So, your company’s cooking up a shiny new strategy.
You’ve sat through all the workshops, played along with the sticky notes, nodded through the alignment exercises, and endured the buzzword tsunami brought in by the consultancy squad.
Fast forward a couple months: they unveil … The Deck.
It’s slick. It’s branded.
It’s got a comms plan, key messages, talking points, and, wait for it…
An infographic that makes it all look like one big, beautiful jigsaw puzzle where every department magically fits.
And now it’s your turn.
You and your fellow senior leaders have been prepped, polished, and practically spoon-fed on how to deliver this masterpiece downstream.
There’s even a townhall starring the CEO, with supporting roles for each SLT member.
Flawless in rehearsal. But then comes real life.
You walk into your team meeting, armed with the script and the storyline.
And within five minutes, you’re thinking…
Can I just call the consultant in to do this part?
Because your team?
They’re asking the real questions. The awkward ones. The ones that weren’t in the FAQ.
And your answers?
Shrugs. Guesses. The classic “we’ll get back to you.”
Welcome to Black Hole #1:
No one actually knows what this means on the ground.
Even worse, your team sits through the townhall like extras in a movie.
No raised hands. No controversy. Just polite applause and internal eye-rolls (with cameras off, of course).
They’ll save the real questions for Slack. Or more likely, just carry on as they were.
Long story short… The strategy never lands.
It soars up there, 30,000 feet above sea level, all vision and mission and transformation… but by the time it tries to enter the atmosphere of everyday work? It burns up. Total meteor disintegration.
Why does strategy burn up on re-entry?
Because somewhere between “department” and “actual human being,” the strategy loses its GPS signal.
Your people might see how Marketing or Ops fits into the plan.
But their team?
The five of them working on frontline product updates? Or internal systems cleanup?
Not so much.
And themselves, as individuals? Forget it.
They can’t measure if they’re aligned.
They don’t know how to course-correct.
They can’t tie their efforts to the big picture.
So they revert to what they know. Which is: last quarter’s priorities, old habits, and avoiding risk.
So what do you get?
A great strategy that looks brilliant on paper.
A leadership team that thinks they’ve communicated it well.
A workforce that nods, but doesn’t change.
Let’s pause here. Because this is where it usually ends. But it doesn’t have to.
Every strategy worth its salt requires change. Real change. And that’s not just a leadership comms problem—it’s a change management problem.
And here’s the truth: we don’t work with individual teams enough to make strategy real. We assume it’ll trickle down. It doesn’t. A top-down approach is not enough.
This is where most organisations fail.
But not anymore.
The missing link = bottom-up activation
Strategy shifts require both top-down clarity and bottom-up activation. That second part—the activation at the team level—is where things break. And worse? We drop it in the laps of middle managers and expect them to run with it.
Here’s a hard question:
How many times in their careers have your middle managers led a team through a strategy shift—and done it successfully?
How much support have they had to actually do it well?
If your answer is “not many” or “none”—you’re not alone. It’s an unfair ask.
That’s where we come in.
Art of Teams lives here. This is our zone. Not in the strategy design, but in the strategy delivery—where the team meets the change, and either adopts it or quietly resists it until it fades.
We’ve built a repeatable process for making strategy real at the team level:
Aligning every team to the strategy in a way that makes sense to them
Engaging people early so they take ownership
Equipping them to act, not just wait for instructions
Building habits that make change stick
Tracking progress in ways that are visible, motivating, and sustainable
We help teams get started, get focused, and get results—faster than ever before.
The cost of inaction vs activating your teams
Why does it matter?
Because this is what happens when you leave it to chance:
→ A housing association launched a new strategy focused on community-led service transformation. Execs were excited, the launch materials were sharp, and messaging was clear. But at the team level? Confusion. Managers weren’t sure how to translate the plan. Frontline staff didn’t see how their roles fit. Within months, progress stalled and energy faded. The strategy quietly drifted off course.
And this is what happens when it works:
→ A global tech company used our process to activate their strategy across 10 teams. Within 30 days, 9 of those teams had created their own “line of sight” plans linking their work directly to the company’s new strategic pillars. Team leads reported sharper priorities, increased ownership, and stronger collaboration. Within a quarter, leaders could see measurable traction across the department — and the strategy was no longer just a vision, it was visible momentum.
Don't let your next strategy burn up on re-entry. Make it land. And make it last.
Imagine walking into your next SLT meeting saying, “My teams have got it. They’re aligned, and we’re already seeing results.” With Art of Teams, that's not just a vision - it's your reality.
Ready to see how we can activate your strategy at the team level, quickly and effectively?
Let's connect for a brief 30-minute call. We'll walk you through our repeatable process and explore how it can transform your team's strategic execution.
Share this post