“Five percent of the challenge is the strategy. Ninety-five percent is the execution.”
— Carlos Ghosn, former COO of Nissan
We’ve all seen it.
A leadership team heads offsite for a day. The energy is high. The view is inspiring. There’s good coffee, butcher’s paper (or my pick: giant 3M Post-it Notes), maybe even a bold new vision on the wall. Goals are set. Arrows are drawn. People feel aligned.
And then … nothing.
Everyone goes back to their day jobs. The strategy doesn’t get deployed. No priorities are locked in. No structure supports follow-through.
The noise of the day-to-day operations of the business take over.
Within a few weeks, the plan is forgotten and collecting dust. And worse – people notice. Leaders lose credibility. Teams disengage. The whole thing starts to feel like another leadership theatre piece. All talk. No traction.
This is the false promise of a strategy day. And it’s why we stopped offering them years ago.
Because strategy-as-an-event doesn’t just fail. It backfires.
It wastes time, energy, and money. It erodes trust. It convinces employees that strategy is just noise. And it teaches leadership teams the wrong lesson: that strategy doesn’t work.
The real issue isn’t strategy – it’s how it’s being done.
Strategy isn’t something you do once and move on. It’s something you live. It’s a way of leading. A set of decisions, disciplines, and behaviours that have to be built over time and reinforced consistently.
That’s why we only offer strategy as a 12-month program. Not a one-off event. Because real change takes structure, rhythm, discipline, and accountability.
Our program gives leaders the tools to make strategy visible, trackable, and executable – but more importantly, it helps them build the muscle for strategic thinking. And that’s where the real shift happens.
Most successful business leaders are brilliant operators. They know how to solve problems, make things happen and get results. But strategic thinking is a different skill. It’s not about doing more – it’s about choosing what matters most. It’s the ability to pause, zoom out, and ask: where are we going, and how do we get there?
That mindset isn’t built in a workshop. It’s built through repetition, reflection, and practice.
We work with our clients to embed a set of core practices that bring strategy to life in the business:
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Quarterly review and resets – Every 90 days, the team steps back, reviews what’s been achieved, resets the focus, and sets 3–5 critical priorities for the next quarter. These sessions create a heartbeat that keeps momentum alive.
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90-day action plans – For each strategic priority, a clear plan is created with actions, owners, and due dates. These aren’t theoretical – they’re executable, trackable, and visible.
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Project leaders assigned and accountable – Every key initiative has an owner. Not a volunteer, not a committee – an accountable leader with support, structure, and authority to make progress happen.
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The one-page strategic plan – A single-page summary of the business’s strategic direction is published, shared, and referenced. It’s not locked away in a boardroom – it’s alive in the workplace. Leaders talk to it. Teams align with it. It becomes part of the operational language.
That’s how strategy sticks.
It’s not about the day. It’s about the rhythm. The discipline. The visibility. The accountability. The capability.
When strategy is done well, it’s not just a good plan – it’s a catalyst for leadership growth, cultural alignment, and commercial progress.
If you’re not ready to build that discipline, don’t waste your team’s time on a workshop.
Because one-off strategy sessions don’t work.
What works is structure. What works is rhythm. What works is building the capability to lead strategically, consistently, and with focus.
Ready for a more disciplined approach to strategy?
If you’re ready to move beyond one-off planning days and build something that lasts, we’d be happy to share how our structured, 12-month approach helps leadership teams bring strategy to life – one quarter at a time.
Join us for our next Group Business Strategy intake, taking place July 10-11. Held over two days, this two-day strategic planning workshop is for businesses doing the Group Strategy program, which takes leaders through the end-to-end process of planning and achieving your business goals. Learn more and secure your seat at the table here.