How to stay ahead of the rapid pace of change, registration for an upcoming Higher Ed strategy panel, and more.
Welcome to the 43rd edition of The Pulse, your bi-weekly newsletter of Insights for Strategy Leaders. Today's edition is a good one, I'm fired up, so let's jump in!
And for our leaders in 🎓Higher Education🎓, make sure to check out our upcoming panel event on May 20th!
In this edition:
- 🌎 On The Brink of a New Era in Strategy Execution
- 📆 May 20th: Higher Education Strategy Panel
- 🎬 Recording: Aligning Project Management with Strategic Goals
- ➡️ Subscribe via LinkedIn ⬅️
Read time: 8 minutes (yes I'm fired up!)
🌎 On The Brink of a New Era in Strategy Execution
If the past few years have taught us anything, it’s the importance of having a dynamic and proactive approach to Strategic Planning and Execution.
The pace and frequency of macroeconomic changes has driven Strategy and Operations Leaders to push the envelope and rethink the way they’ve traditionally gone about Planning to account for this globally connected environment.
This desire to innovate and rethink legacy processes is yielding incredible results that highlight the dynamism that is now required of great Strategy and Operations Leaders.
This period of rapid change has created a fertile ground for innovation—and Strategy and Operations teams are leading the way.
Many of us were drawn to this field because we love solving complex problems, uncovering opportunities where others see obstacles. And it’s been exciting to watch Strategy and Operations Leaders rise to the occasion, helping their organizations make faster, smarter decisions.
But that doesn’t mean it’s been easy. Gaining buy-in across Leadership for a new approach to strategy is still a challenge for many.
The world is moving faster. 🌎 Can we afford to stand still?
I remember when you didn’t have to bring your laptop home from work, if you even had one (shoutout to desktops). Maybe you had email on your phone, but work and home life still felt separate.
Today that line is barely recognizable. Everything has sped up, and so has the pace of change around us.
Luckily, Strategy and Operations teams have new tools to help process information faster and keep up with the pace. Yet even as we embrace this evolution, others in leadership may hesitate switching from the status quo.
And when they resist? It often comes down to one question:
Is the change worth it? 🤔
They worry about the time it takes to shift behaviors, the disruption to operating cadences, or the friction of introducing new software.
But instead of asking whether the change is worth it, we should be asking:
What is the cost of not changing?
In a world that’s only moving faster, standing still isn’t a safe choice. It’s a risk.
Today, I want to share three ways Strategy and Operations Leaders are reframing this conversation internally from “Why do we need to change?” to “How can we afford not to?”
1. What Is Our Strategy? (Alignment)
If you walked around your office and asked employees about your company’s strategy for the year, what answers would you get?
Or if you dropped the question into Slack, would you hear a consistent response?
For many organizations, the answer is… uncomfortable.
After the annual kickoff and maybe a few quarterly meetings, strategy often fades into the background. It’s tucked away in spreadsheets, buried in decks, or trapped in project management tools focused on tasks, not outcomes.
Because of this disconnect between a strategy that is literally defining the path to success for your organization, and the visibility of it to employees, it’s no wonder why misalignment is one of the biggest obstacles to dynamic strategy execution.
A static plan doesn’t drive alignment. It doesn’t give employees a clear view of what we’re trying to accomplish or why it matters.
It's on us to change that. We need to create real visibility and a shared understanding of our goals.
Why? Because it gives us three critical advantages:
- It shifts the culture from transactional tasks (activity) to purposeful work (outcomes).
- It allows for intervention. If we can’t see what’s happening, we can’t act. More on this soon.
- It increases our pace of decision-making.
This last one is vital.
A dynamic strategy needs a WIDE top-of-funnel—capturing signals, surfacing opportunities, spotting risks early.
And when the strategic plan lives in a single, unified view? Leaders can act faster, employees can align their work more effectively and understand what it means for them.
Which brings us to the next question…
2. Why Does It Matter? (Defining Priority)
If your CEO has ever popped into your office and asked, “What are our employees actually working on right now?” 🗣️ ... you’re not alone.
I can say that because, as a CEO myself, I know we’re guilty of these flyby questions that seem to minimize the effort and value of our teams.
To reframe what I think (hope) most CEOs are truly asking with this question it is, “Do our employees know what our priorities are as an organization?”
And more often than not, the answer is no. And it’s not because people aren’t working hard. It’s because they aren’t always clear on what matters most.
Employees want to do meaningful work. They want to know they are working on the right things. They want to know their efforts align with company goals. And they want to feel empowered to prioritize the right things, and say no to the wrong ones.
Most employees understand that strategy is evolving, it changes based on market dynamics, learnings from different initiatives, or even over-performing against goals.
