Strategy Meets Reality Podcast

AI is moving fast, but the real risk is moving fast in the wrong direction. We sit down with Dr Mark Bloomfield, founder of Turbulence and a fellow at Cambridge Judge Business School, to get past the hype and talk about what AI transformation looks like when strategy meets reality. If you have ever heard “we need an AI strategy” and felt the room skip the hard questions, you will recognise the boardroom tension we unpack: change management, competitive advantage, and the uncomfortable truth that with AI, there is no neat finish line. We challenge the efficiency-first story that dominates so many generative AI rollouts. Yes, AI can cut cycle times, but we argue the bigger prize is capacity: headspace for better judgment, clearer choices, and the courage to reimagine work. Mark explains why AI is best treated as a capability, not a magic USB-C plug-in, and we explore practical uses like strategy simulation, horizon scanning, synthetic personas, and using voice agents to interrogate ideas rather than blindly accepting “synthesis”. We also get honest about the darker edges: outsourcing judgment, metacognitive laziness, AI obesity, hidden operational costs, token economics, and the way incentives can trigger fear or even sabotage. From governance and accountability to how humans and agentic AI might coordinate work, we keep coming back to one theme: intentional use, with humans staying responsible for meaning, context, and decisions. If you want a pragmatic, human-centred take on generative AI, organisational change, and strategic planning, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a colleague who is drowning in AI noise, and leave us a review with your answer: where will you draw the line on what you will not outsource?Find Mark's work here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drmarkbloomfield/Send Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Strategy fails in the gap between the plan and the lived reality of work, and that gap is where most leaders burn out. We sit down with Richard Claydon, an organisational theorist focused on leadership in complex and ambiguous environments, to name what’s really happening when teams feel overloaded, stuck and quietly cynical despite “doing everything right”. We dig into the confusion tax: the hidden cost that appears when run work, serve work and change work become tightly entangled. That’s when the coordinating middle gets squeezed, sensemaking time disappears, and only operational delivery looks visible or legitimate. Richard offers a sharp lens on the lived experience as stretch, tangle and drift, and we challenge the false fixes that turn into theatre, from extra boards and reporting to superficial wellbeing initiatives that never touch the underlying system. From there, we build a practical model of leadership that goes beyond direction and care. Richard explains three leadership grammars: sovereignty (decisions and clarity), solidarity (trust and commitment) and the missing piece, sensemaking (reading conditions, aligning interpretations and choosing moves the system can bear). We also explore “Maya”, an amalgamation of effective leaders, to show how sensemaking becomes action through interpretation, mobilisation across stakeholders and small bounded experiments that create islands of coherence you can scale. If you care about leadership development, organisational complexity, systems thinking and strategy execution that actually works, this conversation will give you language and methods you can use immediately. Subscribe for more, share this with a leader who needs breathing room, and leave a review with the biggest source of confusion tax in your organisation.Find Richard's work here: Substack: https://richardclaydon.substack.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drrichardclaydon/Send Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Strategy fails in a painfully predictable place: the moment it leaves the boardroom and lands in everyone else’s calendar. We sit down with Jurriaan Kamer to get brutally practical about why “alignment” so often becomes a loud broadcast, a perfect slide deck, and a quiet wave of cynicism on the ground. Instead, we dig into what actually moves strategy execution forward: orientation to real conditions, clear choices, and activation that gives teams room to interpret and self-align.We also borrow a performance system from an unexpected teacher: Formula One. F1 teams don’t just race fast; they learn fast. Jurriaan explains how reflection is scheduled, how debriefs create psychological safety without losing accountability, and why the best teams rally around a single priority rather than a crowded list. We connect this to organisational design, cross-functional teams, and making work visible by mapping the value chain and measuring time-to-market.Finally, we tackle the hard leadership habits that keep strategy connected to reality: explicit trade-offs through “even over” statements, strategic intent that is ambitious yet achievable over a 2- to 4-year horizon, and the overlooked power of reversible decisions. Less perfection, more experimentation, and more slack so people can think, collaborate, and adapt as the external environment shifts.If this helps you rethink how your organisation turns strategy into daily work, subscribe, share it with a colleague, and leave a review so more people can find the show.Find Jurriaan's work: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jurriaankamer/His booksUnblock: https://amzn.eu/d/0j8eVFIFFormula X: https://amzn.eu/d/051BMbWYSend Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Strategy falls apart in the messy middle between plans and execution, and that is exactly where we spend