According to McKinsey's 2025 article A New Operating Model for a New World, even high-performing companies experience an average 30% gap between the full potential of their strategy and the results they actually achieve. One of the main reasons, according to the research, is shortcomings in the operating model.
When strategy execution starts to stall, it is easy to turn to organizational structure. Because structure is visible, tangible, and relatively easy to change, it often appears to be the logical place to intervene.
Most organizations try to do too many things at the same time and, instead of accelerating strategy execution, they slow it down. What are the typical situations and steps that lead to this? What consequences can it have, and how can it be prevented or reduced?
For more than twenty years, Patrick Lencioni has written about how the success or failure of an organization is often determined by the way its leadership team operates. In The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, he argues that when a leadership team fails to function as a real team, the consequences eventually ripple throughout the entire organization.
In my work with leadership teams, I often come across strategies that are sophisticated, well-structured, and impressive when presented on slides. Yet when I ask a simple question - "What problem is this strategy actually trying to solve? What future, direction, or vision is it intended to support?" - the room often falls silent.
We are in the middle of an intensive planning season. I am currently working with leaders and leadership teams on strategy development, strategic renewal, key business challenges, and goal setting. Most importantly, we are exploring how to ensure that strategies do not remain PowerPoint slides, but actually translate into execution and results.
