We’re not going to do everything like Swiss.

“The Swiss do that to get motivated at the start!”
“That’s no reason… they make knives too. We’re not going to do everything like them.”

I often end my talks on transformation with this quote from Cool Runnings.
It always gets a laugh.
But it also lands something very real.

In any transformation, there’s a strong temptation to look elsewhere for proven models.
We turn to so-called “best practices”, benchmarks, the Spotify bible with its squads and guilds — ready-made recipes that have supposedly already worked.
And often, we try to apply them exactly as they are, as if success could be duplicated by sheer will.

But an organization isn’t a copy-paste.
What works elsewhere doesn’t automatically work here.

Because a method is never neutral.
It’s the product of a context: a story, a team culture, a specific human dynamic, sometimes even unspoken rules or informal habits.
And I know what I’m talking about in an environment like La Poste — with its strong identity and deeply rooted culture.

In the 1980s, after Toyota demonstrated industrial performance far superior to Western companies, many delegations from Europe and the US started touring Japanese factories — especially Toyota City.
The Japanese, far from being worried, opened their doors wide.
Westerners came with cameras, took notes, drew layouts, analyzed kanbans, U-cells, flows, Andons, 5S, and so on.
But what the Japanese said was clear:
“They can copy what they see, but they won’t understand the spirit.”

Applying a method without understanding this is risky.
You may create rejection. Or worse — the illusion of change.

Let’s take basketball.

In 2015, the Golden State Warriors became champions with the highest number of assists per game (27.4).
Not because “play as a team” was written on a board.
But because, over several seasons, they had built a culture of movement, fluidity, and trust.

And yet, how many teams tried to copy them after that — without the same success?
Same play style. Same type of profiles.
But not the same chemistry. Not the same cultural coherence.
Not the same collective story.

It’s exactly the same in business.
Copying a method without understanding the “why” often means missing the point.
It’s not the method that drives transformation.
It’s how it fits into a culture, how it’s embodied, owned, reinterpreted.

A successful transformation is never a copy-paste of someone else’s model.
It’s a process of translation and ownership.
It’s listening, adjusting, testing, failing, trying again.

It’s respecting where your team is starting from — and never forgetting that the solution is rarely external.
It’s built in the real world, with real people.

So no, we’re not going to do everything like the Swiss.
Because sustainable performance doesn’t come from imported methods, but from embodied transformation — one that looks like us, that grows from who we are, who we want to become, and what we’re willing to build together.