Most executive teams don’t actually have a “strategy execution problem”. They have a cadence problem.
Here’s the pattern: leadership defines 7, 10, sometimes 14 “priorities”. Everyone nods. Then nothing structurally changes in how the work is steered. People go back to their calendars, back to fire-fighting, back to polite chaos.
What’s really missing
Execution breaks not because teams are lazy, but because there is no agreed weekly operating rhythm that:
- Surfaces blockers early (instead of Thursday night escalation).
- Clarifies capacity (what can actually move this week).
- Confirms ownership (is this someone’s job or just “important”?).
If you don’t control these three, you don’t control delivery. You’re reacting. You’re not steering.
The 30-minute ritual that fixes 80% of the noise
In practice, what works is not a dashboard. It’s a fixed weekly slot with the real decision-makers, where you review only 3–5 strategic priorities, and for each:
- What moved last week?
- What is blocked right now?
- Who is on the hook for unblocking it before next week?
That’s it. No status tourism. No slide decks. No 14 KPI graphs.
Why this works (and why people resist it)
This exposes reality. You can no longer pretend “it’s progressing” when nothing shipped. You can no longer hide behind “dependencies”. It creates pressure — the good kind.
And yes, some leaders hate that at first. Because it removes the comfort of ambiguity.
If you’re in charge
Don’t ask for more reports. Install cadence. Pick 3–5 priorities, meet weekly, ask the same 3 questions every time. Hold the line.
Within 4 weeks, you’ll know exactly who’s actually executing and where the real bottlenecks are in your organisation.