Sometimes a good strategy needs to be restarted

 A good strategy can still fail.

We have seen this many times.

One example was a new CEO who had been given a clear mandate from the board: Restructure the organization and create a strategy for growth.

She did her homework.

She developed a solid strategy and presented it to the board.

Then to the organization.

And met resistance.

Questions. Defensiveness. Pushback.

Even her own executive team didn't really own it.

Our advice was slightly uncomfortable: Go back and start again.

Not because the strategy was bad.

Because the process was.

We involved people across functions and levels and asked them what was working, where they were struggling and what they believed the organization needed going forward.

And here is the interesting part: The strategy we ended up with wasn't radically different from the CEO's original thinking.

But people's relationship to it was completely different.

They understood the WHY.

They had contributed to the HOW.

And they could see themselves in it.

This is something we see again and again at Brainwells.

Creating the plan is only one part of strategy.

Creating ownership of the plan is what makes execution possible.

Sometimes you don't need a better strategy.

You need a better way of creating it.