Most strategic planning efforts are developed by a small group of executives and then pushed down through the organization. While this may produce a polished strategic plan, it often fails to create the ownership, alignment, trust, and execution capability needed for real transformation.

We help leaders take a fundamentally different approach.

We help leaders engage managers, employees, customers, and stakeholders throughout the organization in helping shape the future of the enterprise. We recognize that the people closest to the work often understand operational realities, customer frustrations, barriers, inefficiencies, risks, and opportunities better than anyone else.

Rather than treating employees as passive recipients of change, we help leaders systematically engage the workforce in developing strategic direction, identifying improvement opportunities, refining initiatives, and strengthening execution plans.

This creates far more than strategic plans. It builds organizational alignment, ownership, engagement, capability, and momentum.

Many strategic planning efforts fail because organizations struggle with engagement, alignment, execution, and change management.

Common problems include:

• Plans developed in isolation by a small group of executives
• Insufficient workforce and stakeholder engagement
• Weak understanding of operational realities and root causes
• Poor alignment between strategy and execution
• Limited ownership throughout the organization
• Resistance created by top-down change efforts
• Weak execution planning and governance
• Too much focus on producing plans rather than producing results

Organizations often possess tremendous untapped insight and capability within their workforce. Unfortunately, many strategic planning efforts fail to effectively gather and use that knowledge.

People support what they help create. When employees are excluded from meaningful involvement, organizations lose valuable insight, commitment, innovation, and execution capability.

We help leaders create structured engagement processes that improve both the quality of strategic decisions and the organization’s ability to execute transformation.

Depending on the organization and situation, our approaches often include:

• Workforce focus groups
• Town hall meetings and leadership listening sessions
• Online feedback and idea collection processes
• Manager-led discussions with teams
• Cross-functional workshops and planning sessions
• Employee participation on strategic initiative and transformation teams
• Sharing draft strategic plans and gathering enterprise-wide feedback before finalization
• Ongoing communication and engagement throughout implementation

We help leaders engage employees early in the planning process—before conclusions and priorities have been finalized—to better understand operational realities, customer needs, risks, constraints, and opportunities.

Rather than developing plans behind closed doors, we help leaders openly share evolving priorities and draft plans during development to gather feedback, strengthen strategic thinking, improve alignment, and build organizational ownership.

We also help leaders identify and engage influential formal and informal leaders throughout the organization to improve communication, trust, collaboration, and organizational buy-in.

These approaches help leaders gain insights they otherwise would not see. Just as importantly, they help employees understand the mission, contribute meaningfully, and develop ownership in the future direction of the organization

One of the biggest weaknesses in many strategic planning efforts is the disconnect between strategy and day-to-day operations.

We help leaders connect strategic priorities to operational realities and daily work so employees can understand how their efforts contribute to organizational success and transformation.

We help leaders use cross-functional planning and transformation teams to think beyond organizational silos and better align strategy, operations, technology, customer experience, workforce considerations, and execution planning.

We also help organizations establish two-way communication and feedback loops that allow leaders to continuously gather insights, refine plans, address concerns, and strengthen organizational alignment throughout planning and implementation efforts.

Our goal is never simply to help organizations create strategic plans. It is to help leaders build lasting internal capability to solve problems, improve performance, lead change, and execute transformation long after the planning effort ends.

In many organizations, we help leaders establish enterprise-wide improvement and transformation systems that engage hundreds—and sometimes thousands—of employees in strategic initiatives and operational improvement efforts.

This often includes helping leaders:

• Charter and launch cross-functional transformation and improvement teams
• Develop enterprise governance and review systems
• Align projects and initiatives to strategic priorities
• Strengthen leadership capability throughout the organization
• Improve customer experience, operational performance, technology, organizational structures, and culture
• Train leaders and teams in proven improvement and execution methodologies

As people become engaged in solving problems and improving performance, organizations often experience major operational breakthroughs, improved morale and collaboration, stronger execution, and significantly improved business and mission results.

More importantly, they develop the internal capability to continuously improve, adapt, innovate, and execute together.

Executive alignment matters. But sustainable transformation requires organizational alignment.

Many consulting firms focus primarily on helping executives create strategy. Our focus extends far beyond strategy development alone. We help leaders engage people throughout the enterprise in understanding the mission, surfacing problems, identifying opportunities, improving systems, strengthening execution, and helping shape the future together.

Strategy developed in isolation often creates compliance.

Strategy developed with meaningful workforce engagement creates ownership, capability, alignment, and transformation.

We have substantive experience leading strategy, execution, operational improvement, and enterprise transformation initiatives as direct reports and trusted advisors to top government, nonprofit, and commercial leaders.

Our work has helped organizations achieve breakthrough mission outcomes, major operational improvements, stronger execution capability, and billions of dollars in measurable improvements.

We are passionate about strategy, execution, organizational improvement, and transformation. We served on the Board of Directors for the International Association for Strategy Professionals (IASP) and helped advance the field of strategic planning and execution. We also chaired and led World Strategy Week, bringing together thought leaders, scholars, authors, advisors, and executives to discuss critical forces shaping the future of organizations and economies.