What You Lose with Your New Strategy

Abstract

Company strategies often fail and this is frequently ascribed to unpredictable changes in the context. But most failures are the result of fairly predictable challenges, including one factor that is constantly overlooked: the role and impact of loss. New strategic priorities inevitably generate losses as people’s reality changes: loss of power, loss of competence or identity. Companies typically trumpet the benefits and ignore these losses, treating implementation as a straightforward technical challenge. Instead, they need to treat strategic planning as an adaptive leadership challenge, helping the organization come to terms with new realities and to appropriately grieve what is lost. Leaders should build an adaptive strategic planning process by: strengthening the “holding environment”; creating a formal moment to discuss losses; and mapping the affected groups and losses for each strategic priority.