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I recently attended one of the most compelling conferences I've experienced in years: The Greatest Transformation, held in Medellín, Colombia, and led by George Leca, Managing Director of Adizes Romania and Moldova.

At the Adizes Institute, we study organizational transformation — how an organization rotting from the inside, whether from corruption or internal misalignment, becomes healthy again. So when George told me he was organizing a conference on transformation in Medellín, I signed up immediately. "Where better to study transformation," he said, "than one of the most transformed cities on earth?"

We sat with former mayors Alonso Salazar and Sergio Fajardo, who described how Medellín went from one of the world's most dangerous cities to one of its most visited. We visited institutions like Comfama and Ruta N, and stood in Comuna 13, where escalators now carry tourists through what was once a war zone.

To understand how Medellín was fixed, you have to understand how it broke. The city sits in a valley ringed by mountains. Over decades, waves of poor farmers and migrants fleeing violence settled higher and higher up the slopes. Their homes were tolerated but never recognized — no land titles, no building codes, and as a result, no city services: no schools, water, sewers, roads, or transit. The result wasn't just poverty; it was two cities, one official and one that lived above it, disconnected from each other. Pablo Escobar emerged from that gap, bringing violence rarely seen outside active war zones.

Which raises the question the conference was built to answer: if you ran a city like that, what would you do?

One option — the short-term, effective "P" solution — is to act decisively and produce results fast. Bukele's El Salvador is the model: mass arrests of suspected criminals to restore order by force. It works, in that it delivers immediate results, but it's imprecise (many innocents get swept up) and addresses only one dimension of the problem.

Another option — the short-term, efficient "A" solution — is more policing: stricter enforcement, new laws to back it up. Giuliani's New York did this with stop-and-frisk, empowering police to search anyone for weapons. Also effective, also unpopular, also one-dimensional.

A third option — the long-term, effective "E" solution — is to try something bold. Portugal legalized drugs. Georgia replaced its entire police force overnight. Ancient Athens randomly selected leaders using a kleroterion. This is a radical approach that often results in new and unforseen issues. 

A fourth option — the long-term, efficient "I" solution — is dialogue and reconciliation. South Africa's CODESA and Truth and Reconciliation Commission revealed truth, acknowledged victims, and let perpetrators earn forgiveness. But talking alone does not fully address the issue.

What makes Medellín remarkable is that its solution, while centered on "I" (long-term efficiency), still incorporated the others.

The city invested heavily in the neighborhoods previous administrations had ignored: libraries, schools, escalators, cable cars linking the hills to the city, roads, bridges, utilities. That's "P." But crucially, it built with the community, not just for it. That participation created ownership, (“I”) — and from ownership came creativity ("E"): artistic communities formed, new uses for infrastructure emerged, innovation was unleashed rather than imposed.

At the same time, all of this happened within the existing system — no overthrow, no abandoned structures. The transformation respected the city's administrative framework. That's "A."

Most importantly, the integration wasn't about the past. It wasn't reconciliation for old wrongs; it was participation in solving real problems, in real time, together.

Today, Medellín is nearly unrecognizable from what it once was: clean, vibrant, safe, full of life, with visible civic pride. What was fragmented now feels connected — physically through infrastructure, socially through participation. The numbers bear this out: the city now draws 1 to 1.4 million international visitors a year, with tourism still growing at double-digit rates. Tourists move freely through neighborhoods once inaccessible; locals use and care for spaces built with them. It isn't a perfect city, but it's a functioning, integrated one — and that alone makes it remarkable.

Medellín isn't just an interesting case study. It's proof that even the most broken systems can change, given the right approach. Seeing that transformation firsthand, and hearing directly from the people who led it, was extraordinary. Thanks to George Leca for the invitation, and for building a forum where these lessons are understood, not just discussed.

The Greatest Transformation is a conference series bringing small groups of senior executives to cities and organizations that have undergone significant change, to learn from them firsthand. The next conference runs in Medellín, November 21 – December 2, 2026. More info: georgeleca.com/greatest_transformation_on_earth