why strategies fail

Huddled around a small projector screen was the top team from COOK Trading Ltd.
It was 2012. And we were doing our first strategy workshop with the late, great Nev Farrington.

He flashed up this graph.
Why strategies fail.

The data is pretty dated but I've no reason to think the numbers have changed much.
Strategies fail because people don't buy-in to them - or simply don't even understand them.
Hmmmm.

Since then, we've set to lift the veil of secrecy from the strategy process.
We invite people in.
We ask for input and ideas.
We feed back how things are evolving.

This can be as simple as doing a quick idea-gathering session at an all-company meeting.
It might not yield nuggets of gold (though it might!).
But it will help everybody feel like a strategy insider.

People support what they help create.