Yet without clear, evolving priorities, people default to what they were originally told. Or worse, what feels urgent at the moment. And it can be incredibly frustrating.
This misalignment leads to what I call Priority Fatigue.
While priority fatigue might be caused by the sheer volume of work, more often than not, it stems from work without clarity, and without visible impact.
As Strategy and Operations Leaders, part of rethinking strategy execution is ensuring employees can answer, ‘Why does this matter?’
Without that, even the best-laid strategies struggle to get traction.
3. How Do We Intervene? (Rethinking Reporting)
With a unified view of our strategy (visibility) that helps employees focus on the right work (prioritization), we have the foundation for a dynamic strategy.
But what brings it to life?
Intervention.
It’s one thing to set a plan and cascade objectives that are aligned with our Themes and Operating Outcomes.
It’s another to proactively recognize when adjustments are needed… and act on them. 💢
Because the truth is: No strategic plan survives contact with reality unchanged.
Every plan needs to evolve. Some goals will over-perform. Some will fall behind. That’s normal.
What matters is how we respond and intervene.
And as Strategy and Operations Leaders, this is where we truly shine. 🌟
It’s what elevates us from talking a big game, to showing what it truly looks like to execute a strategy at the highest level. And one of the best ways to do this is to rethink the way we go about reporting and collaborating as a Leadership team.
Unfortunately, traditional reporting rhythms often make real intervention harder, not easier. Leaders spend hours gathering static/outdated metrics, chasing status updates in one off-convos, or sitting through meetings that feel more like a status roll-call than a strategic discussion.
What happens? Well, we either don’t do it, or have a response that sounds something like, “Will you just update it for me? I don’t have time because of [insert example xyz].”
This diminished importance on the report from every Leader sets the tone for the entire meeting where the report is reviewed.
Yet the real impact is felt across employees, because they are the ones that we can better serve.
If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone.
And it doesn’t have to be this way.
The best Strategy and Operations Leaders are ruthlessly focused about reporting on:
- What's happening
- Why it matters
- What to do about it
Solutions like Elate (yes, I have to say it) make this easier, helping teams:
- Consolidate updates into simple workflows in Slack, Teams, or Email. Outcomes are pulled in from tools, they just need to add subjectivity to the objective data.
- Place signals throughout the organization that allows us to help our team members. Surface insights so we can now focus on supporting the folks bringing our strategy to life.
- Hold leaders accountable to a proactive, visible operating rhythm. If leaders won’t own reporting rhythms, no one else will.
Behavior change is hard, but it’s necessary. And it’s worth it. I guarantee it.
A Final Thought: The Risk of Standing Still
Dynamic strategy execution isn’t just a competitive advantage anymore. It’s the status quo. And soon, it’ll be a survival skill.
The organizations that will thrive in this era aren’t the ones asking “Why change?” They’re the ones asking “How can we afford not to?”
Much of this is driven by the rapid increase in pace at a global level. Policy changes, AI, and countless other drivers have created a unique moment in the history of Strategy and Operations that opens the door to rethinking the way organizations plan for the future while executing day-to-day.
At Elate, we’ve been privileged to work alongside Strategy and Operations Leaders driving this transformation. Leaders turning vision into execution, and execution into outcomes.
These are the types of conversations we are so passionate about at Elate. If this resonated with you, or if you’d be interested in setting aside time to connect and learn more about what we are seeing in the strategy space, don’t hesitate to reach out. My email (brooks@goelate.com) is always open!
📆 Higher Education Strategy Panel - May 20th
Strategic Planning in higher education has never been more important. Nor has it been more complex.
On May 20th at 2:00 PM EST, we’re bringing together Strategy and Operations Leaders from institutions across North America to explore how colleges and universities are adapting their planning efforts to meet today’s evolving challenges, and where they see opportunity for impact.
In addition, we'll hear learnings and lessons from our panel during their careers in strategy, and have a live Q&A session to round it out.
Whether you’re in higher ed or just passionate about strategic leadership, this will be a conversation you won’t want to miss. All registrants will get the recording.
🎬 Aligning Project Management with Strategic Goals Session (Recording)
Thanks to the many of you that joined our team for the session on connecting PM with strategy. It was our highest attended webinar and the feedback was great.
If you missed it, here is a link to the recording.
Abby Parker and Zane Anderson unpacked:
- The distinct roles of project management and strategic planning
- Why task-tracking tools fail strategy (and what to do instead)
- How to move from checklist-driven work → outcome-based execution
- A first look at Elate’s new Tactics Integration 👀
And a powerful Q&A to round it out.
Thanks for making it this far... have a great rest of your week.
Brooks
