HBR Guide to Setting Your Strategy

CHAPTER 19

Explain Your New Strategy by Emphasizing What It Isn’t

by Nick Tasler

It is nearly impossible to translate—let alone execute—a strategy that you don’t understand. Yet, according to research by MIT’s Donald Sull, almost half of top executives cannot connect the dots between their company’s strategic priorities, and two out of three middle managers say they simply do not understand their strategic direction.¹ McKinsey & Company reported similar findings from its Organizational Health Index, as did Timothy Devinney at Australia’s University of Technology in a recent experiment.² Taken together, this research points to the fact that most leaders just don’t get what their organizations are trying to do.

As bleak as that sounds, leaders ...