Why Most Meetings Suck–and 5 Things You Can Do to Make Sure Yours Don’t

You can’t run a company without meetings. Unfortunately, most meetings are poorly run. Here are five things to make yours better.

As I grew my business from a team of three people to a five-time Inc. 5000 company, I became overwhelmed by the number of meetings I was in. Not a day went by that I didn’t have at least one meeting, and not infrequently, I was in meetings all day. The only meetings worse than the ones I attended were the meetings I ran. I had no clue what I was doing and it showed.

At one point, I decided that if I was going to grow and scale my business, I needed to take the bull by the horns and learn how to run better meetings. After dozens of books, articles, videos, podcasts, and two workshops, I began to understand how to run better meetings that were both effective and efficient.

Here are my top five takeaways you can use to run great meetings with your teams:

1. Have an agenda.

Every meeting needs an agenda. This includes what the goal or purpose of the meeting is and the key points to be discussed. If you don’t have an agenda at the start of the meeting, creating one is your first point of order.

Ideally you have an agenda that is published before the meeting. The agenda should state the goal, the key points, who’s attending, start/stop times, and location. Additional information might include any background information that needs to be read before the meeting, notes from previous meetings, time frames for each topic, owners of each topic, and ground rules.

2. Use a facilitator.

Having a good facilitator is a game changer. A facilitator’s sole job is to make sure that the meeting is run well by keeping the group focused on the topic, balancing the conversation so everyone’s voice is heard, keeping the group on time, and capturing the key points and decisions that are made.

A facilitator is a neutral party and focuses on guiding the meeting. They can ask questions to stimulate group discussion, remind people of ground rules so debate stays healthy and productive, and keep people on point and on time.

3. Start on time, end on time.

Starting meetings on time is critical. My rule is that meetings start at the published time, regardless of who’s there and who’s not.

In severe cases, I might set a rule that if you’re not there by the start time, you can’t join. I encourage people to get to meetings five minutes early. A fish stinks from the head, so if you’re the CEO or a key executive, set the example.

Finishing meetings is just as important. In many cases, people have back-to-back meetings, so I try to end five minutes early. People will love coming to your meetings when they know they start on time and end early.

4. Set good ground rules.

Ground rules define agreed upon behavior and processes that make the meeting more effective. These can be little rules like one conversation at a time or more significant rules like everything said in this meeting is confidential. Your ground rules set the stage for greater engagement, sharing, and productivity.

Start each meeting by quickly reviewing established ground rules and encouraging people to suggest new rules for the team to consider. Rules might cover how the team is engaging in conversation, topics which are on/off the table, how to deal with specific situations, and what happens before and after the meeting.

5. Keep a parking lot.

A parking lot is a place where you can “park” ideas or topics that come up during the meeting that are outside of the current agenda item(s). Flag anything that comes up which is off topic but important to address, and write it down in the parking lot and return to your original discussion. Then, later, come back to the parking lot and discuss how to resolve those items.

Here’s the trick with the parking lot: You need to be sure to address the items by the end of the meeting. You don’t need to resolve them, but you need to show that there is a plan in place to resolve them. Otherwise, people won’t trust the parking lot and they will continue to interrupt and speak over others to make sure their points are addressed.

Better meetings mean better decisions will be made, faster, and with less drama. These five are the basics, but there are many more practices that you can, and should, adopt. Become a student of of the topic and continuously review and refine your approach. It’s an investment with exceptional returns.

Most Business Leaders Spend Too Much Time Looking for Problems. Here’s What to Look for Instead

While it’s completely natural to look for problems, it’s not always the best approach if you want to improve your work environment and results.

Just about all of the leaders I work with are chronic problem solvers. They love to search for things that are broken, need improvement, and present risks, and then they love to try and fix them. Much of the time this does, in fact, deliver value to the organization. But not always. Like many tools, if overused, being overly-focused on problem hunting has some liability.

First, people who are overly-focused on finding problems are also typically tinkers. They like to go in and make changes to try to get improvements. However, they often make changes that have broader impacts that end up creating more problems than they solve. At best it’s net neutral, but it often makes things worse.

Second, if you look hard enough at any situation, you’ll always find lots of problems. Problems are never ending. And if you focus all of your time and energy on pointing out problems, you’ll create a tough culture for your colleagues. Nobody wants to be surrounded by people who are pointing out everything that is wrong or not good enough.

So, how do you avoid creating a culture where people are creating more problems than they are solving and bringing everyone down in the process?

When working with teams and companies, I suggest they strike a healthy balance between focusing on things that are working as well as things that are not working. My rule is at least half the time should be spent identifying and acknowledging those things that are going well and talking about how they keep them going well.

Here are a few things you can do to increase the amount of time and focus you spend on the things that are going well.

1. Start every meeting with wins.

I start every meeting by having each person mention one win they had recently. The goal here is to find and focus on things that are going well for people. It sets a positive tone for the meeting. It also lets other people know what was successful, and it can inspire people with new ideas and models for solving other problems.

2. Do a Root Success Analysis.

Many people do Root Cause Analysis when they are dealing with a problem. The goal here is to dig underneath the problem to find the source problem and fix it so that it never happens again.

Root Success Analysis is similar but the opposite. Here we want to identify something that is working well and then ask the all important question of “Why?” Ideally we should ask the question four to five times until we get at the root source of the success. Then we want to make sure we keep doing it and find other ways of repeating that success.

3. Define your core capabilities.

Francis Frei, Harvard Business School professor and co-author of the book Uncommon Service, says the key to strategy is defining what you are willing to “suck” at in your business. The idea is that in order to compete, you need to select one or two attributes that you are going to be the absolute best at in your market. These are your core capabilities. However, since resources are limited, you need to be willing to suck at everything else.

Knowing your core capabilities becomes a very powerful tool when it comes to problems solving. Knowing them means that not all problems, are in fact problems you care about. You only care about the ones that directly impact your core capabilities because they impact your strategy.

4. Create a “keep” list.

In any meeting or review, it’s easy to create a list of things you want to change and fix. Do this, but also create a list of things you need to “keep” as well. Too often, when you go into fix one thing you end up breaking something that’s working well. Creating a “keep” list draws your attention to the things that are creating value and reduces the chance that you accidently make that changes something for the worse.

By bringing attention to the successful parts of the business, you are doing two things. First, you are decreasing the likelihood that someone will accidentally make a change to something that’s working well. Second, you are creating a culture of positivity and optimism. Both of these initiatives will have significant impacts on your overall success.

Is Your Team Overwhelmed by Emails? Try These 12 Rules for Better Emailing

While many businesses are switching to collaboration tools, email hasn’t gone away. Here are a dozen ways to make it more productive.

As a team coach, I’m focused on elevating the performance and results of the organizations I work with. And regardless of whether it’s leadership, management, or project teams, communication is critical to their effectiveness. Unfortunately, email tends to be an area that generates a lot of problems and drama for these teams.

The problem with email is that it’s easy to send a lot of information and create a lot of work for everyone else. Here are twelve rules I generally suggest teams adopt to reduce the number of emails, make them more effective tools for communications, and help people prioritize and manage their inboxes.

1. Don’t email when a phone call will do.

If you can pick up the phone and have a conversation, do that. Anything that is not a simple yes/no will require some back and forth and it’s better to that by phone than a long email thread. And if someone is just down the hall, a short walk is better than typing.

2. Stick to one topic or issue per email.

I generally suggest one issue or topic per email so that people can reply with just that answer or response. This way, you’ll get faster responses since the person is not waiting to pull together all of the answers before they reply.

3. Only put people in the “TO” field who need to respond.

Only put the people who need to be directly addressed or need to reply in the top line. And think twice about who you put in there and if they can be excluded or just CC’d. I assume that if I’m in the “TO” I need to read and reply.

4. CC everyone else who just needs to know.

For anyone who just needs to know about the email or needs a copy of it for their records, put them in the CC field. By separating these out, you’ll help people prioritize what they need to read and reply to.

5. Make reading CC emails optional.

Make reading CC emails optional or at least low priority. Create filters that put CC’d emails into a separate folder and skim once a week.

6. Don’t hijack emails.

It drives me nuts when some replies to an email with an unrelated topic or issue. Even if it’s related but a different thread, make an new subject line or start a fresh email.

7. If you have a lot to say, start with a summary.

If your email is going to have in-depth details, lists, and background, then start your email with a short summary that includes what actions need to be taken. Long emails will not be read right away, but a summary might.

8. Name people who you want to respond.

When you need specific people to respond with answers or decisions, make sure to call those people out by name with a clear description with what you need from them. Ideally list the call to actions on separate lines so they can reply inline.

9. Confirm receipts with reply timeframes.

If you get an email but can’t reply to it right away, send a note saying you got it along with anything you can give or share at that moment as well as a timeframe for when you’ll finish your reply. Don’t leave emails hanging out there for more than 24 hours if you can avoid it.

10. Include documents as attachments (unless they are huge).

If you have documents, attach them rather than sending links. Many people have emails downloaded to their phones and tablets which don’t have internet connections and they will be unable to see the information offline. If the documents are extremely large, consider attaching the key pages with links to the full documents.

11. Use numbered lists with more than three items.

When you’re listing items or points, use numbers when it’s greater than three. This allows people to refer to the points in replies or other conversations. It also helps you see how many things you’re including which can help you to prioritize.

12. Set no-email hours for your team.

Emails can be very encroaching on personal lives. If people on your team have a habit of emailing at crazy hours, set up “no email” times where people agree to not send emails or cannot reply to emails. Create fun penalties for people who break the rules. Giving people time off email will prevent fatigue and burnout.

While there are many more rules you can, and should, consider, these are my top twelve recommendations that will help you and your team get your emails under control and your inbox to zero more often.

Want to Improve Your Business Strategy? Consider These 12 External Factors

Too many companies create their strategy in a vacuum. To be successful, you need to consider and react to these external factors.

