Shapeshifters appear under many titles. Some sound playful or unusual (’philosopher in residence’, ‘head alchemist’, ‘chief catalyst’), others are more standard sounding roles that carry responsibilities aligned with what we described above: getting things done, especially across contexts; holding organisations through change; shaping culture.

Those roles share a consistent pattern: high access, low formal authority. This combination can help build trust: lower power makes the people in those positions less threatening, which then allows them to access better information. It also requires maturity.

Below are some of those roles, presented as a set of anchors.

• The Chief of Staff translates between leadership and operations. They hold the moving parts in view, absorb complexity, anticipate tensions, and keep the organisation coherent in motion. They also personally support the CEO or founder, and other key executives, with whom they share a mandate for the whole, not a part.
• The Head of Innovation or Transformation bridges the new and the existing. They help people digest change emotionally and structurally. They look at ways of bringing the future into the present.
• The Head of Special Projects explicitly holds the work that ‘doesn’t fit anywhere else’. The title and its mandate provide a temporary homes for emerging initiatives. It makes messy things coherent enough to move. The same applies to the head of improvement, with a special mandate to identify projects and initiatives for better functioning of the whole organisation.
• The Strategy partner, strategic lead or head of strategy is responsible for understanding the whole organisation in its context. Often listening and observing more than they speak. They help groups align, see the whole picture, and integrates perspectives into action. They offer clarity without imposing templates.
• The Chief Learning Officer or Chief Knowledge Officer curates how the organisation learns, remembers and integrates knowledge into its operations and ways of doing. They connect insights, disciplines, teams, systems, making shared sensemaking part of the everyday.
• The Chief Culture Officer shapes belonging, trust and behavioural norms: the invisible infrastructure that guides day to day perception and activities.

You might also wish to read a white paper written by our President on his original role as philosopher in resident with a business conglomerate.