The comfort of motion
People often confuse activity with progress. A full calendar and a sprint board bursting at the seams. That must mean we’re crushing it. Right? No, this is the treadmill of corporate cardio. Burn calories, go nowhere. Strategy stops when nobody asks: “Why are we running?”
Founders exit
Once the originators of purpose cash out or step back, there is a (leadership) vacuum. Often it gets filled by process, not vision. Mid-level management is paid to be risk-averse, execution only, congenitally allergic to long term. You rarely get hired as a (toe the line) manager without first being a middle manager. The showstopper interview question is: “How many direct reports have you had?” That question is how you eventually end up with more internal meetings than clients.
Strategy by quarters
OKRs (objectives and key results) are great tools, but when they become the strategy, we’ve already lost. Segment thinking into 90, 60, 30 day sprints. That is death to any idea that needs patience, contradicts the current plan, or needs experimentation to get it right. It does look good on reports though. Grow a tree by measuring the sapling every week and yell at it for not being taller?
Nobody owns the “Why?”
Without a dedicated strategic function or empowered leadership team, everyone’s answering to the current process, the bottom line. The “Why?” is inconvenient, philosophical, slow, it doesn’t fit in dashboards. So it gets parked. If you are running a product development company (effectively a strategic concept company), then why? is a key recurring question. It is foundational in that concept; but what company is not looking to “develop” their product?
Busyness protects people from accountability
When everyone’s very busy, it’s hard to pick people out of a crowd. The sheer volume of movement acts as a smokescreen for an absence of thinking. Whole cultures are built around never admitting “this isn’t working, ”because trying something new means putting your opinion forward and your head in a noose. “Avoid Blame” is the name of the game.
Communication becomes theatre
Town halls, Slack channels, mission statements, …none of it lands if people don’t feel connected to the core (…strategy?). The town hall can be an addictive “look at me” moment for the Big Boss and their convenient question cohort. Without a coherent strategy, things devolve into an echo chamber acting troupe parroting a mantra. If metrics replace meaning, you don’t KPI your way into a soul. “Strategy in most companies is either an early religion or a late-stage panic. In between, it’s often just polite fiction.” ChatGPT
“Hierarchy: …from Greek: ἱεραρχία, hierarkhia, ‘rule of a high priest’, from hierarkhes, ‘president of sacred rites”
Wikipedia.org
So, what’s the next step?
- Reclaim reflection time. Strategy doesn’t emerge during sprints. It needs space.
- Keep a few dissenters close. People who aren’t afraid to say: “This is dumb.”
- Separate process from purpose. Don’t let “how we do things” become “why we exist.”
- Make strategy relevant: Ask the why? Not just a slide deck.
- Bring founders back to the room. If not physically, then philosophically ( …avoid a life size portrait in grayscale).
