You've got a great strategy.
Is your business set up to deliver it?
Strategy Execution by Design shows you where your strategy is slowing down, why, and what to fix first.
A research-backed diagnostic for leadership teams. You leave with a plan your team has built.
The execution gap is real. And it is expensive.
Every senior leader I work with tells me a version of the same story. The strategy is clear. The leadership team is committed. The plan looks sound on paper. But twelve months in, momentum has stalled and priorities have drifted.
Your people are rarely the issue. The conditions around them are: decision rights, governance, incentives, capability and culture. Most organisations run a new strategy through conditions built for the old one.
58.9%
In my research with senior leaders (tier 1 to 3) in large New Zealand firms, strategy execution effectiveness averaged 58.9%. Around 40% of strategic effort never turns into the intended outcome, and people are trying hard the whole time.
of employees are not aware of, or do not understand, their organisation’s strategy.Kaplan & Norton
of the financial performance their strategies promise is what firms actually deliver.Mankins & Steele, Harvard Business Review, 197 companies
Reti, R. (2022). Maximising Firm Performance Through Strategy Execution. Massey University. · Kaplan & Norton (2005). Creating the Office of Strategy Management. · Mankins & Steele (2005). Turning Great Strategy into Great Performance.
Execution doesn't break in one place.
It breaks across a system.
Seven levers, each with five elements, measured through up to 256 indicators. A read of the conditions your people work within, from four points of view. Not an engagement score.Click on a lever below to see what it covers.
Governance & Accountability
Whether governance is deliberately designed for the current strategy, decision rights are clear, leaders have genuine visibility into execution reality, cross-functional coordination works, and escalation is healthy.
Execution Feasibility
Whether the organisation has the resources, capacity, and infrastructure to deliver. Capital allocation, workforce capacity after BAU, change absorption, delivery capability, and the systems that make feasibility visible.
Every lever sits inside the societal culture your organisation operates in, whether that is Australia, New Zealand, the United States or elsewhere. That culture helps or hinders execution. A condition designed without it in mind will struggle, because the behaviour it assumes does not come naturally in that context. The recommendations show where to design with your culture, and where to design around it.
Your strategy is clear. So why isn't it landing?
Answer 14 questions about how your organisation executes, and get a report you can act on today.
Start the 5-minute assessment →Why execution fails differently in every country.
Many execution frameworks are not built to consider how societal culture shows up in the way people challenge, decide and commit. They assume everyone is comfortable with direct challenge, that hierarchy gets questioned, and that speaking up carries no cost. That is not how every culture works.
The diagnostic reads your execution conditions alongside the GLOBE Project's published research on societal culture, the most comprehensive study of its kind, covering 62 societies.Select a dimension to see how it shapes execution.
Each dimension is measured two ways: how people behave today, and how they believe things should be. Where your culture already pulls the way your strategy needs, we design with it and move faster. Where it pulls against you, we design around it, so the fix holds when the culture pushes back.
A national profile reflects the national baseline, a hypothesis about your dominant operating environment, not a fixed read on any individual. We treat it as a lens to test against what you see in the room.
When leaders bring me in
Most organisations come to the diagnostic at one of four moments.
Rapid growth
Your organisation has grown faster than the way it runs. What worked at 80 people is creaking at 300.
A new strategy
The strategy is signed off. Before you ask the organisation to carry it, you want to know it can.
Delivery is slipping
Milestones keep moving, the dashboard still says green, and nobody can put their finger on why.
A reset
A new CEO, new Board expectations or a restructure. You want a clear read before you set the next direction.
How it works
A structured, time-bound diagnostic that gives you a clear picture of where execution is strong and where it is at risk. The steps below are the full Enterprise engagement. Baseline and Core use the steps they need.
Step 1 · Calibration session
We start with your leadership team. Together we agree what good looks like for each lever before anything is measured, and we scope the assessment to your stage. It is also where we talk through what your cultural context means for how change will land.
Step 2 · Three perspectives in parallel
Your executive team and wider leadership rate the indicators scoped to your stage. Staff across the organisation respond to the statements they can observe in their own work. The gap between what leaders believe and what staff experience is often the most powerful finding.
Step 3 · Consultant evidence review
I review the documents, governance structures, and systems that underpin execution. Where it adds value, I observe leadership and governance forums in action. This gives the assessment an evidence base beyond perception.
Step 4 · Cultural context
I read the findings through your societal culture, drawing on the GLOBE Project\'s published research. It shows where culture is already pulling your way, so we design with it, and where it pulls against you, so we design around it.
Step 5 · Findings session
A facilitated working session with your leadership team, to share what the data shows, explore perspectives, and talk through the recommendations. The cultural context reframes challenges from “what's wrong with us” to “what do we design for.”
Step 6 · Co-design the action plan
A co-design session, or sessions, to develop a roadmap in 90-day horizons with culturally informed interventions. Each action specifies what it is, who owns it, and what success looks like.
One diagnostic, scoped to where your business is at
Before we measure anything, we agree where you are now and where you need to be. Then we only ask about what matters at your stage. A business still building the layer between strategy and delivery is assessed on what it needs to put in place next. An established business, with portfolio management, benefits and governance already running, is assessed across the full set of up to 256 indicators. Either way, you hear from your executive, your leaders and your staff.
Baseline
Your team completes the assessment online and receives your report. A clear first read of where your execution conditions stand.
Core
I guide you through it, from setting targets to independent evidence review and the findings session. You leave with a recommended plan.
Enterprise
Everything in Core, then we build the roadmap together with your leadership team, so every action has an owner, a sequence and a measure.
Want a first read before you talk to anyone? Start the free Snapshot.
Why the Strategy Execution by Design™ diagnostic is different
Built from research, refined in practice
Original eMBA research with senior leaders across New Zealand, evolved through 20 years of practice. Every lever was tested against what breaks execution in practice.
Assesses the conditions, not the people
You see how decision rights, governance, incentives, capability and culture help or hinder delivery. Commitment follows the conditions people work in.
Designed for execution, not strategy
Most strategy frameworks help you decide what to do. The diagnostic tells you whether the organisation can actually deliver it.
Culturally grounded, not culturally blind
Most execution models assume one cultural context. The model maps execution conditions against societal culture. The recommendations are designed for your culture, not borrowed from someone else's.
A maturity scale, not a heatmap
It uses a five-level maturity scale on every indicator, with specific descriptions of what each level looks like. You know exactly what better looks like and how far you are from it.
Ready to see what's really going on?
If your strategy is sound but execution keeps stalling, the answer is not another planning cycle. It is understanding which conditions are in place and which are not.
Across seven levers, 35 elements and up to 256 indicators, scoped to your stage. Read from four points of view: your executive, your wider leadership, your staff, and independent evidence. Set within your cultural context.
Talk to Becs about running the diagnostic →© 2026 Rebecca Reti. Strategy Execution by Design™ and its diagnostic, including its levers, elements, indicators and methodology, are the intellectual property of Rebecca Reti. All rights reserved. No part may be reproduced, adapted or used to deliver services without written permission.
Access a detailed overview of the Strategy Execution By Design Diagnostic
More detail on the research, the seven levers, the cultural dimensions, and how a diagnostic runs.