70% of strategies fail because they don't move from paper to people - discover how leadership alignment, clear communication, and actionable execution can transform your vision into real results.

From Paper to People: From Strategic Vision to Organizational Fitness

70% of strategies fail to deliver because they fail to move from paper to people.

The Four Fails and What You Can Do About Them

1. Competition Won't Kill You, Lack of Alignment Will

Most people can't recall the strategy of the organization they work for. Even the executives and managers responsible for strategy struggle, with one study reporting that only 28% of them could list three strategic priorities.

To make matters worse, most top teams fail to agree among themselves on company-wide priorities. This is not a measure of whether the team members were committed to achieving strategic priorities; it's a measure of whether they agreed on what they were.

There is no silver bullet for leadership alignment. Find a way to test it.
Understanding that there is a problem is 90% of solving it.

2. Crappy Communication

Just because you say it, does not mean you are heard or understood. Just like ad campaigns, you want to influence behavior. Make sure your internal comms efforts are up to the task.

Create awareness, engagement, and frequency
Share your story, its implications, what is new, and what you will not be doing
Measure the effort: who knows, what do they know, what is the perception

3. Luke Warm Commitment

If the leadership is aligned and communication is well executed, then what? Business units and teams need a kickstart and ongoing support in knowing what's next.

Do jump starts with key functions to plan according to 'how can we contribute'
Put strategic goals in the context of daily work and the contribution people can make
Coach on defining function goals, OKRs, resources, ways of working
Identify and eliminate serious and systemic impediments

4. No Traction and Visible Results

Proof points and specific success cases need to get off the ground.

Set up experimentation, agile value delivery teams
Differentiate KPIs for core and new revenue value creation
Incentivise, support, and maintain continuous retros and feedback
Celebrate and reward successes very loudly