our time with Alex Vohr, author of Speed Kills: Leveraging John Boyd's OODA Loop to Build Organisations That Win. Alex brings a rare mix of experience as a US Marine Corps logistician, a commander in Iraq, a leader in disaster relief operations, and now the president of OneLNG an energy startup building small-scale LNG infrastructure. We use that lens to explore why “strategy meets reality” is not a slogan, but a daily operational problem.We dig into John Boyd’s OODA Loop as a practical model for decision making in complex adaptive systems, not the oversimplified four-step circle most people quote. Alex explains why orientation drives everything, how assumptions create risk, and why a decision should be treated as a hypothesis that only becomes true when action and feedback confirm it. If you care about organisational agility, learning organisations, and faster strategy execution, the takeaway is clear: improve how you observe, how you make sense, how you decide, how you act, and how you learn.We also challenge the “false god of efficiency” and the comfort of linear planning. Planning, red teaming, and after-action reviews are not bureaucratic theatre; they are tools for reducing surprise and building a relevant, effective tempo. We talk about incentives, the “zero defects” mentality, and why big organisations drift into entropy when they stop listening to the edges of the system.If this conversation helps you rethink how your team learns and executes, subscribe, share it with a colleague, and leave a review so more people can find the show.Find Alex here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-vohr-83b38767/Get his book: https://amzn.eu/d/01B56POuSend Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Strategy often fails for a boring reason: nobody knows who can decide what, and everything slows to a crawl. We sit down with Stefan Norrvall, joining us from Australia, to unpack organisational coherence and why it beats the usual push for “alignment” when dealing with real-world complexity. If your organisation feels busy but stuck, this conversation gives you language for what is happening and a model for what to fix first.We dig into Stefan’s run serve change heuristic and how each layer carries a different type of work, a different time horizon, and a different kind of complexity. Run creates value at the frontline. Serve as a coordinating hub across multiple run units to ensure they do not clash on resources, standards, platforms, or handovers. Change sets intent and enterprise constraints by reading the external environment, defining risk appetite, and making the big calls that shape the system. When serve is missing, leaders get dragged into operational conflict and lose the capacity to do real strategy work.From there, we name the “confusion tax”: the financial and human cost of unclear decision rights, endless escalation, and slow governance. We talk scenario-based tests that reveal where decision latency is baked in, why PMOs and change teams often report without authority, and why copying frameworks cannot compensate for poor operating model design. We also challenge strategy theatre, forced cascades, and agile rituals that do not improve decisions. If you want strategy execution that actually meets reality, listen, subscribe, share the episode, and leave us a review with the biggest confusion tax you see in your organisation.Find Stefan's Work: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefannorrvall/Substack: https://substack.com/@synexia​The Organisational Confusion Tax Scorecard: https://scorecard.synexia.au/confusion-taxSend Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Most organisations don’t fail at strategy because they lack ambition. They fail because they skip the one thing that has to come first: an honest read of reality. In this solo reflection, Mike Jones pulls together the strongest themes from the recent run of conversations and the client work that’s been sharpening my thinking, from strategic blind spots to the quiet damage caused by “organisational disassociation”, the gap between what leaders want to be true and what the environment will actually allow. He talks about why orientation beats decision-making and how overreaching plans create cynicism among senior leaders and the people expected to execute strategy. From there,  he moves into strategy communication and the trap of amplifying noise: big launches, polished narratives and endless repetition that still leave teams unclear about what to do. The alternative is intent-led strategic leadership, creating space for interpretation, context and back-briefing so people can make tough choices and adapt without being micromanaged. Then he goes deeper: what is strategy for? If strategy is mainly governance for the board, or an external projection of virtue that marketing can polish, it becomes theatre rather than a useful discipline. He offers a different frame: strategy as the practice that enables organisations to pursue viability and advantage in a changing political and economic environment, tightening the loop between hypotheses and surprise as the world evolves. Subscribe for more on organisational strategy, share this with someone wrestling with strategic planning, and leave a review if it helps. What is strategy for in your organisation, really?Send Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

