The most powerful strategic decision in your organisation has already been made.

It is the future you believe is inevitable. Not the plan. Not the priorities. Not the transformation programme. The future you assume is coming.

Every strategy rests on an imagined tomorrow. Most of the time, tomorrow is not examined. It is imported. AI will restructure the sector. Demographic change makes centralisation unavoidable. Digital is the only route to growth. Efficiency is non-negotiable.

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.

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.

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.