After two years, the strategy effort began to fade at the powersports company that was attempting a transformation. What once felt like a rallying cry turned into a background hum. The organization wasn’t resisting the strategy—people simply began drifting back to the comfort of the familiar.
They had done all the "normal" things you’d expect:
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✅ Defined bold strategic initiatives
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🗌 Created detailed rollout plans
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🤝 Aligned their senior leadership
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📣 Launched a communication campaign
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🛠️ Rolled out change management workshops
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💨 Drove some early wins
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📊 Tracked progress via a new PMO
But then… the energy began to dissipate.
Priorities shifted. People left. Urgency waned.
The strategy that once energized the organization quietly slipped into the background. What had been clear became murky. What once inspired became a set of to-dos.
This story is all too familiar.
The uncomfortable truth is:
Strategy activation isn’t a simple process—it’s a living system.
And living systems require care, attention, and—most of all—persistence.
🚀 Strategy Accelerator: Build Strategy That Works
"The best strategy resource I’ve ever used."
- Olivia C., Principle Strategy Advisor
If this story feels familiar, it might be time to evolve your approach.
The Strategy Accelerator is a hands-on program designed to help leaders move from strategy on paper to strategy in motion.
You'll learn how to:
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Build an adaptive strategy system from the ground up
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Activate strategy through behavior, not just communication
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Use small wins and strategic sprints to generate momentum
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Maintain energy over time and avoid the fade-out
Want to join a cohort of leaders rethinking how strategy really works?
Click here to learn more and join the next round.
Doors close on May 20th. Don't miss your chance to become a Strategy Accelerator.
🧬 Strategy is Structure. And Structure Decays.
At its core, strategy is about imposing order—organizing energy and attention toward a better future.
But the universe prefers disorder. Left alone, even the best plans unravel.
Without continuous effort, strategic structure gives way to entropy. Priorities blur. Attention drifts. Systems revert to the path of least resistance. To maintain structure, we must tend to it—like any living system.
Just like a garden needs water and care, strategy needs ongoing effort to flourish.
🌿 Strategy Is Like a Garden
Gardens don’t become beautiful because they’re planted.
They become beautiful because they’re tended.
They’re designed for beauty—but they demand ongoing energy to fight off weeds, weather, and neglect.
Strategy works the same way.
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A clear vision is important.
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A strong plan is helpful.
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But what really matters is what happens after launch.
If you want your strategy to live, grow, and bear fruit—you need to engineer persistence.
🔄 What Does Engineering Persistence Look Like?
Here are six powerful tools and design principles that keep strategy alive over time—especially when things get messy or momentum starts to stall:
1. Start with Sustainable Energy (Not Flashy Launches)
A high-energy kickoff feels great—but it often creates unrealistic expectations.
Instead, build from a steady, achievable cadence that can grow over time.
Pace beats intensity when it comes to sustaining strategy.
2. Create a High-Tempo Cycle of Small Wins
Speed matters—but not just speed for its own sake.
A high tempo of visible, achievable wins builds confidence and credibility.
Think of it as a series of “strategic sprints”: fast cycles of action, reflection, and adaptation.
Each sprint becomes proof that progress is happening—and it fuels belief in the next step.
Momentum is strategy’s best friend.
3. Lower the Cost of Cooperation
People want to contribute—but only if it’s easy, safe, and rewarding to do so.
Remove friction: simplify processes, clarify expectations, reduce risk.
Make it easy to say “yes” to the strategy in daily work.
Design for effortlessness.
4. Amplify Local Role Models
Top-down messages fade. Peer behavior sticks.
Find and elevate natural influencers who are already living the strategy.
Let their example ripple outward.
People don’t copy posters—they copy people.
5. Reward What You Want Repeated
Recognition is the feedback loop that locks in new behaviors.
Celebrate what aligns—not just with outcomes, but with process and mindset.
Make sure everyone knows what “great strategy in action” looks like.
Shine the light where you want people to walk.
6. Create Space for Deliberate Practice
You can’t “roll out” mastery.
Create psychological safety for people to try, fail, and improve.
Encourage teams to build strategic behaviors through reps—not pressure.
Consistency beats heroics.
🗺️ Shift from Implementation to Movement
When you treat strategy like a one-time rollout, you plan for a moment.
When you treat it like a movement, you plan for momentum.
Movements thrive on belief, behavior, and belonging.
That’s what sustains energy long after the kickoff fades.
Final Thought:
If your strategy is fading, don’t assume it was the wrong strategy.
It might simply be a neglected one.
Start asking:
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Where have we stopped tending the garden?
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Where do we need to re-infuse energy?
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What would it look like to recommit—not just to the plan, but to the movement?
Because persistence isn’t just a leadership trait.
🔎 It’s the secret ingredient behind every successful strategy.
So, if you're ready to breathe new life into your strategy—consistently, deliberately, and sustainably—let’s do it together.
Let’s accelerate.
— Alex Nesbitt
Founder, Strategy Academy
Helping founders stop spinning—and start scaling.
P.S. When you're ready, here are 2 ways I can help you:
(1) Contact me for 1:1 CEO coaching and advisory services
(2) Apply to the Strategy Accelerator program for leaders and strategic professionals who want to master strategy in action. Don't miss the enrollment deadline - May 20, 2025
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