The Fundamental Flaw in Most Strategies

Major strategies often begin with much fuss and hullabaloo yet make no difference to people's lives.

Employee experience does not live up to the promise. So cynicism pervades and often prevails.

Successful strategies begin in the right place. They look for and close the "reality" gap.

Teams often know exactly what's working and what isn't.

Top management is often disconnected from that reality.

A strategy might be perfectly thought through, but finding the right starting point often isn't.

So, to please their bosses, teams play catch up by earnestly wanting to make "it" happen.

After all, you can't start an exciting project and be behind from Day One.

So they report "green" status because that's what the Leadership wants to hear, right?

Artificial harmony replaces open and honest conversation.

Then something breaks...

A series of factors brings it to a head. Let the finger-pointing and blame games begin!

It's hard for the people in the system to see exactly how the system is working. Their frame of reference is too narrow.

A "disease to please" within a culture is highly contagious.

Try flipping it, by asking a team this one question: "If you were in my shoes where would you start with this project?".

Then pause ... and listen.