Many organisations start strategy with an inspiring purpose — and then wonder why execution fails. This piece explains how the gap between narrative and behaviour erodes coherence, damages trust, and weakens strategy at its core.

The greatest threat to most organisations isn’t the external environment. It’s the unrestricted warfare they quietly turn on themselves.

In 1999, two People's Liberation Army (PLA) colonels wrote Unrestricted Warfare, arguing that in modern conflict, there are no fixed boundaries. Everything becomes a method: financial markets, media, regulation, culture, public opinion, networks, infrastructure, and even psychology.

Most organisations are so obsessed with efficiency that they destroy their ability to adapt. What leaders call productivity is often just fragility in disguise.

Modern organisations worship efficiency. They treat it as the highest virtue, the unquestioned indicator of a well-run organisation.

Why execution fails when organisations stop adapting

We like to think that execution is the rational part of organisational activity. Strategy sets the direction, and execution is just doing what needs to be done. However, this idea only makes sense in a stable and predictable world.

How comfort, control, and performance theatre stripped the movement out of strategy

Strategy was once a living craft. In ancient Greece, strategos described a commander who turned uncertainty, terrain, and limited resources to their advantage. It was not a concept to be discussed; it was a role to be lived. The strategist stood at the edge of the unknown, interpreting shifting conditions and acting through others to shape outcomes

Why strategy depends on how we see, not just what we know

I was walking around one of the lakes in the Dolomites when I noticed something quietly instructive. With every few steps along the path, the landscape shifted. The peaks that had seemed like one solid ridge unfolded into several layers. Valleys appeared where moments earlier there had been only shadow. What looked fixed from one vantage point changed shape entirely from another.

Most strategies are lies leaders tell themselves.

Strategy has been in an absurd state for some time. As I argued in 'How Marketing Hijacked Strategy,' somewhere along the way, the hard work of orienting organisations in complex environments was replaced with branding exercises masquerading as strategy. In my recent conversation with Paul Sweeneythe author of Magnetic Nonsense, 

On structural coupling, capability, and the real limits of choice

We often talk about strategy as if it comes first. Leaders design a strategy, and then “align” the organisation to deliver it. The familiar mantra is form follows function.

But the reality is more complex. Strategy and organisation are not linear. They are coupled.