When strategy lives somewhere outside the work — in a slide deck or meeting notes — it’s easy for daily decisions to feel arbitrary. People stay busy, but lose sight of how individual actions build a vision.
“Tell people what you’re going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you’ve told them,” is long-standing advice for an effective presentation.
Likewise, galvanizing people around a strategy requires repetition, reminders that make it hard to forget how today’s work contributes to the whole.
It also keeps “process” right up there with strategy. How you get somewhere is as important as where you’re going.
Think of the time-honored coming of age movie trope, the “popular bully” and the “endearing nerd.” Two teams that both want to win. One leads with blame, fear, humiliation, shortcuts justified as toughness. The other uses kindness with discipline: practice, honest feedback, shared standards, and care for the people doing the work. Same goal. Very different approaches — and you know who always wins!
Strategy works when it’s reinforced through daily choices that align with values. That’s when strategy stops being aspirational — and starts becoming real.
