“Strategy isn’t real until it manifests in all the practices, incentives, and constraints surrounding your team”.

Eloquently as always, John brings to life why making strategy real is hard.  I took three things from this excellent blog.

1. A solid foundation of trust between the executive team and those “doing the doing” is critical.  Not for one meeting, but a trust that permeates the daily working relationships
2. Communication authenticity needs practice so that the discussions to get to an optimal point can be had without them becoming adversarial.  That means being able to relax into healthy conflict and emerge feeling positive and heard – and not whether you “won” or “lost”
3. The ability to make progress – whether great or poor is essential.  Procrastination, repetitive pivoting, and reasons why its not the right time to start xyz is the ultimate killer.  Accountability and clarity of purpose will drive action.  Give it max 6 weeks of focused execution – there will be progress and those making the progress will know what to do next if points 1 and 2 are securely locked in place.