If you want to grow quickly and successfully, you need a solid plan that positions you well in the market and gives you plenty of business opportunities. Strategy is fundamentally about how you are going to respond to what’s happening in your market and what your competitors are doing. If you’re only looking at what’s happening inside your company, you’ll miss the bigger picture and many of the great opportunities–and risks–that are out there.

Developing strategy is one of the main things I do with leadership teams as we plan for how they are going to scale and grow their businesses. When we conduct our strategy sessions, we start with a broad assessment of the external factors that we need to look at. From these, we can pull insights, predictions, patterns, and trends that are going to play key roles in the decisions we make about where we go.

1. Customers

Knowing what’s happening in your customers’ business and having insight into their market is critical. Ask them how things are going, what they are worried about, what their big plans are, and where they are investing their time and energy. Look at your best customers and worst customer and see what they are doing differently.

2. Prospects

Beyond your current customers, what are your prospects doing? Try to understand why they are the not buying, what else are they buying, and how it is different from your product or service. Look at what criteria they are using to make decisions and what channels they are buying through. See if you can develop insights into what’s preventing them from buying.

3. Direct competitors

Knowing what your competitors are doing is critical. Have they launched or announced new products or services, made key hires, or opened new locations? One of the best sources of this information is the people who have recently left said companies. If you’re connected to someone who just left, take them out to lunch and see what you can learn.

4. Indirect competitors

Too many teams only focus on direct competitors. Instead, you need to consider all of the options your customers and prospects have to solve their problems. Don’t forget that coping with the situation is a viable option for some of your current and prospective customers. Knowing the options that these people are considering is key to positioning.

5. Markets

Knowing what’s happening in your local market is critical. And if you’re in multiple markets, this is even more important because it’s easy to become blind to local conditions that might impact your business. Understand what’s happening on the ground in the place you do business.

6. Industry

Stay aware of shifts in your industry that will impact you and your business. If everyone else is moving staff from 1099s to full time hires, this will impact access to talent and the expectations of your potential employees.

7. Technology

Staying current with the changes in the underlying technology and the infrastructure of your industry is critical. Many companies have gone belly up or been swooped up in acquisitions because they missed a key shift in technical trends. These tend to happen quickly, so suss them out early.

8. Labor

If you’re a growing company, access to good talent is critical. Understand what’s happening with salaries, benefits, and who else is competing for the same people you are. If labor is tight or expensive, it will hinder your growth and cut into your margins.

9. Economic

Macro issues like interest rates and general economic growth will impact the business environment. But you should also pay attention to how these impact your specific industry. For example, interest rates will impact real estate, which will hit construction, which means building supplies will be less in-demand.

10. Political

Politics define policy which can have a significant impact on business conditions. New regulations or changes to existing ones can make or break businesses. Make sure to look beyond national politics; pay attention to state and local issues because hese can often fly under the radar.

11. Cultural

Trends and movements can change customer expectations, behaviors, and priorities. And sometimes this happens more quickly than we anticipate. Companies that respond quickly can take advantage of the slower competitors and gain market share.

12. Social

While there are others you can, and should, consider that are unique to you business, these twelve factors are a good starting point. By collecting what you know about each of these you’ll be better informed and will make better, more insightful choices about the strategic moves you plan to make. Good teams look at all of these on a regular basis to catch changes that can have a big impact on the business and help them take advantage of opportunities and avoid pitfalls.

An Introverts’ Guide to Networking Events. It’s Not as Hard as You Might Think

While being an introvert can make networking events more business than pleasure, it doesn’t need to be difficult.

I’ve been a consultant and entrepreneur for over two decades and networking has undoubtedly been the key to my success. Ironically, I test off the charts as an introvert. And while I have approached networking differently than a natural extrovert, I’ve found ways to be extremely effective in these social situations.

Networking is critical to most professional careers. If you’re in a sales or business development role, networking is central to your ability to develop relationships and leads. But even if your primary responsibility is not lead generation, networking will have a significant impact on your success.

Networks give you access to information, resources, knowledge, and most importantly, talent. One of the best ways to find candidates for open positions is your professional network. And when you need freelancers or service providers, your network can provide you with names and recommendations.

There are many ways to network, but the most common and often most productive is the tried and true networking event. This could be a one off event some evening after work or a cocktail hour at a longer conference or industry gathering. Either way, these types of situations provide a good opportunity to meet many people in a short amount of time, if you approach it correctly.

Here are the strategies I’ve developed over the years and the ones I coach my clients on when they want to make the most of an event.

1. Set a specific goal to achieve.

As an introvert, I don’t naturally work a room. I’d rather find someone interesting and sit in the corner and talk. To motivate me, I set a reasonable goal to kick start me into meeting people. It could be as simple collecting 20 business cards or meeting three of the speakers. The goal gives me purpose and helps me make decisions and take actions.

2. Prepare yourself mentally and physically.

I suggest that introverted people prepare both mentally and physically for the event. If I’ve been at work or conference proceeding all day and then head straight to a happy hour, I run out of steam quickly. Instead, I’ll sneak in a workout, go for a long walk, or just find a quiet corner and grab some down time. By “pre-charging” for big social events, I give myself the energy I need to be successful at them.

3. Have a few opening lines ready.

Starting a conversation can be difficult in many social situations. Fortunately, events come with some context that make openings a little easier to develop. I like to have 3-5 general open-ended questions in my back pocket that are specific to the situation. “What did you think of so-and-so’s talk?” or “Did you come to last year’s event?” are great examples of openers that can kick-start the conversation.

4. Work the room to meet new people.

Too many times I see people meeting someone early in the event and then speaking with him or her the entire time. Networking events are great opportunities to meet lots of new people. Focus on moving through three steps: building rapport, making a connection, and setting a reason to follow up (my go to is to send them an article). I generally spend between 3-5 minutes per person to get these. Once I set a reason to follow up with them after the event, I move on to meet someone new.

5. Give yourself a break.

If you’re an introvert, you’ll need some downtime. If an event is more than two hours, I often plan a 10-15 minute break about half way. I might call and check in with my kids or just find a place to relax for bit. Be sure to set a specific time for when you’ll jump back in so you don’t convince yourself to call it a day.

6. Follow up on your commitments.

After the event, be sure to follow up with everyone and mention the items you agreed to. I try to do this by the end of the day or first thing the next day. You don’t need to do the follow up itself, but definitely touch base with them and set expectations for the follow up you mentioned in the conversation. If I promised to send them an article, my email would just tell them I’ll send it to them by the end of the week or by some date. Many times this is a better approach since it allows me to email them again which, in turn, builds more connection.

Just because you’re not a natural extrovert doesn’t mean you can’t handle a social event like a networking pro. In fact, by using these techniques, you can often get more accomplished in less time than someone who can close the bar. You’ll also feel much better the next morning.

You Can Set Many Types of Quarterly Objectives. Here Are 5 Types That Work the Best

Many team struggle with setting effective quarterly objectives. Here are five types that will create better alignment and simplify implementation.

The core of my role as a leadership team coach is to help my clients set strong objectives each quarter that advance the companies growth strategy and critical capabilities. Without these, they only focus their time and energy on the day-to-day demands of the business. Powerful objectives align the team and create urgency and progress on long-term goals.

However, when I walk into many teams, the objectives they’ve set are often vague, lack key details, and don’t serve to focus and align the team. Generally this results in lackluster performance and frustration with progress. With a few revisions and an understanding of what makes good objectives, these pitfalls can often be avoided.

Here are five types of objectives, and examples of each, that I find work best for driving results. If you’re having difficulty with your objectives, use these examples to fix them.

1. Completion

When you have an initiative or project to finish, use a completion objective. The key with completion objectives is to define what your “definition of done” is and to set a clear date. Here are three examples,

Allow new affiliate partners to sign up via the website by October 1st

Route all new customer service calls into the new CRM system by August 15th

Complete and deliver all senior executive 360 feedback reports by June 1st

2. Proficiency

Use this objective strategy for when you want to raise the bar on performance for a specific capability in the company and keep it there. For proficiency goals, select a specific performance indicator (how to measure) and a target (the number you want to achieve).

Increase the customer service NPS above 0.25

Get inventory level under 90 day inventory turn

Finish weekly leadership team meeting in under 55 minutes

3. Reduction or elimination

If you’re trying to reduce or eliminate something in the business, use this approach. This one is similar to proficiency but opposite since there is a lower limit your trying to get to.

Eliminate all returns due to missing shipping address information

Have zero accidents on the shop floor due to liquid spills

Get same-day employee call-outs to zero

4. Run rate

With run rate objectives we’re focused on an absolute number or volume, rather than a proficiency standard or ratio. We want to set a target rate and keep it there going forward. By focusing on rates rather than one total number, we focus on the system that needs to be put in place, not just creating a one-time win.

Increase our inbound lead rate to 25 qualified leads per week

Improve sales in the northeast to $750,000/month

Publish three new white papers per week

5. Composition

Sometimes you want to change a ratio in the business. With these goals, there is usually a range you’re targeting with a high and a low. You want to achieve a specific balance, not set a bar to overcome and exceed. Numbers that are too high or too low are both undesirable.

Have 20-25 percent of new clients be small businesses

Spend two to four hours a week on learning and development activities

Keep two to three days of inventory on the top 20 best selling products

Don’t over complicate your quarterly planning process. Pick three to five things to focus for the coming ninety days and leave everything else for later. It’s far more productive to complete a handful of goals in a quarter than to get halfway on twice as many initiatives. And by focusing on these five types of objectives, you’ll simplify your planning even more and accelerate your grow even faster.

Your Company Needs an Exit Blueprint—Even If You Never Sell It

How thinking like a buyer of your own company creates better strategic decisions—even when you never plan to sell.

