Do You Have Too Much Strategy?

Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.

  Communications Management   Leadership   Organizational Culture   Strategy  

Business and leadership author Peter Drucker famously said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” It’s the idea that without the people in the organization engaging and driving how the business operates, there’s no way to succeed. With so many organizations are failing to execute their strategies successfully, maybe the problem goes beyond the strategy.

In recent years, organizations have attempted to improve the strategy execution numbers with a greater focus on integrating planning, delivery and benefits realization. That’s led to the growth of everything from strategic portfolio management concepts and enterprise agility to greater project team empowerment and autonomy.

But has there been as much focus on the culture side of things — the human piece? Many organizations will claim to have multiple initiatives designed to drive a culture of engagement and make the business somewhere that people enjoy working. But is it working? Do they even have real initiatives that do anything? Gallup’s found that only 32% of U.S. employees engaged in early 2022 (and 17% actively disengaged). A similar global survey by Gallup suggests that the numbers in other regions may be worse.

Total people alignment

Let’s start with that word culture. Now, some 15 plus years after Drucker said it, it’s a term that is much more common in …

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