The strategy looks clean on paper. Real strategy is sweaty, uncertain, and intensely human. Mike Jones sits down with Matt Finch, a strategist, foresight practitioner, negotiator and mediator, to get underneath the slide decks and into the lived experience of decision-making under pressure. We talk about why so many strategic plans stall at execution, and how the missing piece is often what people are feeling but cannot yet say out loud. Matt brings a grounded view from scenario planning and high-stakes work: leaders are not just thinking machines, they are bodies in a room, picking up signals, anxiety, hope and resistance. We dig into gut feel versus spreadsheet logic, the temptation to post-rationalise decisions after the fact, and the growing risk of outsourcing judgement to AI in strategy. AI can generate polished strategy outputs, but it cannot carry accountability, context or commitment. From military leadership to organisational culture, we explore practical ways to create clarity without building a rigid “Greek villa” strategy: clear intent, light constraints, and the back brief that forces real translation. We also tackle power and role boundaries, why psychological safety is never a magic switch, and how to read the room using attention tools like bracketing and horizontalising. The conversation lands on a sharp strategic question for any leader: would you like what your strategy makes you become? If you care about leadership, strategic planning, foresight, and decision-making under uncertainty, listen through and share it with someone who’s carrying the weight of a hard call. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us: what’s one “unsaid” truth you think your organisation needs to name?Connect with Matt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-finch/Send Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Strategy can feel like a choice between two bad options: a rigid annual plan that gets ignored by February, or constant agility that mistakes motion for direction. We sit down with Joel Grundy, Head of Strategy at Q5, to get back to what strategy is meant to do: help leaders make a small number of tough choices in an uncertain world, without pretending we can “bridle” the market into certainty.We dig into the lived reality of internal strategy work: building coalitions across investment, technology, people, and go-to-market teams, and staying close enough to leadership that strategy doesn’t become a factory of outputs. Along the way, we challenge the habits that flatten thinking, from purpose statements that drift away from what a business actually does, to pillars that become buckets for every initiative, to KPI lists that describe effects without naming the decisions that create them. Joel shares practical ways to improve strategic sensemaking, including war-gaming competitors and regulators, planning for shifting customer expectations, and keeping options open when you cannot know in advance what will work.Real-world examples bring it to life: AI as a “firework inside the business”; Netflix and Disney making identity-shaping bets on IP; Apple’s scale and the difficulty of placing meaningful bets; and what defence and rail teach us about why market forces cannot always be the guiding mind. We close with a grounded view of the strategist’s role: not telling people what to do, but giving decision-makers what they need, sometimes as an analyst and sometimes as a counsellor, always with humility.If you found this useful, subscribe, share it with a colleague who owns big decisions, and leave a review with the strategic question you’re wrestling with right now.Find Joel here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-grundy-378b278/Send Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

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.Send Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Strategy only matters if it survives contact with reality. We sit down with operations chief Jayson Coil to unpack how intent, trust, and disciplined initiative turn a tidy plan into effective action when the stakes are high and time is short. From wildfire lines to boardrooms, we dig into what leaders can do today to bridge the gap between strategy and execution without slipping into control for control’s sake.Jayson shares frontline stories where readbacks, backbriefs, and honest After Action Reviews exposed interpretation gaps that would have sunk a plan. We talk through building contingencies that go beyond a single preferred course of action, running pre-mortems and red teams that actually change decisions, and the hard but vital habit of judging decision quality separately from outcomes. You will hear why punishing by outcome kills initiative and how to evaluate information sources, conduct bias checks, and make trade-offs instead.Mission command takes centre stage: not a slogan, but a system. We explore the concrete behaviours that build climate—leaders inviting critique, defining constraints and intent, and creating safe-to-fail simulations where everyone, including the boss, is accountable. We look at aligning policies, incentives, and discipline so they do not undermine empowerment, and why competence in standard practice is the passport to freedom to deviate when context demands it. Along the way, Jayson offers practical tests you can apply: if every deviation needs permission, you have not built mission command; if teams can act on intent and you will back sound judgment, you are getting close.If you want a clearer strategy, sharper execution, and a team that can adapt under pressure, this conversation delivers tools you can use: red teaming, readbacks, realistic training, and a relentless focus on “What is different today?” rather than “What’s the same.” Subscribe, share with a leader who needs it, and leave a short review with your biggest takeaway so we can keep raising the bar together.Connect with Jayson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnjaysoncoil/Jayson's Paper: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WQ_pQL8_WGlIrAcxSpKOQqxhyLNVGKn3/view?usp=sharingSend Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Strategy