After scaling my software development company to the Inc. 500 list for five consecutive years and successfully executing an exit, I’ve spent the past decade coaching several dozen companies, and hundreds of founders and CEOs, on the topic of successfully scaling their businesses. A consistent theme that’s emerged from my work is how those who think systematically about buyer appeal build stronger, more profitable businesses.

The discipline of evaluating decisions through this lens creates what I call an exit blueprint—clear criteria for building sustainable value that benefits current operations regardless of future ownership plans. Here’s how to use it.

1. Why the buyer perspective sharpens strategic thinking

Sophisticated buyers evaluate systematic capabilities that create sustainable competitive advantages. When you apply this same analytical framework to your strategic decisions, you naturally focus on building genuine business strength rather than optimizing for short-term convenience.

Consider how buyers evaluate management teams. They want leadership capabilities that drive results independently, systematic decision-making processes, and performance accountability that doesn’t rely on founder oversight. When you use these criteria to evaluate your current operations, you immediately identify opportunities to strengthen organizational capabilities that serve your business today.

The buyer lens also reveals strategic blind spots that emerge from being too close to daily operations. External investors evaluate market position, competitive differentiation, and growth sustainability with objectivity that isn’t easy to maintain when managing day-to-day challenges. Adopting this perspective helps you see your business more clearly and make better strategic choices.

2. Financial decisions through buyer criteria

Buyers scrutinize financial systems with institutional-grade standards that go beyond basic profitability. They want predictable revenue streams, transparent reporting, detailed unit economics, and cash flow patterns that support strategic decision-making. When you develop these financial capabilities for your own strategic purposes, you create more effective tools for managing growth and investment decisions.

This buyer-level financial discipline typically improves business performance because it requires systematic approaches that drive operational excellence. Clean accounting practices, regular financial analysis, and performance measurement systems not only satisfy due diligence requirements—they also enable data-driven strategic decisions that enhance competitive positioning.

The buyer perspective also guides investment choices by distinguishing between expenses that build lasting competitive advantages and those that solve immediate problems. When you evaluate significant expenditures against systematic value creation criteria, you naturally make better choices about technology, staffing, and market expansion.

3. Operational excellence as a strategic advantage

Buyers pay premium valuations for businesses that operate systematically rather than depending on founder involvement in daily decisions. This operational independence creates strategic advantages for continuing owners by enabling faster growth, easier delegation, and more strategic time allocation.

Process documentation becomes obvious when viewed through buyer criteria, but the operational benefits extend beyond exit preparation. Systematic processes enable consistent quality delivery, faster employee onboarding, confident delegation, and scalable growth without proportional increases in management complexity.

The buyer framework also improves team development decisions. Instead of hiring people who complement your specific skills, you focus on building management capabilities that drive results independently while maintaining cultural alignment and strategic focus. This approach creates stronger organizational capabilities, whether you stay or eventually transition ownership.

4. Growth strategy through external perspective

Thinking like a buyer of your own company transforms how you approach growth opportunities and strategic planning. Buyers evaluate market position, competitive differentiation, and expansion potential with systematic rigor that improves strategic decision-making for any ownership scenario.

This external perspective helps you identify genuine competitive advantages versus operational conveniences that don’t create lasting value. When you evaluate growth investments against buyer-level criteria for market sustainability and defensible positioning, you make better choices about which opportunities deserve significant resource allocation.

The buyer lens reveals strategic risks that could compromise future optionality or current performance. Systematic evaluation of customer concentration, vendor dependencies, and operational vulnerabilities improves business resilience while addressing concerns that sophisticated buyers examine during evaluation processes.

5. Strategic clarity through systematic criteria

The most successful founders I work with use buyer-level thinking to create their exit blueprint—clear criteria for evaluating strategic decisions that build sustainable value over time. This systematic approach prevents strategic drift that occurs when founders make choices based on immediate pressures rather than long-term value creation principles.

This framework improves team alignment because everyone understands the criteria that guide significant choices. Your leadership team can make confident decisions independently when they know the systematic standards that determine strategic priorities and resource allocation.

The buyer perspective creates genuine strategic flexibility by building businesses that could thrive under multiple ownership structures. Whether you ultimately choose to sell, bring in strategic partners, or continue growing independently, systematic value creation serves your long-term objectives while improving current business performance.

Building your exit blueprint starts with understanding how sophisticated buyers would evaluate your industry, business model, and competitive position. Use these insights to establish systematic criteria for strategic decisions, and then apply this framework consistently to major choices about growth, investment, and operational development.

Why You Should Think Like a Startup With Nothing to Lose

Most established companies struggle to innovate, not because they lack smart people, but because their own success traps them.

As a strategic coach, one of my primary objectives is to drive innovation within leadership teams. The problem is that most established companies struggle to innovate, not because they lack smart people, but because their own success traps them. Current investments, relationships, and processes create invisible constraints that limit strategic thinking and decision-making.

I’ve run a strategic innovation exercise with dozens of growth-stage teams, and the results are consistently eye-opening. The exercise is simple but uncomfortable. Teams temporarily abandon their attachment to what they’ve built and think like a startup competitor with nothing to lose. The concept comes from Clayton Christensen’s Innovator’s Dilemma. Established companies get disrupted because they’re too focused on existing customers, current investments, and established relationships. Meanwhile, startups enter unburdened by these constraints, free to reimagine how problems get solved.

Here’s how it works: I break the team into small groups, we agree on seed capital, and give them thirty minutes to develop a business plan for a startup that would take down their company. Each group presents its attack strategy, revealing vulnerabilities and opportunities. When teams stop defending and start thinking like attackers, constraints become optional, investments become liabilities, and relationships become anchors. The exercise surfaces six key areas where assumptions limit innovation.

1. Underserved segments you’re ignoring

When teams design their startup attack, they consistently discover customer segments they’ve been ignoring. Established companies naturally optimize their operations around their most profitable customers, building processes, pricing, and delivery models that cater to this core group. But this focus creates systematic blind spots around smaller segments, newer markets, or customers with different needs. The startup teams immediately identify these underserved groups because they’re not constrained by existing infrastructure or worried about cannibalizing current business. A professional services firm might realize it has ignored companies willing to spend $5,000 to $15,000 annually because all their systems are built for $50,000 clients.

2. Key talent that competitors will poach

The exercise forces uncomfortable conversations about talent vulnerability that leadership teams typically avoid. When thinking like a competitor, teams quickly identify the individuals who hold critical knowledge or capabilities. They realize that extracting just a few key individuals could replicate competitive advantages without rebuilding entire organizations. This reveals how much companies take talent stability for granted while failing to document knowledge, cross-train capabilities, or understand what makes key roles vulnerable. A manufacturing company might recognize that hiring three senior engineers would transfer its entire proprietary production process to a competitor.

3. Underutilized assets sitting idle

Teams consistently discover how much complexity they’re carrying that doesn’t drive competitive advantage. The startup attack reveals which assets, relationships, and capabilities truly matter versus those that exist merely because of historical decisions or relationship commitments. When designing the lean competitor, teams identify the minimum viable version of their business that could compete effectively. This ruthless prioritization reveals how established companies often maintain underperforming locations, carry slow-moving inventory, or service marginal accounts, simply because unwinding these commitments feels more complicated than keeping them. A distribution company might realize that a focused competitor could operate with a fraction of their warehouses, suppliers, and product lines.

4. Technology advantages you’ve ceded

The exercise surfaces how legacy technology creates competitive disadvantages that companies rationalize as acceptable. When designing the startup, teams realize that new competitors will deploy current cloud platforms, modern tools, and integrated systems that deliver superior functionality at a lower cost. This forces an honest assessment of whether defending sunk technology investments makes strategic sense or feels easier than change. Teams recognize they’ve been justifying outdated systems based on switching costs rather than competitive advantage. The gap between what customers expect and what legacy infrastructure can deliver becomes impossible to ignore. A logistics company might confront the fact that its twelve-year-old warehouse system lacks the real-time tracking and integration capabilities that competitors would launch today.

5. Thinking that’s blocking innovation

Teams discover that their current approaches persist not because they’re optimal, but because they’re familiar, and changing feels risky. The startup design reveals how competitors could challenge industry norms around pricing models, engagement structures, or service delivery that customers prefer. This shows how companies prioritize maintaining existing approaches over serving customer needs to protect operational predictability. The exercise forces an examination of which business model elements exist for internal convenience versus those that provide a competitive advantage. A financial services firm might realize clients prefer month-to-month agreements with real-time dashboards over annual contracts with quarterly reviews.

6. Operational flexibility you’ve lost

The exercise reveals how processes designed to ensure consistency have sacrificed speed and adaptability. When teams design the startup competitor, they identify which procedures exist to manage risk versus which prevent past problems that may no longer be relevant. This exposes accumulated operational weight that slows response time and limits flexibility. Teams recognize that competitors unencumbered by these procedures could move faster and adapt more readily to client needs—the gap between process as an enabler versus process as a constraint becomes clear. A software agency might realize that its structured methodology, with defined phases and approval gates, could be challenged by rapid iteration and flexible scope adjustments.

The most valuable insight isn’t just identifying vulnerabilities; it’s also understanding how to mitigate them. It’s recognizing how assumptions, investments, and relationships limit strategic thinking. When you think like a startup with nothing to lose, you see opportunities you’ve been missing and constraints you’ve accepted as unchangeable.

Teams that benefit most use discoveries to drive decisions. They launch pilot programs, challenge assumptions about customer segments, accelerate technology modernization, and streamline operations. Your biggest threat isn’t the startup you haven’t heard about. It’s your blind spots, unquestioned assumptions, and constraints you’ve accepted as permanent.

What customer segments have we systematically overlooked because they don’t align with our current business model?

Which of our current processes exist to prevent old problems rather than solve current customer needs?

If we were starting this business today with seed capital, what would we do completely differently?

Why Your Biggest Threat Isn’t Your Competition – It’s Your Blind Spots

Hook: Most leadership teams think they know their vulnerabilities, but they’ve never systematically explored how a smart startup would actually attack their business. “The Takedown” exercise forces senior teams to become their own disruptors, revealing defensive blind spots and innovation opportunities that normal strategic planning completely misses.

