By Arrey Obenson.
I have spent 20 plus years watching organizations try to execute their strategies. Some succeed brilliantly.
Most fail miserably. The difference? It is never about the beauty of the PowerPoint deck. The best strategy in the world means nothing if your people do not believe in it. I have seen this play out countless times, from tiny startups to global corporations.
The pattern is always the same: strategies fail when they are just words on paper. They succeed when they are stories people want to be part of. Here is what actually makes a strategy work:
First, you need a leader who lives and breathes the vision. Not someone who just talks about it in quarterly meetings, but someone who makes every decision, every day, with that vision in mind. Think of Steve Jobs and his obsession with design simplicity. It showed up everywhere – from product launches to Apple Store layouts to the company's advertising. That's what real vision-driving looks like.
Then you need your true believers. These are the people who get it first, who see where you're going and can not wait to help you get there. They are as valuable as gold. Here is the thing about organizational change: it spreads like a wave. Your early believers convince others, who convince others, until suddenly your whole team is moving in the same direction.
But the real kicker – culture. You probably have heard that culture eats strategy for breakfast. It is true. I have watched brilliant strategies die slow deaths in toxic cultures. When departments do not talk to each other, when people are more focused on office politics than customer needs, when cynicism runs deep – your strategy does not stand a chance. Strategy is not just a top-floor conversation. It needs to live in every customer call, every team meeting, every product decision. When a customer has a bad experience, that is not just a service issue – it is your strategy failing in real time. When employees are disillusioned, that's not just a morale problem – it's your strategy dying a quiet death.
The good news? When you get these pieces right – a leader who truly believes, a core team of passionate supporters, and a culture that brings out the best in people – strategy stops being a document and starts being a movement. Movements, change the world.
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