Wrap up of Lever 1: Leadership & Trust

Strategy Execution by Design Series

Wrap up of Lever 1: Leadership & Trust

After close to 20 years designing and executing business strategy, the persistent gap between strategy formulation and execution became the ‘why’ behind my eMBA research. I explored with executives of large New Zealand-based organisations (both New Zealand-born and internationally born) the elements that enable effective strategy execution.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve shared insights on Lever 2 of my Strategy by Design model: Strategic Clarity & Alignment - exploring how clarity transforms intent into coordinated action, and how alignment ensures that effort converges rather than competes.

What I discovered was telling: when strategy is unclear, execution fragments. Teams fill the silence with their own interpretations, initiatives collide, and the organisation drifts off course. Leaders described this as one of their biggest barriers to performance, everyone wanted to do the right thing; they just weren’t sure what that was.

Execution doesn’t fail because people don’t care, it fails because the direction is unclear. When leaders create coherence, execution accelerates.

To explore the insights and practical takeaways from Lever 2, check out my wrap-up article below.

You can access the full wrap up article here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/lever-2-strategic-clarity-alignment-turning-ambition-rebecca-reti-ist2c