Why This Matters Now: The innovator’s dilemma has accelerated – established companies get disrupted faster because they’re too attached to existing investments and approaches. Leadership teams that regularly challenge their own assumptions through competitive threat modeling stay ahead of disruption while others get blindsided by more agile competitors.

Key Framework: The “Strategic Vulnerability Assessment” – systematic exploration of competitive blind spots:

• Niche customer targeting that reveals underserved segments being ignored

• Problem redefinition that exposes gaps between what companies deliver versus what customers need

• Talent poaching analysis that identifies retention risks and capability vulnerabilities

• Technology acquisition strategies that highlight innovation gaps and outdated infrastructure

• Asset prioritization that reveals resource misallocation and operational inefficiencies

• Startup advantage leverage that forces recognition of organizational constraints limiting innovation

Practical Takeaway: Readers will understand how to systematically examine their business through a disruptor’s lens, identifying specific vulnerabilities and innovation opportunities that transform from defensive insights into competitive advantages through strategic action.

5 Consultant Mistakes That Ruin Innovation

Consultant engagement often fails before it begins because of the way that many businesses structure the relationship.

I hired dozens of consultants when I was scaling my company. And now, as a consultant myself working with growth-stage companies, I see the same predictable mistakes from both sides of the table. The companies that extract maximum value from external expertise avoid five critical errors that doom most consultant engagements.

External expertise can be a powerful accelerator of innovation and a source of competitive advantage. Consultants bring fresh perspectives, specialized knowledge, and dedicated focus that internal teams often lack. But that potential value evaporates when companies make predictable mistakes in how they hire and manage these relationships. These five errors happen before, during, and after the engagement, and avoiding them transforms consultants from expensive report generators into genuine innovation drivers.

1. Starting without defining success

The most common mistake happens before any consultant conversation begins. Companies hire external expertise with vague objectives, such as improving operations or developing a strategy, without defining what success actually looks like. Teams spend weeks or months working toward deliverables that miss the mark because no one established clear outcomes upfront. This happens because urgency to solve problems combines with an assumption that consultants will figure out what’s needed. The pressure to act fast overrides the discipline to get clear first.

I once had a CEO hire me for strategic planning without clarity on whether he needed market analysis, an operational roadmap, or leadership team alignment. We spent the first third of the engagement defining the actual problem, burning time and budget that could have been used to solve it. The companies that get this right invest time before hiring anyone to articulate specific objectives, measurable deliverables, and realistic timelines. They know what done looks like before they start looking for help.

2. Vetting credentials instead of problem experience

Companies select consultants based on impressive resumes, big-name client lists, or polished presentations rather than evidence of solving similar problems. Decision-makers are often dazzled by prestigious backgrounds and assume that past success automatically transfers to their specific challenge. This happens because credentials feel safe and are easy to evaluate compared with validating actual problem-solving experience. It’s faster to check someone’s LinkedIn profile than to research whether they’ve actually tackled a similar problem before.

The consultant with the most impressive pedigree often has the least relevant experience for your specific situation. I’ve seen companies hire consultants with Fortune 500 backgrounds who had never worked with a growth-stage business facing resource constraints and rapid change. The engagement struggled because the approaches that worked at scale didn’t translate. Companies that avoid this mistake focus their vetting on demonstrated experience solving problems like theirs, asking for case studies, calling references about specific challenges, and pressure-testing how the consultant would approach their unique situation.

3. Withholding critical information

Companies often fail to share their political dynamics, past failed initiatives, or real constraints with the consultants they hire to help them. Leadership teams usually withhold information about board pressure, internal disagreements, or previous attempts that have not been successful. This happens because of fear of appearing dysfunctional or a misguided belief that withholding information preserves the consultant’s objective view. Teams want consultants to provide unbiased recommendations, so they avoid contaminating that perspective with messy reality.

I worked with a company that didn’t mention it had tried nearly the same initiative two years earlier with a different consultant, and it failed because of resistance from a key department head who was still in place. We spent weeks developing recommendations that hit the same wall. The breakthrough happens when companies recognize that consultants can’t solve problems they don’t fully understand. Sharing the complete picture, including what hasn’t worked and why, enables consultants to design solutions that account for real constraints rather than theoretical best practices.

4. Treating consultants as outsiders

Companies limit consultant access to key stakeholders, delay information sharing, and exclude consultants from essential meetings despite hiring them to solve critical problems. The external expert gets treated as peripheral rather than integrated into the work that matters. This happens because of internal politics or viewing consultants as temporary resources rather than as strategic partners. Teams protect their turf or assume consultants don’t need the full context.

When I’m brought in to solve a problem but not given access to the people who understand root causes, I’m operating with one hand tied behind my back. The pattern appears consistently—the consultant hired to improve sales operations cannot communicate with the sales team, or the strategist developing market positioning isn’t included in customer conversations. Companies that derive exceptional value from consultants treat external expertise as an extension of their team, providing access to information and integration that enables real impact rather than superficial analysis.

5. Failing to plan for knowledge transfer

The most expensive mistake occurs at the end of engagements, when consultants deliver recommendations and then leave, taking all the expertise with them. Companies focus on the deliverable—the report, the plan, the presentation—rather than building internal capability to execute and adapt over time. This happens because contracts are often structured around outputs instead of outcomes, and no one designs the engagement to facilitate knowledge transfer from the outset.

I’ve delivered strategic plans that gathered dust because the internal team couldn’t execute or evolve them after I left. The company received a remarkable document, but was unable to apply the thinking behind it. The breakthrough occurs when companies structure engagements around capability building, rather than just delivering results. That means involving internal team members throughout the process, documenting not just recommendations but also the frameworks and thinking that generated them, and explicitly planning for how expertise is transferred. Hence, the organization retains value long after the consultant engagement ends.

Companies that avoid these five mistakes transform external expertise from an expensive disappointment into a genuine source of innovation. They get consultants who deliver measurable results because the engagement was set up for success from the beginning. More important, they build internal capabilities that compound over time rather than renting expertise that evaporates when the contract ends.

5 Ways to Integrate AI Into Your Existing Business Systems

Most leadership teams adopt AI tools randomly hoping technology alone will improve strategy. Here’s what to do instead.

My architecture training taught me that the best technology amplifies existing systems rather than replacing them. As a former tech founder who scaled to the Inc. 500, I learned firsthand how systematic integration beats random tool adoption. Now, coaching dozens of leadership teams on strategy, I consistently see high-performing teams use AI to systematize the most critical and complicated parts of strategic planning and implementation.

These teams don’t just use AI as assistants—they embed it into their strategic thinking and replanning processes to accelerate decision-making cycles and improve execution quality in ways their competitors can’t match.

1. Competitive intelligence acceleration

Traditional market research happens quarterly and delivers insights too late for strategic advantage. AI integration transforms this into continuous competitive awareness by automating data collection and pattern recognition across multiple sources. Set up AI systems to monitor competitor announcements, industry trends, and customer sentiment shifts, then feed this information directly into weekly strategic planning sessions. A leadership team implemented this approach and discovered a competitor’s pivot strategy three months before it became public knowledge, allowing them to adjust their product roadmap and capture market share the competitor had targeted.

2. Decision-making bias correction

Leadership teams consistently fall victim to confirmation bias and groupthink during strategic planning. AI integration addresses this by generating alternative perspectives and challenging assumptions through structured questioning.

Configure AI to review strategic proposals and generate counterarguments, alternative scenarios, and questions the team hasn’t considered. During planning sessions, use AI-generated prompts to force examination of blind spots and unstated assumptions. One team I worked with used this approach when evaluating a major market expansion and discovered they had overlooked regulatory risks that would have cost millions, ultimately choosing a different expansion strategy that delivered better results.

3. Strategy translation clarity

High-level strategic vision often fails because teams struggle to translate broad concepts into specific, measurable objectives. AI integration solves this by systematically breaking down strategic initiatives into concrete action items and success metrics. Input your strategic objectives into AI systems and generate detailed implementation plans, potential obstacles, and measurement frameworks.

Use AI to identify gaps between vision and execution before they become problems. A leadership team used this method to transform their “digital transformation” goal into 47 specific actions with clear owners and deadlines, achieving their transformation objectives six months ahead of schedule.

4. Risk assessment automation

Most teams identify risks reactively after problems emerge rather than proactively during planning phases. AI integration enables continuous risk monitoring and mitigation strategy development before threats materialize. Build AI systems that scan internal operations, market conditions, and external factors for emerging risks, then automatically generate mitigation options for leadership review.

Configure alerts for risk threshold breaches and predetermined response protocols. A team implemented this approach and identified supply chain vulnerabilities eight weeks before disruptions occurred, allowing them to secure alternative suppliers while competitors faced shortages.

5. Execution monitoring systems

Strategic plans fail because teams lack real-time visibility into implementation progress and course correction capabilities. AI integration provides continuous performance monitoring and automated insights into execution effectiveness.

Connect AI systems to operational metrics, customer feedback, and team performance indicators to identify execution gaps immediately rather than waiting for quarterly reviews. Generate weekly execution reports highlighting progress against strategic objectives and recommended adjustments. One leadership team used this system to identify that their customer acquisition strategy was working but their retention efforts were failing, allowing them to reallocate resources and recover their annual targets.

Action Items

Teams that systematically integrate AI into strategic planning consistently outperform competitors who treat AI as separate tools rather than strategic amplifiers. The competitive advantage comes from enhanced decision speed and quality, not from having better technology.

How Smart Teams Use AI to Stay Ahead of Market Changes

Most teams base decisions on quarterly reports showing where competitors were, but smart teams use AI to track where they’re heading.

