Chris Iwanowski joins host Adam Higgins to reflect on a year of significant delivery milestones, operational growth, and leadership lessons.
For Chris, one idea stood out above everything else: persistence matters, but only when paired with honesty.
“If you really believe something can work, and you’re seeing the early signs, you have to keep going,” he explains. “But you also need to constantly question whether you’re on the right track.”
It’s a practical distinction many leaders wrestle with. There’s a difference between resilience and blindly pushing forward. Strong transformation leaders know when to stay the course, when to adapt, and when to admit something isn’t working.
Over the past year, Chris and his teams delivered several major platform releases globally, including a large-scale rollout that significantly improved stability, customer experience, and operational performance. Yet the conversation rarely centres on the technology itself.
Instead, it focuses on the behaviours that allowed the team to succeed under pressure.
The Problem With Fear-Based Cultures
One of the strongest themes throughout the discussion is the relationship modern workplaces have with failure.
Chris reflects openly on how earlier in his career he avoided admitting uncertainty or mistakes – a mindset shaped long before entering the workforce.
“We grow up learning that not knowing something feels the same as failing,” he says.
That mindset becomes dangerous inside transformation environments. Teams stop raising risks early. People protect themselves instead of solving problems collectively. Feedback gets filtered. Fear replaces curiosity.
For senior technology leaders, this creates a hidden cost. Teams become slower, more political, and less willing to experiment.
Chris argues the opposite approach creates stronger outcomes: transparency first, ego second.
“The only way to avoid mistakes completely is to never start,” he says. “Once you’re trying to solve hard problems, mistakes are part of the process.”
Importantly, this wasn’t positioned as motivational rhetoric. It became operational practice.
During critical releases, the team intentionally removed blame from the environment. Instead of finger-pointing when issues emerged, the focus shifted immediately towards understanding the problem, solving it collaboratively, and moving forward together.
That shift created something many organisations struggle to build: psychological safety during high-pressure delivery.
High-Performing Teams Aren’t Built Around Heroes
Another clear takeaway from the conversation is how destructive individualism can become inside large programs.
Chris describes transformation work as rowing a boat: success only happens when everyone moves in rhythm.
“There is no them and us,” he explains. “There’s just us.”
That mindset became particularly important during stressful delivery periods, where dashboards turned yellow, incidents rose, and timelines tightened. Rather than looking for someone to blame, the team focused on collective accountability.
For executives leading transformation portfolios, this is a critical distinction.
Many organisations unintentionally reward “hero culture” – the individuals who appear at the final moment to save a release, solve an issue, or claim ownership of success. Chris is direct about the damage this behaviour creates.
“If someone disappears when things are hard and then shows up when everyone’s celebrating, you have to deal with that behaviour immediately.”
For leaders, this balance matters. High-performing teams don’t avoid tension. They learn how to use it productively without allowing it to fracture trust.
Momentum Changes Team Psychology
One of the more interesting insights from the episode is how success changes team behaviour.
Following several successful releases, Chris noticed a visible shift across the broader program. Teams became calmer. Decision-making improved. Stress reduced. Even unrelated employee survey metrics lifted.
The work itself hadn’t necessarily become easier.
What changed was confidence.
Once teams experience success together, they stop reacting from fear. They trust the process more deeply because they’ve seen evidence that the effort works.
That confidence creates space for better conversations, healthier friction, and stronger collaboration.
“There must be a safe space for disagreement,” Chris explains. “But there’s also a time to align and move together.”
For leaders, this balance matters. High-performing teams don’t avoid tension. They learn how to use it productively without allowing it to fracture trust.
AI Still Needs Human Judgement
While much of the conversation focused on leadership and culture, the discussion also explored how AI is beginning to reshape operational delivery.
Chris shared examples of AI-enabled solutions already improving the speed and quality of business analysis work inside the organisation. Rather than experimenting for experimentation’s sake, the focus remained grounded in measurable value and practical application.
But even here, the human element remained central.
“Technology alone isn’t the outcome,” he explains. “It still comes back to people, judgement, and how teams work together.”
For technology executives facing pressure to accelerate AI adoption, the point is timely. Organisations chasing trends without clear operational purpose risk creating noise rather than progress.
The stronger approach is deliberate experimentation paired with measurable learning.
Not every initiative will succeed. But teams need enough safety, trust, and momentum to keep testing ideas without becoming paralysed by perfectionism.
Final Thoughts: Progress Over Perfection
Perhaps the clearest message from the episode is that transformation success is rarely clean, linear, or flawless.
The strongest teams aren’t the ones that avoid setbacks entirely. They’re the ones capable of learning quickly, staying aligned under pressure, and continuing to move forward together.
For Chris, leadership has become less about having all the answers and more about creating the conditions where good people can do meaningful work.
That includes listening earlier. Creating space for feedback. Rewarding collective effort. Removing fear from the room. And helping teams feel genuine ownership over the outcomes they create.
In a market still obsessed with speed, certainty, and instant ROI, that mindset stands out.
Because in the end, transformation isn’t remembered for the status reports or delivery dashboards.
It’s remembered by the people who experienced it.
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