From Strategy to Momentum: A Leadership Reflection Before the Real Work Begins
We often talk about strategy as if it’s the hard part, but in truth, the hard part is what comes next.
When the whiteboards are wiped down, the strategy is agreed, and the documents have been circulated, that’s when the real work begins. Because defining a strategy is not the same as delivering it, and clarity on what the organisation needs to do is only the first step.
The real question is: how does that strategy live? Not just in plans and presentations, but in decisions, behaviours, and day-to-day activity? That's the part of the strategy the whole organisation wants and needs to hear.
The Inflection Point: From Design to Delivery
The first part of this blog series series explored frameworks that help define strategy:
How we understand our value propositions
How we model our business
How we align systems, skills, and structures through the 7S framework
Each of these frameworks plays a vital role in clarifying what we do, why it matters, and how we are structured to deliver it. But clarity alone isn’t momentum.
This next phase - the execution and alignment stage - is where strategy risks stalling if it doesn’t translate into something people can engage with, track, and contribute to meaningfully.
Where Strategies Lose Their Way
In large organisations, I’ve often seen strategy falter not because it was wrong, but because it wasn’t reinforced. The language of the strategy isn’t adopted consistently, there isn't a clear roadmap, and waypoints and milestones aren’t recognised or celebrated.
The actions aren’t made tangible for individuals.
People start asking, “Where do I fit in?”, “How does what I do matter?”, and if the organisation doesn’t answer, people disconnect and the energy fades.
The Role of Leadership in Creating Coherence
Alignment starts from the top.
If leadership teams aren’t coherent, the ripple effect throughout the organisation causes fragmentation. What begins as minor misalignment at the senior level becomes amplified confusion by the time it reaches the front-line.
That’s why leadership behaviour is so central to implementation.
I’ve found behavioural frameworks like EAST (Easy, Attractive, Social, Timely) incredibly useful at helping to land change and transformation. One of the most useful dimensions to consider from the EAST Framework is Social.
Strategy adoption often begins in pockets: one team that ‘gets it’, a manager who uses the language early, a project that visibly connects to the bigger picture. Those early adopters become beacons, and celebrating them helps others follow - not through enforcement, but through belief.
What Comes Next: Making Strategy Measurable and Meaningful
The next frameworks in this series - Hoshin Kanri and OKRs - offer different approaches for how strategy becomes embedded in the rhythms of the organisation.
Used well, they answer vital leadership questions:
Are we aligned?
Are we making progress?
Are our people clear on how they contribute?
They help organisations avoid the trap of “strategic drift” - the slow separation between ambition and activity that undermines even the strongest plans.
These frameworks are about translation: turning vision into something measurable, understandable, and real.
A Final Reflection
If you’ve reached this point with a strategy in place, questions I encourage every leadership team to ask are:
“How will we know if we’ve got this right?”
“How will we know if we’re on track, or when we arrive?”
These aren’t just measurement questions, they’re alignment questions - they are questions of coherence, relevance, and trust.
And answering them well is what makes the difference between a strategy remembered… and a strategy realised.