My background in architecture and technology, combined with scaling a company to the Inc. 500 and coaching dozens of leadership teams, has shown me that competitive advantage comes from anticipating market changes rather than reacting to them. Traditional quarterly competitive analysis tells you what already happened, while AI-enhanced intelligence reveals what’s about to happen. The teams that consistently outperform competitors have learned to use continuous market monitoring to out-replan their competition, making strategic adjustments before market shifts become obvious to everyone else.

1. Deep company research

Traditional competitor analysis documents past actions and current positioning, but AI enables deeper investigation into strategic patterns and decision-making tendencies that predict future moves. Use AI to analyze competitor histories, leadership track records, and strategic evolution patterns to anticipate their next moves rather than just cataloging what they’ve already done. A leadership team implemented this approach and discovered their main competitor consistently entered new markets 18 months after hiring specific types of executives, allowing them to predict and prepare for competitive threats in three emerging market segments before their competitor made any public announcements.

2. Real-time positioning analysis

Quarterly competitive reports miss the constant adjustments competitors make to messaging, target segments, and market responses. AI-powered monitoring tracks how competitors modify their positioning across websites, social media, advertising, and customer communications in real time. Set up AI systems to detect changes in competitor messaging, pricing strategies, and customer targeting as they happen rather than waiting for formal announcements. One team used this method to identify a competitor’s pivot toward enterprise customers by analyzing subtle changes in their website language and case study selection, enabling them to adjust their own enterprise strategy two months before the competitor officially announced their market repositioning.

3. Leadership team intelligence

Understanding competitor strategies requires insight into the people making strategic decisions, not just the companies they lead. AI can analyze executive backgrounds, career patterns, previous strategic decisions, and leadership philosophies to anticipate organizational direction and capability investments. Use AI to research competitor leadership teams and identify strategic tendencies based on their professional histories and public statements. A team discovered their competitor’s new CEO had a consistent pattern of aggressive acquisition strategies in previous roles, prompting them to prepare defensive measures and identify potential acquisition targets before bidding wars began.

4. Automated market monitoring

Traditional industry reports arrive weeks after significant developments, but AI monitoring captures competitor announcements, partnership changes, regulatory filings, and strategic moves as they occur. Configure AI systems to continuously scan multiple information sources and alert your team to competitive developments immediately rather than waiting for industry publications to summarize changes. This approach enabled one leadership team to identify a major competitor’s supply chain disruption through automated monitoring of regulatory filings and trade publications, allowing them to secure additional market share by accelerating their own supply chain investments before the disruption became widely known.

5. Comprehensive coverage analysis

Single-source competitive intelligence creates blind spots, but AI can synthesize analyst reports, customer feedback, social media sentiment, and third-party assessments to identify competitor vulnerabilities and market perception shifts across multiple perspectives. Use AI to aggregate and analyze diverse information sources about competitors, creating comprehensive intelligence that reveals strategic opportunities and threats traditional research misses. A team used this method to discover that while their competitor appeared strong in financial reports, customer satisfaction scores and employee sentiment were declining, indicating potential vulnerability that informed their competitive strategy and messaging approach.

Action Items

Teams that master continuous AI-powered market intelligence consistently identify strategic opportunities and threats months before competitors using traditional quarterly analysis cycles. The competitive advantage comes from speed of adaptation, not depth of analysis—teams that can out-replan their competition ultimately win.

5 Ways to Get More Out of Your AI Tools During Strategic Planning

Most leadership teams adopt AI tools randomly hoping technology alone will improve strategy and strategic planning. Here’s how to do better.

My architecture training taught me that the best technology amplifies existing systems rather than replacing them. And as a former tech founder who scaled to the Inc. 500, I learned firsthand how systematic integration beats random tool adoption.

Now, coaching dozens of leadership teams on strategy, I consistently see high-performing teams use AI to systematize the most critical and complicated parts of strategic planning and implementation. These teams don’t just use AI as assistants—they embed it into their strategic thinking and replanning processes to accelerate decision-making cycles and improve execution quality in ways their competitors can’t match.

1. Competitive intelligence acceleration

Traditional market research happens quarterly and delivers insights too late for strategic advantage. AI integration transforms this into continuous competitive awareness by automating data collection and pattern recognition across multiple sources.

Set up AI systems to monitor competitor announcements, industry trends, and customer sentiment shifts, then feed this information directly into weekly strategic planning sessions. A leadership team implemented this approach and discovered a competitor’s pivot strategy three months before it became public knowledge, allowing them to adjust their product roadmap and capture market share the competitor had targeted.

2. Decision-making bias correction

Leadership teams consistently fall victim to confirmation bias and groupthink during strategic planning. AI integration addresses this by generating alternative perspectives and challenging assumptions through structured questioning. Configure AI to review strategic proposals and generate counterarguments, alternative scenarios, and questions the team hasn’t considered. During planning sessions, use AI-generated prompts to force examination of blind spots and unstated assumptions.

One team I worked with used this approach when evaluating a major market expansion and discovered they had overlooked regulatory risks that would have cost millions, ultimately choosing a different expansion strategy that delivered better results.

3. Strategy translation clarity

High-level strategic vision often fails because teams struggle to translate broad concepts into specific, measurable objectives. AI integration solves this by systematically breaking down strategic initiatives into concrete action items and success metrics. Input your strategic objectives into AI systems and generate detailed implementation plans, potential obstacles, and measurement frameworks. Use AI to identify gaps between vision and execution before they become problems.

A leadership team used this method to transform their “digital transformation” goal into 47 specific actions with clear owners and deadlines, achieving their transformation objectives six months ahead of schedule.

4. Risk assessment automation

Most teams identify risks reactively after problems emerge rather than proactively during planning phases. AI integration enables continuous risk monitoring and mitigation strategy development before threats materialize. Build AI systems that scan internal operations, market conditions, and external factors for emerging risks, then automatically generate mitigation options for leadership review. Configure alerts for risk threshold breaches and predetermined response protocols.

A team implemented this approach and identified supply chain vulnerabilities eight weeks before disruptions occurred, allowing them to secure alternative suppliers while competitors faced shortages.

5. Execution monitoring systems

Strategic plans fail because teams lack real-time visibility into implementation progress and course correction capabilities. AI integration provides continuous performance monitoring and automated insights into execution effectiveness. Connect AI systems to operational metrics, customer feedback, and team performance indicators to identify execution gaps immediately rather than waiting for quarterly reviews. Generate weekly execution reports highlighting progress against strategic objectives and recommended adjustments.

One leadership team used this system to identify that their customer acquisition strategy was working but their retention efforts were failing, allowing them to reallocate resources and recover their annual targets.

Action Items

Teams that systematically integrate AI into strategic planning consistently outperform competitors who treat AI as separate tools rather than strategic amplifiers. The competitive advantage comes from enhanced decision speed and quality, not from having better technology.

How to Unlock Innovation With the Kaizen and Kaikaku Methods

Growth companies that master both continuous improvement and breakthrough innovation outpace those that only optimize.

Most businesses get trapped optimizing incremental improvements when what they actually need is radical reimagining, or vice-versa. The companies that grow consistently and prepare successfully for exit have mastered a dual-track approach. And that’s where two Japanese frameworks, Kaizen and Kaikaku, come in handy.

Kaizen—the practice of continuous improvement through small, steady changes that compound over time—has become widely known in business circles. But most leaders remain unfamiliar with its complementary methodology, Kaikaku, which focuses on breakthrough innovations that fundamentally restructure how work gets done.

The distinction matters because growth companies need both—deployed strategically and in rhythm with each other. I learned this when scaling my own company into the Inc. 5000.

The challenge is that most organizations default to one approach or the other. They either pursue endless optimization of existing processes or chase constant disruption without building systematic improvement. The strategic answer lies in establishing regular rhythms for both methodologies, creating a dual-track system that knows when to refine and when to reimagine.

Why optimization alone creates strategic plateaus

Companies reach a point where incremental improvement delivers diminishing returns. You optimize workflow, streamline processes, and eliminate waste, yet revenue plateaus and competitive advantage erode. The problem is not that continuous improvement stopped working, but that you have hit the ceiling of what optimization can deliver within your current business model.

This happens because Kaizen improves existing systems rather than questioning whether those systems should exist in the first place. When market conditions shift, customer needs evolve, or competitive dynamics change fundamentally, optimizing the old approach only perfects obsolescence. A service business might streamline delivery of an offering that the market no longer values, achieving operational excellence in an irrelevant domain.

The comfort of continuous improvement becomes dangerous when it prevents leaders from recognizing that the entire foundation needs rethinking. Teams celebrate incremental gains while missing the fact that competitors are building entirely different business models that render current operations irrelevant.

When incremental improvement becomes a trap

Several patterns signal that Kaizen alone will not solve strategic challenges. Results plateau despite ongoing improvement efforts, indicating that the existing approach has reached its natural limits. Market disruption introduces new business models that cannot be matched through incremental enhancement of legacy systems. Competitive threats arise from companies employing fundamentally different operational approaches, rather than merely executing the same model more efficiently.

External forces often demand responses that optimization cannot provide. Regulatory changes, technological shifts, or evolving customer expectations sometimes require wholesale transformation rather than gradual adaptation. When your strategic goals require capabilities that do not exist within current systems, no amount of process refinement will close the gap.

The sunk cost fallacy amplifies this trap. Organizations continue to invest in optimization because they have already invested heavily in their existing systems, infrastructure, and processes. A manufacturing company might perfect production methods for a product line, only to find that the market shifts toward entirely different solutions that require new production capabilities.

Kaikaku is the breakthrough engine

Kaikaku means radical change or reform. Unlike the gradual evolution of Kaizen, Kaikaku involves fundamental restructuring of core systems, processes, or business models to achieve quantum leaps in performance. This is not about tweaking existing approaches but about challenging core assumptions and building something fundamentally different.

