Strategy That Survives

A strong business strategy is selective, making clear strategic choices that create alignment across teams and decisions.

A strategy only works if it connects to how work actually happens.

Most strategies fail for one boring reason: they don’t connect to the way work actually happens.

They’re ambitious, well written, beautifully formatted — and then quietly ignored.

This is a common problem in complex environments, where linear plans struggle to account for interdependencies, uncertainty, and rapid change. As Jeroen Kraaijenbrink notes in Strategy in a Complex World, effective strategy in complexity is less about control and prediction, and more about coherence, learning, and adaptation over time.

It’s not because people don’t care. It’s because the strategy doesn’t answer the questions leaders and teams are forced to answer every day:

• What are we doing less of?

• What is changing this quarter?

• Who is accountable for what?

• How will we know it’s working?

A practical structure holds up

When helping organisations shape strategy, I look for five things:

A clear problem definition. What problem is being solved? What has changed?

A small set of choices. The choices should be uncomfortable enough to be real.

A sequence. What comes first, second, and third — and why.

Measures reflect reality. Not just outputs (“we delivered X”), but indicators showing direction.

A communication plan supports the strategy. How will you explain the choices, reinforce them, and keep people aligned when pressure hits?

Testing the strategy

Ask a team leader to explain the strategy in their own words.

If they can’t, it’s not their fault — the strategy isn’t usable yet.

Good strategy reads like clarity.

It feels like relief.