Dear Reader
Over the past few weeks, I have found myself having similar conversations with CEOs, leadership teams, and boards. They have been in different organisations, different sectors and at different stages of growth, yet the underlying challenge has been the same.
Having led strategy through periods of rapid growth, funding uncertainty and major organisational change myself, and now supporting other organisations through similar moments, I am increasingly convinced that we often think about strategy in the wrong way.
Many organisations are not struggling because they lack ideas. If anything, they have too many.
New opportunities.
New partnerships.
New pilots.
New ambitions.
The harder challenge is deciding what to lean into and, just as importantly, what not to.
Because strategy is not a wish list. It is a set of choices.
The strategy trap
One of the biggest mistakes I see is treating strategy as an exercise in certainty.
As if leaders should be able to predict exactly what funding, politics, partnerships, technology, or external conditions will look like five years from now.
They can't. None of us can.
The strongest strategies I see are not rigid plans. They are what I increasingly think of as a strategic picture.
A shared view of:
- Where we are heading
- Why it matters
- The role we want to play
- The few strategic levers that matter most
Clear enough to align people around a common direction. Flexible enough to adapt as reality unfolds.
The strategic picture is as much for your own people as it is for funders, boards and external partners. It creates a shared language for where you are heading, why those choices have been made and how today's decisions connect to the longer term ambition.
From that strategic picture should flow annual priorities, and from those annual priorities, quarterly plans. The long term direction remains relatively stable, while the work evolves as you learn. The strategy should not need rewriting every quarter, but the priorities almost certainly will.
Stop treating uncertainty as failure
One thing I have become much more comfortable with over the years is acknowledging that some strategic questions cannot be answered in a workshop or boardroom.
They have to be answered through implementation.
Through testing.
Through learning.
Sometimes through getting things wrong.
Good strategy distinguishes between what we already know and what we still need to discover.
Rather than trying to eliminate uncertainty, it identifies the biggest assumptions, makes them explicit and creates opportunities to test them early.
The goal is not certainty.
The goal is confidence that you are learning quickly enough to keep making better decisions.
Plan for more than one future
Another trap is building a strategy around a single version of the future.
The organisations navigating uncertainty best are usually thinking about several possible futures.
๐ The Catalytic Leapโ
What if significant funding, momentum, or opportunity emerges?
โก๏ธ The Momentum Pathโ
What if things broadly unfold as expected?
๐ก๏ธ The Hold the Line Scenarioโ
What if funding tightens and difficult choices become necessary?
The purpose is not prediction. It is preparedness.
When circumstances change, leaders already know which decisions they will make rather than having to start strategy from scratch.
Why bridge years matter
Sometimes the most strategic decision is not a new five year plan.
It is to create a bridge year.
Bridge years are not pauses. They are periods of purposeful learning.
They can be particularly valuable during leadership transitions, major evaluations, funding shifts or significant organisational change.
A good bridge year still has clear priorities, accountability, financial discipline and explicit learning goals. It creates space to test assumptions, gather evidence and decide what deserves greater investment before committing to a longer term direction.
Often it becomes the foundation for the next chapter rather than a delay to it.
Even when you do develop a five year strategic picture, resist the temptation to put it on a shelf. The external environment will change, and so will your organisation. An annual review, combined with a more substantial mid strategy reflection (it is more than 3 years strategic 'plan'), allows you to incorporate what you have learned without losing the overall direction. The picture remains recognisable, even if the route changes.
One final thought
The strongest organisations I know are not the ones with the most detailed plans.
They are the ones that balance two things exceptionally well:
๐ฏ Clarity of direction
๐ Willingness to adapt
They know where they are trying to go, but they remain curious about the best route to get there.
Because strategy is not about having all the answers.
It is about creating enough clarity to move forward while remaining open to what you will learn along the way.
๐ What assumption is your organisation currently treating as a certainty that might be better treated as something to test?
Warmly,
Liz โ
Strategic Advisor | Former CEO | Founder, Volante
Based in Kenya, available globally
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