The methodology incorporates several principles adapted from manufacturing for general business applications. Throw out traditional concepts and question whether current methods should continue simply because they have always worked that way. Think about how new approaches will succeed rather than focusing on why they might fail, shifting from risk avoidance to opportunity exploration. Deny the status quo entirely, creating permission to start fresh without being constrained by existing systems.

Kaikaku accepts imperfection in implementation, recognizing that acting quickly with incomplete solutions often yields better results than waiting for perfect plans. A fifty percent implementation done immediately creates learning and momentum that analysis cannot provide. Mistakes get corrected the moment they appear rather than being studied endlessly. Problems become opportunities to apply creative thinking rather than reasons to retreat to familiar approaches. The emphasis is on collective intelligence, recognizing that ideas from diverse perspectives are more effective than individual expertise.

These principles work across any business type. A professional services firm might radically restructure its service delivery model rather than incrementally improving project management. A technology company should reimagine its go-to-market approach rather than optimizing existing sales processes. The key is the willingness to disrupt yourself before external forces impose that disruption.

The strategic integration of both methodologies

Successful companies use Kaikaku to create breakthrough change, then deploy Kaizen to refine and sustain those improvements. The radical transformation establishes a new baseline with fundamentally better performance, competitive positioning, or operational capability. Continuous improvement then optimizes from that elevated foundation, extracting maximum value from the new approach.

This integration prevents two common failures. Companies that only pursue Kaikaku experience constant disruption without ever achieving operational excellence or consistency. Organizations that only practice Kaizen risk optimizing themselves into irrelevance, perfecting approaches that no longer serve their strategic objectives. The combination creates both innovation and execution excellence.

Toyota’s development of the Prius illustrates this integration. The company utilized Kaikaku to fundamentally reimagine automotive powertrains, introducing hybrid technology that necessitated the development of entirely new engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain capabilities. Once that breakthrough existed, Kaizen drove thousands of incremental improvements to battery technology, production processes, and system integration. The result was both revolutionary innovation and world-class execution.

The same pattern applies to any business transformation. A company might use Kaikaku to restructure from functional departments to cross-functional teams, fundamentally changing how work flows and decisions get made. Kaizen then continuously improves communication, coordination, and performance within that new structure. The radical change creates new possibilities; the continuous improvement realizes that potential.

Building the dual-track capability

Organizations need different rhythms and approaches for Kaizen and Kaikaku. Weekly improvement cycles are effective for Kaizen, enabling teams to identify problems, test solutions, and implement changes rapidly. These short cycles create momentum and engagement while building improvement capability throughout the organization. The focus is on bottom-up participation, where people closest to the work drive enhancement.

Quarterly strategic reviews provide the right cadence for Kaikaku opportunities. These sessions step back from operational improvement to question fundamental assumptions, assess market changes, and identify opportunities requiring breakthrough innovation. The focus is top-down strategic thinking about whether current approaches will achieve future objectives or whether radical change is necessary.

The team composition differs between these rhythms. Kaizen engages frontline employees who understand operational details and can implement incremental changes immediately. Kaikaku requires leadership involvement and cross-functional perspectives to question core business model elements and authorize fundamental restructuring. Both need psychological safety to challenge existing approaches, but Kaikaku demands even greater willingness to abandon sunk investments.

Success requires building organizational capability for both mindsets. Teams must develop a comfort with continuous refinement while maintaining a willingness to discard everything when circumstances demand it. This dual capability becomes a competitive advantage, enabling companies to optimize their current operations while simultaneously preparing for breakthrough innovations that redefine their market position.

The competitive advantage of dual-track innovation

Companies that establish both Kaizen and Kaikaku rhythms create adaptive cultures that neither stagnate through endless optimization nor destabilize through constant disruption. They extract maximum value from current approaches while building capacity for transformation when strategic circumstances demand it. This balance drives sustainable growth and prepares businesses for successful transitions, whether through scale, market expansion, or eventual exit.

Which rhythm is driving your business right now—and which one are you missing?

Where have we optimized our current approach to its natural limits without questioning whether that approach should continue to be pursued?

What would we need to fundamentally restructure if we were starting this business today with no legacy systems or sunk costs?

When was the last time we questioned our core business model rather than just improving how we execute it?

What to Do When Your Business Strategy is Stalled: The Hidden Lean Methodology Most People Don’t Know About

Hook: Most leaders know about Kaizen for continuous improvement, but they’ve never heard of Kaikaku—the breakthrough innovation methodology that rescues stalled strategies. While businesses get trapped optimizing incremental improvements, this lesser-known lean approach helps leaders recognize when they need to abandon optimization and pursue radical reimagining instead.

Why This Matters Now: With AI disruption, economic uncertainty, and accelerating market changes, strategy stagnation has become the silent killer of growth companies. Leaders who master both Kaizen and Kaikaku create adaptive cultures that know when to improve versus when to innovate, preventing the common trap of perfecting the wrong approach.

Key Framework: The “Dual-Track Innovation System” – integrating both methodologies into regular business operations:

• Weekly Kaizen rhythms for systematic continuous improvement across all organizational levels

• Quarterly Kaikaku reviews for breakthrough innovation and strategic repositioning

• The 6 Kaikaku Triggers that signal when incremental improvement becomes strategic suicide

• Root cause analysis vs. big picture exploration – knowing which thinking mode to deploy when

• Cultural integration strategies that prevent teams from defaulting to comfort-zone optimization

Practical Takeaway: Readers will understand the critical difference between these complementary approaches and recognize the six specific situations that demand stepping back from optimization to pursue breakthrough innovation, transforming stalled strategies into competitive advantages.

6 Ways True Innovators Stress-Test Their Customer Assumptions

Most companies start with solutions that they assume customers need. But true innovators make sure they’re solving real problems.

As a founder who built an Inc. 500 company and coached dozens of teams on innovation strategy, I’ve learned that the biggest innovation failures come from false confidence in customer understanding, not from lack of good ideas. My systems thinking background taught me that breakthrough innovations emerge when teams systematically challenge their own assumptions rather than trusting their expertise.

The most successful innovation teams I’ve worked with share one trait: they’ve learned to be systematically suspicious of their own insights and use adversarial methods to stress-test customer assumptions before committing resources to solutions.

1. Red team exercises

Assign team members to actively attack your customer assumptions and innovation strategy from a competitor’s perspective. Create a dedicated session where half your team argues against your current customer understanding and proposed solutions, forcing examination of vulnerabilities you haven’t considered. This adversarial approach reveals blind spots that supportive brainstorming sessions miss completely. Have the red team identify which customer segments you’re ignoring, what needs you’re misunderstanding, and how competitors could exploit gaps in your customer knowledge. This exercise consistently uncovers assumption gaps that teams discover too late during market testing.

2. Premortem analysis

Before committing to innovation decisions, imagine your customer research and solution development has failed spectacularly and work backwards to identify what went wrong. Conduct systematic failure analysis by asking what customer assumptions would have to be false for your innovation to completely miss market needs. This reverse engineering of failure reveals hidden risks in your customer understanding that forward-looking analysis misses. Teams that regularly use premortem exercises identify customer assumption failures before they waste development resources, consistently avoiding innovation disasters that confident teams experience.

3. Devil’s advocate rotation

Systematically assign different team members to challenge each major customer assumption rather than having one person always play the negative role. Rotate the devil’s advocate responsibility across team members and customer insights, ensuring every assumption faces rigorous scrutiny from multiple perspectives. This prevents both assumption groupthink and advocate fatigue that occurs when one person always challenges ideas. Each team member takes turns arguing against specific customer insights, forcing deeper examination of evidence and alternative explanations for customer behavior patterns.

4. Assumption stress testing

Take each core belief about customers and deliberately test scenarios where it’s completely wrong, exploring what would be true if your fundamental customer understanding is false. Create systematic tests for your most confident customer insights by investigating contradictory evidence and alternative explanations for customer behavior. This approach reveals when teams are interpreting customer data to support existing beliefs rather than discovering genuine insights. Teams that regularly stress-test customer assumptions discover market opportunities that confident competitors miss because they never question their customer expertise.

5. External perspective injection

Bring in people from completely different industries and backgrounds to review your customer assumptions and challenge insights that seem obvious to your team. Use outsiders who don’t share your industry biases to examine customer research and question conclusions that insiders accept without scrutiny. This outside perspective consistently reveals customer insights and market opportunities that industry experts overlook due to shared assumptions about normal customer behavior. External reviewers ask questions that teams immersed in industry thinking never consider, uncovering customer needs hidden by professional expertise.

6. Anonymous assumption audits

Use anonymous surveys and feedback systems where team members can challenge customer insights and innovation directions without fear of social consequences or seeming negative. Create systematic processes for team members to question customer assumptions, research methodologies, and solution directions without revealing their identity. This approach encourages honest scrutiny of customer insights that team dynamics and social pressure typically suppress. Anonymous audits consistently reveal team concerns about customer understanding that never surface in group discussions, preventing innovation failures that confident group consensus creates.

Teams that master systematic assumption challenging consistently discover breakthrough customer insights while competitors remain trapped by false confidence in their expertise. The competitive advantage comes from systematic doubt about customer understanding, not from better research methods or deeper industry knowledge.

Here’s Why You Don’t Want Your Teams to Get Along All the Time

Most leadership teams prioritize cohesion and cultural fit, but this approach kills innovation. Here’s why, and how to fix it.

When I was building my company, I discovered something surprising about building teams: The good ones don’t get along. At least not all the time.

Our best strategic decisions, the real breakthroughs, came from heated debates between team members with fundamentally different perspectives—not from meetings where everyone quickly agreed.

And when it comes to the leadership teams that I coach, the ones that consistently generate superior strategic options share one trait: they’ve deliberately designed productive tension into their composition while maintaining alignment around core values and company purpose.

Here’s how to build that healthy tension in to your team.

1. Industry experience diversity

Teams composed entirely of industry veterans develop blind spots because they share the same assumptions about what’s possible and normal. When everyone thinks customer problems should be solved the same way, we miss breakthrough approaches that adjacent industries use successfully. Audit your team for cross-sector representation and deliberately include members who can challenge industry orthodoxy with fresh problem-solving approaches from different sectors.

