Research shows a vast majority of employees are unaware of their organization's strategy. This fundamental communication failure makes effective execution impossible, as teams cannot align their work with broader company goals, no matter how brilliant the strategy is.
To ensure strategy is understood and adopted, involve people from across the organization in its creation. This process fosters ownership and turns participants into ambassadors who naturally disseminate the strategy, which is far more effective than a top-down announcement or slide deck.
A simple diagnostic for a missing strategy is to ask "why" multiple times about a task. If asking "why" about an objective (the first answer) results in a blank stare, it's a strong signal the strategic connection is missing. This "laddering" technique exposes gaps in the decision stack.
The trend towards team empowerment often fails because leadership neglects to provide necessary strategic context. Without clear alignment on vision and strategy, empowered teams run in different directions, wasting effort. True empowerment requires both autonomy and clear, shared direction.
True strategy involves making tough choices about what not to do. Many executive teams resist this, preferring to keep all options open. This attachment to optionality leads to weak, unfocused strategies where everything is a priority, spreading teams thin and hindering real progress.
When leadership fails to provide a clear strategy, individuals can proactively create one. Piece together what you can from conversations, formulate a "straw man" strategy, and socialize it with peers and leadership. This forces discussion, exposes gaps, and pushes for the missing clarity.
Unlike established businesses planning 5+ years out, a startup's strategy must be tied to its survival. The effective timeframe for its strategic bets is limited by its cash runway. If you have six months of cash, your strategy must deliver tangible results within that window.
When teams repeatedly debate the same trade-off (e.g., "job seeker vs. recruiter focus"), it's a signal to create a principle. By making a definitive choice and codifying it (e.g., "Always focus on the job seeker"), you eliminate future arguments and empower teams to make faster, consistent decisions.
Companies often define strategy solely around innovative new bets, ignoring the core business. A robust strategy explicitly covers both: how you'll maintain your existing product and customer base, and where you'll explore new growth. Ignoring the former is a critical blind spot.
The Decision Stack is a framework answering five key questions to align an organization: 1. Where are we going? 2. How will we get there? 3. What's important now? 4. What actions will we take? 5. How do we choose? This connects high-level vision to daily execution.