Strategy Detox
Strategy is supposed to create clarity. Too often, it creates nausea. Everywhere I go, leaders are tired. They’ve been overprescribed by consultants, overdosed on frameworks, and left with a low-grade fever of cynicism.
It’s not that they don’t believe in strategy anymore — it’s that strategy, as they’ve known it, stopped believing in them. The sickness isn’t failure. It’s toxicity: layer upon layer of half-implemented playbooks, conflicting goals, and inherited jargon. It builds up until leaders can’t tell if they’re running a business or starring in a parody of one.
Patterns I See
Strategy as identity: “I’m the ____ guy.” The framework becomes the faith.
Strategy as drug: Each new model promises salvation; each crash breeds another fix.
Strategy as theater: Leadership becomes a performance of knowing, not a practice of learning.
Strategy as control: The illusion that if we plan perfectly, we can avoid uncertainty.
What Leaders Miss
Strategy isn’t medicine; it’s diet. It only works when metabolized through reflection, humility, and wisdom.
Most leaders treat strategy like fast food — quick, cheap, satisfying — but eventually, it clogs the system.
Wisdom, not process, is the antidote.
Because wisdom adjusts when the context changes. It knows when to act, when to wait, and when to throw out the plan.
Strategy detached from wisdom turns manipulative.
Wisdom detached from strategy turns passive.
The sweet spot is discernment — knowing what fits this moment, this team, this terrain.
Working With It
Name your toxins. Which old strategies, buzzwords, or habits still shape your behavior? Call them out.
Stop adding new poison. Quit reaching for the next model until you’ve learned from the last one.
Purge the residue. Clear out systems, meetings, and rituals that no longer serve purpose.
Rebuild metabolism. Cultivate wisdom — the ability to see the whole, not just the next play.
Questions Worth Asking
What if the sickness isn’t failure — it’s the strategy itself?
What has my last “win” actually cost me?
Where am I overcomplicating to avoid honesty?
How do I know when a strategy’s time has passed?
Field Truth
Strategy works… until it doesn’t.
Wisdom keeps working.
