Strategy can look brilliant on paper and still fail the moment it meets the organisation that has to deliver it. We sit down with Gavin Rouch, an organisational development practitioner, to get honest about why that happens and what to do instead. We talk about organisations as interconnected systems in all their messy glory, where incentives, history, board pressure, and filtered information create strategic blind spots that senior leaders rarely see from the strategy room.

We dig into what “good strategy execution” actually demands: participation that brings operational reality into the process, decision-making that generates real options, and the humility to speak in probabilities rather than perform certainty. Gavin shares why strategies often become propaganda, full of glittering generalities, why tough choices should provoke anxiety, and why the most valuable work is often the dialogue behind the tools. We also explore how emotion and sensemaking shape whether people invest in the direction, and why broadcasting strategy through comms alone leaves teams cold.

From meeting waste and invisible knowledge work to HR and L&D translating strategy into capability building, we map practical ways to close the gap between intent and delivery. We finish with a clear message: strategy is not the exclusive domain of the senior leadership, and everyone has more agency than they think. If this sparked a few uncomfortable truths, subscribe for more, share the episode with a colleague, and leave a review with the biggest strategy gap you see right now.

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🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast

📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsReality

Connect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

What If Everyone In Your Organisation Is Already Strategising? | Garin Rouch