Insights on Strategy, Execution & Complex Organisations
I write about how strategy, execution and organisational design work in real-world environments — the kind that resist simple plans, reward systems thinking, and require leaders to adapt with clarity and purpose. Here you’ll find insights on strategic ambiguity, strategic manoeuvre, organisational viability, decision-making in complexity, and practical leadership thinking.
Browse the latest articles, or explore by topic below.
The Strategy You're Actually Running
Every organisation has one. The question is whether it is the one you intended.
Every organisation has a default strategy. It is being enacted right now, in every decision made, every resource allocated, every response to every pressure arriving from the environment.
The question is not whether you have a strategy. You do. The question is whether the one being enacted is the one you stated. And if it is not, whether you even know.
When Everyone Has a Strategy, No One Does
There is a word that has lost all meaning in organisations. Strategy.
Every function has one now. HR has a people strategy. IT has a technology strategy. Finance has a financial strategy. Marketing has a brand strategy. And somewhere above all of them, there is supposed to be an organisational strategy. Except by the time you have finished counting all the strategies, you have not described a coherent direction at all. You have described a competition for resources.
Have You Lost Your Map?
Why leaders need to rediscover the ground before they can move
A commander stands on a ridge at first light. The air is cold, the ground uneven. Scouts return in ones and twos, each with fragments of information that contradict the last. The map does not match the terrain. Units are not where they were supposed to be. The enemy has advanced more quickly than expected. The weather has turned. Every decision involves trade-offs that will hurt someone. There is no pause button.
Shaping or Being Shaped? Strategy, Identity and Structural Disposition
Why strategy starts with understanding how you're already being shaped
Leaders like to tell themselves they are shaping the game.
Most of the time, the game has already decided which kinds of moves they will even recognise as “strategic.”
The uncomfortable starting point is this: strategy is never just a set of choices about the external environment. It is always an expression of what the organisation already is, its identity, structure, relationships, and the stories it tells itself about what counts as success.
Strategic Ambiguity: When Clarity Becomes the Enemy of Strategy
The Clarity Trap
“We need more clarity.”
It is the most common refrain in strategy reviews, boardrooms, and leadership off-sites. Clarity of vision. Clarity of priorities. Clarity of execution. In stable, knowable environments, this instinct makes sense. In a world wrapped in what Clausewitz called “the fog of greater or lesser uncertainty,” the relentless pursuit of clarity can become strategic self-harm.
What if the problem is not that we lack clarity, but that we try to impose it where it does not belong?
Execution Is the Management of Freedom of Action
Why strategy only survives contact with reality when you design for freedom of action, not tighter control
Most strategies do not fail because they are wrong (you can argue about the quality of the strategy itself, but that is for another day). It fails because organisations do not understand what execution actually is. They treat execution as delivery, as rollout, as the point at which a plan is translated into tasks and milestones and then monitored for compliance. When execution disappoints, the diagnosis is almost always the same: poor alignment, weak accountability, insufficient grip.
Start With Reality, Not Why
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.
Execution is about adaptation, not control
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.
Mike's presentation delves into the complexities of the modern business landscape, sharing insights and approaches that can help leaders navigate challenges effectively.
In complex and high-stakes environments, stability is an illusion. Reflecting on my experiences as a soldier in Afghanistan, this talk explores the challenges of adapting strategy and execution in the face of chaos, risk aversion, and an agile adversary.
Podcasts and Talks.
Apperences from our founder Mike Jones.
Systems Thinking and Strategy for Leaders : Join us for an insightful interview with Mike Jones, founder and director of LBI Consulting, as we dive into the world of systems thinking and strategy.
In this episode of The Change Agent Podcast, Eric sits down with Mike Jones, Founder and Director of LBI Consulting, to explore what leadership and strategy actually look like when certainty disappears and complexity takes over.
In this reflective solo episode, Mike Jones steps back from the guest chair to explore a deeper truth: strategy is failing long before execution begins.
Mike sees strategy not as a top-down process, where the wishes of management become the gospel of the employees: strategy emerges from the actions of all. In this process, the Viable System Model is a valuable tool to develop a strategy and Mike explains how.