2. Cognitive style variation

Analytical thinkers, intuitive decision-makers, and creative problem-solvers process information differently and reach different conclusions from the same data. Teams dominated by analytical minds excel at optimization but struggle with pattern recognition and breakthrough thinking. Assess your team’s thinking patterns and ensure representation across analytical depth, intuitive insight, and creative solution generation to avoid strategic blind spots.

3. Cultural background differences

Different cultural perspectives shape risk assessment, hierarchy expectations, and communication approaches in ways that reveal strategic assumptions teams don’t realize they’re making. Homogeneous cultural groups miss market opportunities because they assume their perspective represents universal customer behavior. Evaluate your team’s cultural composition and consider how different cultural lenses might challenge current strategic assumptions and reveal hidden market segments.

4. Generational perspective ranges

Different generations bring distinct perspectives on technology adoption, work values, and market evolution that fundamentally impact strategic planning effectiveness. Groups skewed toward one generation miss emerging trends or overestimate technology adoption rates in their target markets. Review your team’s generational spread and ensure representation across different technology comfort levels and workplace expectations that affect strategic decision-making.

5. Geographic experience spanning

Urban and rural perspectives, along with different regional market contexts, create fundamentally different assumptions about customer behavior, distribution challenges, and operational requirements. Teams with narrow geographic experience develop strategies that work in familiar markets but fail in different contexts. Assess your team’s geographic diversity and include perspectives from different market contexts relevant to your strategic expansion or customer base.

6. Company size experience mixing

Startup, enterprise, and mid-market operational perspectives create different approaches to resource allocation, risk management, and growth strategies that significantly impact strategic effectiveness. Individuals with similar company size backgrounds miss operational insights that could dramatically improve strategic execution. Evaluate your team’s company size backgrounds and ensure representation across different operational scales to optimize strategic approaches.

7. Risk tolerance level spectrum

Conservative and aggressive decision-making preferences balance strategic options between sustainable growth and breakthrough opportunities, but teams skewed in either direction miss critical strategic possibilities. Those that are risk-averse miss competitive timing advantages while risk-aggressive teams overlook sustainability concerns. Audit your team’s risk tolerance distribution and ensure representation across the risk spectrum relevant to your strategic objectives and market position.

Action Items

Leaders who master strategic diversity create teams that generate more strategic options while maintaining operational effectiveness through shared values and purpose. The competitive advantage comes from superior strategic thinking, not perfect team harmony—breakthrough ideas require productive tension.

If Your Team Is Struggling to Find Good Solutions to Hard Problems, Try These 3 Steps

Many executive teams struggle with addressing issues quickly and effectively. Here’s how the best ones avoid drama and get better results.

As a leadership team coach, developing a good decision-making process is one of my main areas of focus. And while many teams are good at simple decisions that come up frequently, these same teams can be challenged by new and complicated decisions that come up when the company starts to grow quickly.

The key to getting good at decision-making is to have a process that everyone knows and has had experience using. While it’s true that every decision is different, the process you use should be the same. Here is the one I coach my teams to use.

1. Define

First, I have teams start every decision-making process by clarifying the problem in front of them.

In this step, it’s fairly common to discover that the decision on the table is simply the presenting problem and there is, in fact, a deeper, more important problem hiding underneath the surface layer. By getting to the core problem, we will not only address the surface issue we’re having but we will also be able to address other issues on a more systematic basis.

For example, one team I was working with recently had a problem with low sales numbers during the previous two months. Their first reaction was to spend more on marketing. However, it became apparent that one of the sales people was on maternity leave for three months and hadn’t been replaced. The real issue was not having a good process for covering people while they were on planned leaves, a problem that would not have been solved with more marketing dollars.

2. Debate

Once the team has defined the problem well, I have them develop criteria for the options they want to consider. The goal here is to get clear on the definition of solved and all the possible ways they could address the problem.

For the criteria, I’m looking for objective tests we can apply to all of the options to evaluate and sort them. For simple problems, this might be things like cost, speed of implementation, and/or measure of impact on the problem. For more complex problems, you might have criteria that address risks, organizational change, or undesirable collateral impact.

Creating as many options as possible is critical to a good problem-solving process. If there’s only two or three options to choose from, a team can easily become stuck with a less than ideal outcome. Create time and space to brainstorm ideas. Suspend judgement and generate as many ideas as possible. Often times the winning idea comes late in the game and starts out as an off-handed comment.

3. Decide

Once you have your criteria and your options, the team can start the final decision-making process. Use the criteria you’ve developed to evaluate and rank the options you’ve generated. For some criteria, the budget for example, might be easy to calculate and apply.

On the other hand, it might be harder to quantify things like risk and undesirable collateral impact, but taking some time to discuss is important. In the end, I like to see absolute numbers, scales of one to five, or high/medium/low for each criteria and for each option.

However, all of this only works if people are free to speak their mind and share what they know and see without fear of judgment or shame. If people hold back, you’ll miss key insights.

Most of the time, one of your options will float to the top as the most desirable choice. On occasion however, you might find that two or more options seem good for different reasons and it’s not obvious which one to choose. In these cases, try to develop a trade off value between the criteria.

For example, if one solution costs more but is faster to implement, decide how much a week or day of schedule is worth in dollars and then discount/add it to one option to compare them head-to-head. You can do this for many types of criteria and effectively normalize options to reduce the complexity.

While you won’t always need to create complicated matrices to compare and score you options, when the stakes are high and the issues complicated, it’s a good approach to have in your toolbox.

Good decision making is a core skill for every leadership team. It takes training, practice, and experience to build that muscle. But once you have achieve that capability and honed it, your work will become much faster and easier, and you’ll have better outcomes to celebrate.

Ask Your Team These 7 Questions to Jumpstart Innovation

Growth companies that break through competitive barriers ask impossible questions that force teams beyond conventional thinking patterns.

After scaling my software development company to the Inc. 5000 list five consecutive years and coaching dozens of leadership teams on strategy and innovation, I’ve learned that competitive advantage comes from asking different questions, not finding better answers to the same old problems.

The breakthrough moments happen when teams stop thinking within normal business constraints and start exploring impossible scenarios. This constraint-breaking approach consistently generates innovative solutions that competitors can’t replicate because they remain trapped in conventional thinking patterns.

1. If money was no object, how would we approach this?

When teams operate under budget constraints, they automatically filter out ideas before exploring their potential. This question forces separation of resource allocation from strategic thinking, revealing what your team actually believes would work best. Give your team five minutes to brainstorm without budget considerations, and you’ll notice ideas become immediately more ambitious and creative. A client’s marketing team used this prompt and proposed creating an industry conference, which led to a scaled-down summit that generated more qualified leads than three years of traditional marketing.

2. If we had to solve this and launch tomorrow, what would we strip away?

Nothing kills innovation faster than endless refinement cycles. This constraint forces teams to identify the absolute core of their solution, revealing essential elements versus nice-to-have features that complicate execution. Set a literal timer and give teams ten minutes to design something implementable within 24 hours. One CEO used this when his team debated features for a new service. The constraint forced identification of three core capabilities delivering 80 percent of value, allowing them to launch quickly and gather real customer feedback.

3. If we had access to the most brilliant mind in the world on this topic, how would they solve it?

Every organization develops blind spots based on industry experience and internal capabilities. This question breaks teams out of knowledge constraints and encourages borrowing insights from adjacent industries or academic research. Have team members research how experts in completely different fields approach similar challenges. A manufacturing client researched quality assurance methods from aerospace, pharmaceutical, and software industries, leading to statistical process controls that reduced defects by 60 percent.

4. If we never had to make money, how would we approach this?

Profit requirements often constrain innovation because teams filter ideas based on immediate revenue potential rather than long-term value creation. This question reveals what your team believes would create the most genuine value for customers. A software company used this approach for customer onboarding and designed an intensive training program. While they couldn’t implement the full version, the insight led to a hybrid model that improved customer retention by 40 percent.

5. If we had to 10x this company within three years, how would we do it?

Most teams think incrementally about growth because they’re trapped by current capabilities and market position. This question forces consideration of fundamental business model changes rather than optimization improvements. 10x growth can’t happen through efficiency gains—it requires entirely different approaches. A consulting firm used this exercise and realized massive growth required shifting from custom services to scalable training products, leading to certification programs that now generate 40 percent of revenue.

6. If we could read anyone’s mind, what would we want to know to solve this problem?

Innovation often fails because teams operate with incomplete information about customer needs, competitive strategies, or market dynamics. This question reveals which information gaps actually constrain decision-making. Use this prompt to prioritize research and data gathering efforts. A product development team realized they were guessing about customer feature preferences, leading to systematic feedback collection that fundamentally changed development priorities.

7. If we could break any regulation or law, what solution emerges?

Industry regulations often prevent teams from considering the most direct solutions to customer problems. This question helps identify which constraints are protective versus traditional barriers to innovation. A financial services client used this exercise when designing advisory services, envisioning AI-powered personalized advice. While they couldn’t replace human advisors, this insight led to AI-assisted tools that improved advisor effectiveness while maintaining regulatory compliance.

Action Items

Teams that master constraint-breaking prompts consistently generate breakthrough solutions while competitors remain trapped in conventional thinking patterns. The competitive advantage comes from asking fundamentally different questions that reveal possibilities others never consider.

Want to Get Good at Accomplishing Your Goals? Master These 6 Skills

Setting and achieving powerful goals requires more than one skill. Here are the six skills that great goal achievers have mastered.

As an executive and team coach, I help individuals and teams set goals every day.

And while all teams are very different and have very different goals, the ones who are most successful share six key skills–skills which you can use to accelerate your success, too.

