For many organizations, strategy has become a performance rather than a practice. It lives in slide decks, off-sites, and polished PDFs that look impressive but rarely change how work actually gets done. Teams nod, executives approve, and then everyone returns to their day jobs. “Let’s be honest,” Hans Lagerweij says. “Strategy is usually a cure for insomnia.”
With decades of experience working with leaders and teams, and as the author of The Y Whisperer: How to Motivate and Align Teams That Get Your Strategy Done, Lagerweij believes strategy only becomes dull when it is disconnected from people. “Strategy should be the most exciting part of our jobs,” he says, “not something that ends up in a 100-page PDF nobody reads.”
Strategy Fails When People Can’t Repeat It
Most strategies collapse at the point of communication. Leaders believe they have been clear, but teams hear something different, or nothing at all. “If your team needs a decoder to understand the vision, you’ve already lost,” Lagerweij explains. He sees overcommunication as a hidden failure mode. Strategy statements become abstract and jargon-filled, turning direction into riddles. His antidote is what he calls the reverse elevator speech. “Explain the strategy in sixty seconds,” he says, “and then stop talking and start listening.”
When people can repeat the strategy in their own words, execution begins to align. “Strategy isn’t a one-night stand,” Lagerweij adds. “You don’t announce it and disappear.” Instead, it must show up consistently in decisions, priorities, and everyday conversations. He describes strategy as the heartbeat of the organization. When reinforcement disappears, momentum fades, no matter how compelling the original message sounded. As he puts it, “Your why has to become the pulse of the organization.”
Culture Is the Engine, Not the Decor
Even the clearest strategy will stall if culture pulls in a different direction. “Strategy is the car,” Lagerweij says. “Culture is the engine.” If the two are not aligned, organizations sit in expensive seats and go nowhere. Culture shows up in what leaders tolerate, reward, and role-model. When those signals contradict stated priorities, execution quietly breaks down. “You can’t outsource culture,” he adds. “It either supports the strategy, or it kills it.”
Execution Requires Adaptation, Not Rigidity
Treating strategy as a fixed doctrine is one of the fastest ways to disengage teams. “Strategy shouldn’t be a stone tablet,” Lagerweij says. “It should be a living thing.” Continuous improvement allows teams to learn and adjust without losing direction. Rather than blindly following a plan, leaders create space to pivot intelligently as reality changes. “Otherwise,” he notes, “you end up driving off a cliff just because the plan said go straight.”
Engagement Turns Buy-In Into Ownership
Execution accelerates when teams stop feeling managed and start feeling involved. “This is where we move from buy-in to ‘we’re all in this together,’” Lagerweij explains. Collaborative engagement replaces command and control with shared responsibility. People no longer execute because they were told to, but because they believe in where the strategy is taking them. “Passionate alignment beats compliance every time,” he says.
Progress Should Be Visible and Celebrated
Sustained execution requires energy, and energy comes from progress people can see. “Celebrating success is my favorite part,” Lagerweij admits. “If you’re not popping champagne or at least high-fiving when you hit a milestone, why are you even doing this?” Celebration reinforces meaning. It reminds teams that effort leads somewhere and that progress matters. “Success should be visible,” he says. “Success should be celebrated.”
Making Strategy a Frontline Reality
“Strategy shouldn’t be a secret,” Lagerweij says. “It should be a mission.” When communication is clear, reinforcement is consistent, culture is aligned, execution is adaptive, engagement is real, and progress is celebrated, strategy stops being abstract. It becomes something people enjoy contributing to. “You can spend two years getting an expensive MBA,” he says, “or you can just make strategy human.”
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