Strategy as shelfware
Across industries, organisations invest vast amounts of time, resources, and intellectual energy into crafting ambitious strategies. Beautifully written and laden with eye popping graphics, the flashy presentation hides a terrible truth. Most of the time these strategies amount to little more than coffee table books. Harvard Business School Professor Robert Kaplan notes that 90% of organisations fail to execute their strategies successfully [Kaplan, 1996]
These plans are designed to unlock growth, drive innovation, or adapt to competitive pressures. Yet, for all their promise, a staggering number of strategies end up as “shelfware”—beautifully articulated visions that gather dust because they are never realised. The culprit? A failure to address the cultural transformation necessary to make strategy real.
Culture eats strategy for breakfast
At its core, strategy is not just a plan; it is a change problem. Implementing strategy demands shifts in behaviours, attitudes, and operational norms across an organisation. It’s not enough to articulate where you want to go—the people within the business must have the mindset, capabilities, and cultural environment needed to take you there. This is where many organisations stumble. They focus on the “what” of strategy—market positioning, competitive goals, or customer focus—while neglecting the “how” of enabling the culture that will deliver it.
As Peter Drucker succinctly put it: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Even the most visionary strategies are rendered powerless in the face of entrenched cultural resistance.
When culture eats strategy – a real life example
One striking example comes from a large engineering organisation attempting to transform its competitive positioning. The team at Enable were engaged to help the organisation improve its win rate.
Facing increasing market pressure, the company recognised that its traditional reliance on sole-source contracts—where customers came to them directly—was no longer sustainable. To compete effectively, the organisation needed to adopt a competitive bidding approach, crafting compelling value propositions and sharpening its win strategies.
Central to this shift was the procurement department, a key function in shaping and delivering competitive bids. However, the culture within procurement was deeply rooted in decades of sole-source purchasing practices. This culture was built around relationships, long-term supplier agreements, and operational efficiency rather than the agility, speed, and strategic thinking required for competitive bids. When the new strategy demanded that procurement take on a more proactive, collaborative role, the resistance was immediate and pervasive.
For instance:
- Procurement staff were reluctant to engage early with bid teams, seeing their role as administrative rather than strategic.
- Decision-making processes were slow and risk-averse, at odds with the fast-paced demands of competitive bids.
- Internal stakeholders described procurement as a “graveyard” for innovative win strategies—ideas that required flexibility or non-traditional approaches died in the bureaucracy of entrenched practices.
- The procurement staff were skilled at maintaining status-quo and lacked the behaviours and rules necessary to support the demands of competitive win strategies
Despite significant investment in developing the competitive strategy, the cultural inertia within procurement acted as a roadblock. The strategy floundered, not because it was flawed but because the organisational culture had not been enabled to execute it.
The true cost of cultural misalignment
The financial implications of unimplemented strategies are immense—wasted investments in planning, missed revenue opportunities, and diminished competitive advantage. But the reputational costs can be even higher. Teams become disillusioned when they see repeated strategic initiatives fail, leading to a loss of trust in leadership and lower morale. Customers and stakeholders, too, notice when promises are not matched by delivery, eroding confidence in the organisation.
The engineering company’s failure to align culture with strategy cost it dearly. Competitors who had mastered the art of competitive bids seized opportunities, while the company was left struggling to gain traction. Over time, the strategy that was meant to rejuvenate the business became a cautionary tale of how ignoring cultural realities can undermine even the most well-intentioned plans.
Culture is the operating system of the organisation
This example underscores a critical truth: strategy cannot succeed without a cultural foundation that supports and enables it. Culture is not a side consideration or an afterthought—it is the operating system of the organisation. Just as a new piece of software will fail if it’s incompatible with the system it’s meant to run on, a strategy will fail if it’s incompatible with the organisation’s culture.
Simon Sinek, in his book Start With Why [Sinek, 2009], emphasises that people need clarity and alignment of purpose to succeed. This applies not only to customers but also to the internal teams responsible for executing strategy. A misaligned culture creates confusion, resistance, and inertia, while an enabling culture fosters collaboration, agility, and innovation.
The relationship between culture and behaviour
At its core, culture is the sum of the behaviours, values, and beliefs shared across an organisation. When strategy requires change, it’s the collective behaviours of people that must evolve to bring that strategy to life. Without behaviour change, even the most brilliant strategies will remain on paper, unable to take flight.
This is where leadership plays a pivotal role. Leaders set the tone for culture through their actions, not just their words. They must embody the new behaviours required by the strategy, serving as living examples for the rest of the organisation. As the management expert Peter Drucker famously said, “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” [Drucker, 1967]. In the context of strategy, “the right things” often mean modelling the behaviours that drive the desired outcomes.
