Most strategy failures don’t happen in the boardroom
They happen in the conversations afterwards — the ones where a leader believes they’ve set a clear direction, and the team quietly walks away unsure what it actually means for them.
This is the “clarity gap.”
The leader assumes they’ve been clear. The team doesn’t feel safe enough to ask the questions that would make the strategy usable.
So direction-setting becomes a broadcast rather than a conversation. People nod and take notes but leave with very different interpretations of the same message.
And without psychological safety, the most important questions never appear:
❓ What does this actually change?
❓ What will be stopped or deprioritised to make space for this?
❓ What assumptions are we making?
❓ Where are the risks?
This is where strategy quietly breaks down.
There’s also a second gap: the bottom-up thinking never reaches the table.
Ideas generation depends on leaders who can speak to the “why”, create space for challenge, and invite insight from the people closest to the work. Without that, strategy becomes a well-polished story at the top and a guessing game everywhere else.
Now imagine the alternative.
✅ A direction-setting conversation where people genuinely understand the purpose, the priorities and the trade-offs.
✅ A space where challenge is treated as part of good execution, not dissent.
✅ Teams who can contribute insight early, flag risks before they become expensive, and align their decisions with the strategy rather than working around it.
This is the point where strategy becomes executable. There are clear expectations, shared understanding and a team that knows exactly how their work supports the bigger picture (and has the confidence to raise questions when it doesn’t).
The solution isn’t more presentations or more detailed plans.
It’s better conversations.
Structured, well-run direction-setting and ideas-generation sessions give people the clarity, context and confidence they need to deliver. They turn ambition into action.