WHERE LEADERS RETHINK HOW STRATEGY WORKS IN THE REAL WORLD
The traditional approach to strategy is broken.
In a world that won’t sit still, leaders can’t rely on outdated models built for stability and control.
Strategy Meets Reality is a podcast for leaders, strategists, and thinkers who want real insight—not theory. Hosted by organisational psychologist and systems thinker Mike Jones, each episode cuts through the noise with honest conversations from people who’ve lived the complexity, made the tough calls, and rethought what strategy means in practice.
🎧 New episodes every Tuesday
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Meet your Host:
Mike Jones
Mike Jones is a systems thinker, organisational psychologist, and former British Army soldier.
He’s worked as a strategy and execution advisor to senior executives across rail, tech, and government to rethink how strategy actually works in complexity.
He founded LBI Consulting and author of the upcoming book When Strategy Meets Reality.
All Episodes
How Growing Firms Stay Viable | Mike Price
One government decision can gut a revenue stream. One “loyal” team member can cap your growth. One annual budget can lull you into thinking you’re in control when you’re not. That’s where strategy stops being a document and starts being a series of tough, practical decisions.
Strategy Meets Reality In Higher Education And Community Wellbeing | Craig Hobbs
Strategy sounds tidy until funding shocks, shifting policy, and the messy reality of local communities hit. We sit down with Craig Hobbs, senior lecturer and systems thinker, to ask a deceptively simple question: what are universities actually for now, and what must change for them to stay viable without losing their public purpose?
Meaning Does Not Transfer | Luiz von Paumgartten
Strategy fails in ways that feel mysterious: the plan looked solid, the logic was sound, and yet reality does something else.
I’m joined by Luiz von Paumgartten, a patent attorney who has spent the last decade developing a model he calls Natural Reality. Using a handful of diagrams and plain language, we dig into “meaning” (everything produced inside your mind) versus “happening” (uninterpreted action in the world).
From Strategy To Reality Through Better Operations | Ben Chappell
A strategy you can't deliver isn't ambitious; it's wishful thinking. Mike sits down with Ben Chappell, founder of Cove Ops, to get brutally practical about the gap between strategy and execution and why “operations” is the missing piece in so many SMEs that are scaling, preparing for investment, or gearing up for a sale.
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