1. Polish your crystal ball.

The first thing to develop is your ability to see the future. Having a powerful imagination that gives you a clear vision of yourself in your future success will drive motivation and inspiration. Great goal setters spend time carefully envisioning themselves in the future having already achieved this success.

Visualizing future success sets up a cognitive dissonance in your mind. And since the mind doesn’t like it when thinking doesn’t match reality, it begins to take action to change reality, driving our unconscious thinking towards reaching your goals sooner.

2. Get good at planning.

Great goal setters know how to think through the steps needed to reach their objectives. They see the tasks that need to be performed and the order they need to be performed in. Good plans create a path to success by connecting the dots between where you are now and where you want to be.

But don’t get attached the plan itself. As Eisenhower once said, “plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” Great planners know that the value comes from the process of thinking through your options, developing a good strategy, and assessing risks. Highly successful people take action, get feedback, develop insights, and then re-plan quickly.

3. Just do it.

If you want to achieve your goals, you can’t spend all day looking at your navel. Yes, you need to think and plan, but even more importantly, you need to take action. Action not only moves you forward, but it also gives you feedback.

I often use the analogy of when you first turn on your phone’s GPS and it’s confused about which direction you’re facing. While you could wait there and let it think, the quickest solution is to just take a few steps forward and it will quickly adjust your position on the map.

The same goes for working on your goals. Sometimes, you just need to do a few things and then see if you’re making progress, or if you need to turn around and go in the opposite direction.

4. Master the juke.

Great running backs learn how to juke to avoid tackles by dogging, weaving, and spinning to avoid defenders. They know that trying to square up and bash through them will not usually be successful and will almost always hurt.

The same is true for those who are highly productive. When faced with an obstacle, these high achievers don’t put their head down and drive into it with brute force. They find a way to avoid it and move around it. Even if the obstacle adds a little time or wasn’t the path they originally planned, they know that maintaining forward progress is more important than sticking to a plan that isn’t working.

5. Discover your inner zen.

In the late 1970s while researching why artists get so absorbed in their work to the point of not eating for days, psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi discovered that these people entered a physical-mental state of hyper performance which he named flow.

He discovered that anyone can get into this highly productive state. And when they do, they can achieve up to ten-times their normal level of performance. Not only that, but people report having a euphoric experience of blissful satisfaction where time passes without notice.

Finding your flow state is critical to being productive. Choose the right day of the week, time of day, environment, and frame of mind to make yourself hyper productive. For some it’s a nature retreat, and for others it’s a noisy coffee shop. Experiment to discover what works for you.

6. You can do anything you want, just not everything you want.

The fact is, we all have real limits on time and energy. We can’t work on everything at once. Great achievers know that it is better to focus on one priority at a time and drive it to completion before changing course.

It’s good to have a few different projects going so you can switch gears when you’re stuck or frustrated, but keep this variation to a limited few. And don’t try to multitask between them. Bigger blocks of dedicated time will allow you to get deeper and tackle bigger, more complex challenges.

While there are other skills that will improve your ability to set and achieve great things, these six are your core building blocks for success. And like most skills, there is always room for improvement. Getting better at goal setting is a lifelong pursuit.

Is Your Team Struggling to Agree on Performance Metrics? Here Are 6 Key Definitions That Will Help

Measuring effectiveness is an important aspect of growth. Here are 6 key definitions that will help your team get on the same page.

There are many terms around measuring the effectiveness of management and execution that can be confusing. Without a clear, shared definition, leaders can often get stuck in muddy discussions that result in misalignment. While there are no absolute definitions for many of these terms, these are the ones I suggest for the leadership teams and executives I work with.

1. Key Performance Indicator

Let’s start with the infamous key performance indicator, aka KPI. These are often confused and conflated with many of the other terms on this list. Put simply, a KPI is a way of measuring something. It’s an evaluation unit regarding some aspect of business performance.

It’s important to note that while there are many ways to set KPI’s, these settings are simply units of measure, not the actual results your seeking. I like to say that the KPI is the tape measure, not the measurement itself.

2. Critical Number

I often use the concept of a critical number with leadership teams to elevate one or more KPI’s. A business has dozens of KPI’s across many aspects of the business that give leadership insights into how the business is performing. By elevating one or more KPI’s to the status of critical number, it provides focus and priority to areas of the business that need senior-level attention.

A critical number is generally tied to a strategic priority or organizational objective and drives alignment. If larger orders is a key goal, then a critical number might percent of orders over $50,000 each week. Often this is tied to a theme which can further drive motivation and cohesion.

3. Balancing KPI

Sometimes, when we set a goal and only focus on one aspect of the business, we skew our action to meet the goal, while inadvertently hurting other parts of the business. For example, it’s easy to increase the close rate on a sales funnel by lowering the profit margin and selling contracts at a loss. However, that doesn’t help the business overall.

A balancing KPI adds a second unit of measure to the strategic focus that prevents people from gaming the system to hit one goal by trading off another goal and hurting the business overall. Think of it as the check and balance to the main goal.

4. Metric

The vast majority of things you can measure in a business are not ‘key’ to the business but are needed to track or monitor performance. These are simply metrics. They describe how parts of the business are doing without becoming things that require senior leadership attention. A metric is simply a performance indicator, but it is not a key indicator.

5. Target

If you’re a long jumper, the goal is to get as much distance as possible between the line and the back of your heel where you land. Therefore, the KPI is the distance cleared and the units are in feet and inches. The target is what you are striving to achieve. It is specific to an individual and may change over time. If you’re a state high school competitor you might start the season with 20 feet and and work your way up to the state record of 25 feet 3 inches. Targets are set based on your strategy and goals.

6. Forecast

Forecasts are similar to targets in that they are specific results or measures related to a KPI. The difference is a target is something that you’re trying to achieve based on a strategy and a goal, whereas a forecast is a prediction on future results. The key to any good forecast is not just the number, but also the confidence level of that number from the person/group issuing that forecast.

A forecast without a confidence level is not very useful and can lead to confusion and failures. For example, say the sales team says they are forecasting Q4 revenues to be $1.2 million and the company budgets their expenses based on that number. But then late everyone realizes that the $1.2 million is a stretch goal and the team is only 20 percent confident they will hit that number which puts the company at risk of overspending.

While the difference between all of these terms might seem academic and too subtle to spend time discussing, I’ve found that executives, who invest the effort, reap the benefits of clarity and alignment when it comes to successfully executing on strategy and management. If you’re in a dynamic, high-growth situation, this can often mean the difference between predictable success and a company spiraling out of control.

Good Business Strategies Aren’t Just Documents You Hang on Your Wall. Here’s How to Make Yours Better

Many companies struggle with creating an effective business strategy. Here are six ways to get yours right.

While I enjoy all parts of growing and scaling a business, creating an effective scaling strategy is one of my favorites. I love running sessions and helping a leadership team collect information, develop insights about their market, and decide on their unique course of action.

However, many teams get strategy wrong. Here are the most common mistakes I see and suggestions on how to avoid them. Get these right and you’ll not only improve your success, you might just have more fun.

1. Don’t compete to win, compete to be unique.

Many people frame business strategy as one company pitted against another in a battle of force and will to decide who will dominate a market. And while that might make for a good movie, it’s not a good approach to business.

The reality is that most markets are multifaceted; there are plenty of customers for you all to have a reasonable slice of the pie. The trick is to create an approach and niche that will be reasonably profitable and that will allow you to efficiently sell to your target customers.

Instead of seeing strategy as a race to win, see it as a race to be different. An effective strategy is one which clearly defines your niche in the market based on your unique strengths and weaknesses as a company.

2. It’s not about motivation, it’s about making choices.

Another common mistake people make is to see strategy as rallying the team to put in extra effort and long hours. They string together inspirational quotes to excite people about the future and the wonderful things that will come with success.

Instead, I find that a good, effective strategy should make things easier. A good strategy clarifies who will be targeted with what product/service. This clarity helps you make decisions and allows a company to simplify their processes to do just those few things really well.

3. Know what you’re not doing.

Strategy is fundamentally about choice. It’s about reducing the areas of focus to a carefully chosen few. Unfortunately, I see many companies that define their strategy in such a way that still leaves them trying to sell everything to everyone, everywhere.

One technique I use is to have a company list all of the prospects they are not targeting, products they are not offering, and locations they are not servicing. If this is a long and clear list, I know that company has a clear strategy which focuses on doing a few things well. If it’s short and vague, I send them back to the drawing board.

4. Don’t chase the puck, get out ahead of it.

Another thing I often see is a company developing a strategy in reaction to a specific market event, competitor move, or industry situation. While companies need to respond to events and changing markets, that is not the core of business strategy. Your strategy should guide you on how to respond, but it’s not the response itself.

A strategy defines a set of choices and a series of policies on how you are going to make decisions and what you are going to prioritize. By design, strategies are long-term plays based on a logical analysis of the trends in the market and where future opportunities are likely to exist.

5. Strategy is worthless, if it’s not communicated.

Often times, companies spend weeks developing a sophisticated and smart strategy, but then they put it in a binder and leave it on the shelf. At best, a few people on the leadership team can recall the content months later, but the vast majority of the company has forgotten or is oblivious of the work.

Strategy needs to be simple to understand and easy to communicate. The fact is that everyone in the company needs to know the strategy as they are the ones implementing it. Your front line workers make more decisions on strategy each and everyday than any executive. It needs to be simple and it needs to be communicated frequently.

6. Strategy is a regular process, not a document.

Too often I see teams create a great strategy and then frame the final document on the wall. They check the box and get back to day-to-day business. The power in strategy is the discussion and application not the document. Great teams talk about strategy weekly and grapple with strategic decisions on a daily basis.

Strategy is not easy, but it doesn’t need to be hard. The trick is to make it a regular process and routine inside your leadership discussions. And while strategies should be simple to be effectively communicated, they need not be simplistic in approach. Much like writing a good letter, the more concise a strategy is, the longer and harder a team most likely worked on it.