But behaviour change at the leadership level doesn’t happen overnight. Many leaders need support to recognise their own habits, shift their mindsets, and adopt new ways of working. This is where external coaching becomes essential. A skilled coach provides leaders with:
- Clarity: Identifying which behaviours align with the strategy and which may hinder it.
- Accountability: Keeping leaders focused and committed to practicing new habits.
- Tools for Influence: Equipping leaders with techniques to inspire and engage their teams in embracing change.
When leaders demonstrate the behaviours that enable the strategy, they create a ripple effect across the organisation. Teams gain confidence, resistance diminishes, and culture evolves to support the strategy rather than block it. External coaching acts as the catalyst for this transformation, ensuring that leaders are fully prepared to drive meaningful change.
By aligning culture and behaviour through strong, supported leadership, organisations can move from strategy to success with confidence.
Moving strategy forward
Strategies fail when they remain abstract goals detached from the day-to-day reality of how an organisation operates. To make strategy real, leaders must treat cultural transformation as a core component of execution. This means not only identifying what needs to change but actively enabling those changes through leadership, communication, and structural alignment.
When culture and strategy work in lockstep, organisations unlock their potential to achieve growth, outpace competitors, and deliver exceptional value to their customers. But without that alignment, even the most promising strategies are destined for the shelf.
Strategy and culture making change stick
Two sides of the same coin
Organisational change expert Richard Beckhard articulated the challenge of driving transformation with the Gleicher Formula for Change: C = (D × V × F) > R. Here, dissatisfaction (D) with the status quo, a clear vision (V), and actionable first steps (F) must outweigh resistance (R) for change to occur [Beckhard & Harris, 1977].
Culture plays a pivotal role in this equation. Without cultural dissatisfaction—whether from employees recognising inefficiencies or leadership driving urgency—the push for change rarely gains momentum. Similarly, even a compelling strategic vision fails if the cultural behaviours needed to execute it are not in place.
Simon Sinek, in his book Start With Why, echoes this point: “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.” This is not just about external customers; employees, too, need to connect with the “why” of an organisation. If the culture lacks clarity, purpose, or alignment with the strategy, resistance becomes insurmountable.
The cultural drag on strategy
Cultural inertia is often the silent killer of strategic ambition. Consider a company introducing new technologies to enhance customer service. The strategy is sound: automation will speed up response times, improve data accuracy, and free up employees for more complex tasks. But if the company’s culture is risk-averse or resistant to change, implementation will fail. Employees may see automation as a threat to their roles or lack the training to use it effectively. Without cultural readiness, the strategy cannot take root.
Another common example is siloed teams. A strategy might call for cross-functional collaboration to deliver customer-centric solutions. Yet, if the culture incentivises individual team performance over collective success, these silos become barriers. Strategy, no matter how well-designed, cannot overcome a culture that resists working together.
The root of these failures lies in behaviour. Culture is expressed through daily behaviours, and when those behaviours are misaligned with strategic goals, progress stalls. Leaders play a pivotal role in addressing this misalignment. By visibly modeling the new behaviours required by the strategy—whether it’s embracing risk, fostering collaboration, or prioritising innovation—they create a ripple effect across the organisation. Without this commitment from leaders, employees will continue to follow the old, familiar patterns that are ingrained in the culture.
Take the example of a company transitioning to competitive bidding to win contracts. The strategy called for bold, innovative value propositions. However, the company’s procurement culture was deeply rooted in a risk-averse, sole-source mindset. Rather than enabling competitive win strategies, procurement stifled them, leading to delays, watered-down proposals, and lost bids. This misalignment between strategy and culture turned a promising vision into a costly failure.
Transforming culture to align with strategy is no small task, but it starts with behaviour change at the leadership level. External coaching can be a game-changer in this process, offering leaders the tools to understand their influence, practice new habits, and sustain change. When leaders lead by example, they enable the cultural shifts needed to bring strategic ambitions to life.
Making Strategy stick
To succeed, organisations must treat culture as a core component of strategy, not an afterthought. Leaders must ask:
- Does our culture enable or resist this strategy?
- Are our people aligned with the purpose behind this change?
- What cultural shifts are necessary to achieve the desired outcomes?
But answering these questions objectively is far from straightforward. As Albert Einstein insightfully observed: “What does a fish know about the water in which he swims all his life?” This highlights a universal truth—people immersed in a system often struggle to see it clearly. Those who create and live within an organisation’s culture are often blind to its limitations, leaving them unable to assess whether it will enable or hinder strategic ambitions.
This lack of clarity is compounded by cognitive biases, groupthink, and habitual behaviours. Leaders and teams may unwittingly cling to practices that feel familiar but are counterproductive in a new strategic context. For instance, a long-standing emphasis on risk mitigation may stifle innovation, or a hierarchical decision-making culture may inhibit the agility needed for customer-centric solutions. These blind spots can derail even the most visionary plans.
