I’ve sat through more strategy meetings than I care to count. The slides were usually excellent. The spreadsheets were immaculate. And whether anything actually changed came down to something none of them measured.
It came down to people.
The bit nobody puts on the slide
Over the years I’ve worked with small businesses, large international organisations and everything in between — across Europe, North America and China. Different industries, different cultures, different coffee. The pattern was remarkably consistent.
A good plan in the hands of people who don’t trust each other goes nowhere. A mediocre plan in the hands of people who talk honestly, listen properly and genuinely care about the outcome tends to find a way.
Processes, systems and spreadsheets matter. But people decide whether change happens.
What that means on a Monday morning
If you lead a team, it means the most important work you do probably isn’t in your inbox. It’s in the conversations you have — and the ones you avoid.
If you’re part of a team, it means your behaviour shapes the culture more than any mission statement on the wall. How you speak to people. Whether you keep your word. Whether you say what you actually think.
And if you work somewhere that seems to have forgotten all of this — where people are treated as resources rather than human beings — it’s worth remembering that you still choose how you show up, and what you’re prepared to accept.
The question I always ask
When an organisation asks me why a change isn’t working, I tend to ask a different question first: how do the people involved feel about it?
The answer usually tells you everything.