Recognising these barriers requires more than self-reflection; it demands an external perspective. An outside partner brings the objectivity needed to evaluate culture without bias, uncovering hidden resistance and misalignments. This process isn’t about criticising the existing culture but about identifying how it must evolve to support the strategy.
Organisations like Enable specialise in this kind of cultural diagnosis. By using tools and frameworks designed to evaluate cultural readiness, Enable helps leaders understand the behaviours, mindsets, and dynamics that need to change. Importantly, they work hand-in-hand with organisations to realign culture and strategy, turning potential obstacles into enablers of success.
When culture and strategy are truly aligned, the impact is transformative. Organisations achieve not just measurable growth but also greater resilience, stronger market positions, and deeper connections with their customers. Strategic goals are no longer aspirations—they become realities powered by a culture built to sustain them.
Turning strategy into profitable growth
Successfully aligning strategy and culture to deliver meaningful change is no small feat. It requires a deliberate, structured approach to overcome resistance and build momentum across the organisation. The Gleicher Formula for Change (C = (D × V × F) > R) reminds us that dissatisfaction with the current state (D), a compelling vision (V), and clear first steps (F) must together outweigh resistance (R) for change to succeed. This framework guides the following actions, ensuring that organisations address every element required to tip the balance in their favour.
1. Start with Leadership Alignment
How it helps: Leaders are instrumental in driving dissatisfaction (D) and creating a compelling vision (V). However, alignment isn’t just about agreeing on the strategy—it’s about leaders embodying the behaviours that reinforce it. When leadership models the cultural changes required, they create credibility and momentum.
Action: Conduct leadership workshops to:
- Align on strategic priorities and the cultural shifts needed to support them.
- Identify specific behaviours leaders must demonstrate to reinforce the vision.
- Provide coaching to ensure leaders are equipped to act as cultural role models.
Impact: Unified leadership sends a clear and consistent message that inspires dissatisfaction with the status quo while presenting an actionable and compelling vision for the future.
2. Make the Change Tangible
How it helps: A clear vision is critical, but without actionable first steps (F), resistance (R) will prevail. Turning the strategy into specific, visible actions makes change feel achievable and relevant, reducing resistance.
Action:
- Develop a roadmap that connects high-level goals to team objectives and individual tasks.
- Communicate these links frequently, using concrete examples to show how day-to-day work contributes to the strategy.
- Offer training and resources to ensure employees feel supported in adopting new behaviours.
Impact: Making the change tangible fosters employee buy-in, empowering people to contribute and reducing uncertainty about the path forward.
3. Measure, Adapt, and Learn
How it helps: Resistance (R) can reappear if employees perceive setbacks or inconsistencies in the process. Regular measurement and adaptation ensure dissatisfaction remains focused, the vision stays compelling, and first steps remain effective.
Action:
- Use tools like cultural diagnostics, behavioural metrics, and employee feedback to monitor progress.
- Adjust strategies and communication in response to insights.
- Celebrate milestones to build confidence and maintain momentum.
Impact: A commitment to learning and adapting reinforces the organisation’s dedication to change, keeping resistance at bay and driving sustainable progress.
Enable Growth now
While these steps provide a clear pathway, executing them effectively often requires an objective perspective. Organisations deeply embedded in their own culture may struggle to recognise the hidden barriers that undermine change.
Enable bridges this gap by providing:
- Strategic expertise: Translating your strategy into actionable cultural requirements for successful implementation.
- Objective analysis: Clear, unbiased insights into cultural readiness and alignment.
- Specialist tools and methodologies: Designed to accelerate the integration of culture and strategy.
- Behavioural coaching expertise: Ensuring leaders and teams adopt the practices necessary to enable success.
With Enable’s support, organisations can navigate cultural challenges with confidence, transforming ambitious strategies into measurable, sustainable growth. Let us help you align culture and strategy to unlock your organisation’s full potential. Contact us to learn more.
References
Beckhard, R. and Harris, R.T. (1977) Organizational Transitions: Managing Complex Change. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Christensen, C.M. (1997) The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail. Boston: Harvard Business Review Press.
Drucker, P.F. (1967) The effective executive. New York: Harper & Row.
Harvard Business School Faculty (1992) The Balanced Scorecard—Measures That Drive Performance. Available at: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=8831
Kotter, J.P. (1996) Leading Change. Boston: Harvard Business Review Press.
McKinsey & Company (2018) Why Do Strategies Fail? Insights on Organizational Resistance. Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com
Sinek, S. (2009) Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action. New York: Portfolio.
Sinek, S. (2014) Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t. New York: Portfolio.