doesn’t fail in spreadsheets; it fails when people can’t see themselves inside it. We sit down with David Slowly—journalist turned radio producer turned B2B strategist—to unpack a practical, repeatable way to turn direction into action through narrative. David traces how radio taught him to spark imagination without visuals and how working with data-driven teams demanded proof that stories change minds. The result is a simple 5-4-3-2-1 toolkit leaders can use on Monday morning: five Ws for raw facts, four Ps (princes, purses, pets, places) to hook attention, three acts to structure challenge–struggle–resolve, two states to maintain emotional momentum, and one killer headline that sticks when the room closes the deck.We stress why most “strategies” read like to-do lists and how to shift from internal busyness to external effects. You’ll hear how to define the effect you want on your environment, then show what you will actually do to enable those effects to emerge. We build vision stories that make future states tangible without pretending certainty, and we argue for embracing ambiguity as a source of agency. People act when they feel trusted to fill intelligent gaps. That’s where identity matters: know what your organisation is today—capabilities, constraints, ethos—so you can choose the next credible moves and the options they unlock.Expect hands-on tactics you can apply now: one-message emails that reduce friction, headlines that are promise, intrigue, or news, and live read-backs to test whether a message landed. We show how to use real places and specifics to feel true to your culture, map likely struggles by function, and define a crisp resolve: when the smoke clears, what will be observably different out there. Tell the journey and cast your audience as the hero; they’ll start pre-solving as you speak. If people can’t picture it, they won’t do it—so give them a story that fits the work and earns belief.If this conversation helps you rethink how you communicate strategy, subscribe, share it with a leader who needs it, and leave a review with your one killer headline.Find David's work here: https://harveydavid.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Why-You-Need-A-Business-Story-And-How-To-Create-It-1.pdfSend Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Strategy often treats the future like a straight road. We treat it like a landscape. With Lasse Jonasson, Chief Foresight Officer at the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies, we unpack how to swap predictions for preparedness and why language is the first tool of good strategy. When leaders share a vocabulary for assumptions, signals, and scenarios, conversations stop drifting and decisions start compounding.We dig into practical moves that any team can run this quarter. Start by stress testing your three-year plan against plausible ten-year futures: what must stay true for it to work, what signals would disprove it, and who owns the call to pivot. We show how to identify elements of your organisation that endure across scenarios and those that demand redesign. Rather than chase certainty, build optionality with explicit triggers, resource pathways, and decision rights. You’ll hear why “strategic ambiguity” is not vagueness but a guardrailed space where discovery and delivery both win.AI and geopolitics headline the change, but their real impact lies in how they reshape relationships, processes, and business models. Most leaders explore AI for efficiency; the advantage arrives when you reimagine work and value creation. We contrast the machine metaphor of management with the ecosystem metaphor, making the case for cultures that sense, adapt, and learn in public. We also challenge tidy hero stories and winner’s myths, highlighting how documenting assumptions and debates—now easier with AI—helps teams separate preparation from luck and improve cycle after cycle.If you’re ready to make strategy a living practice—futures literacy, scenario thinking, and identity-aware choices—this conversation will give you the prompts and patterns to begin. Subscribe, share with a colleague who owns a roadmap, and leave a review with the one assumption you plan to test next.Send Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Strategy doesn’t live in a binder; it lives in motion. We sit down with practitioner-author Erik Schön to reconnect strategy with doing, drawing on Sun Tzu’s correlative pairs, Boyd’s OODA orientation, and Wardley Maps to turn abstract plans into concrete manoeuvres. From the first minutes, we challenge the ritual of annual decks and fixed KPIs, arguing for shorter strategy loops that privilege learning, outcomes, and a clear line of sight to the customer.Erik unpacks the engine behind durable advantage: the dance of expected and surprise. Customers must get the table stakes they anticipate, but loyalty and growth emerge when you add a well-timed, positive surprise. Think iPhone’s shock, or Ericsson’s practice of shipping at least one “desire to use” feature per release. We translate this into practical moves: mapping capabilities, exposing gaps, and deciding when to build, buy, or outsource. Wardley Maps become the team’s shared terrain, shifting debates from personalities to dependencies and evolution—from novel to commodity.We also tackle culture and cadence. Quarterly retrospectives and prospectives beat annual ceremonies because they compress feedback, curb KPI tunnel vision, and empower small experiments with fast ROI. Drawing on mission command, we favour firm intent with flexible plans: leaders set outcomes, teams design manoeuvres. Along the way, we explore why some firms stall on “expected, expected, expected,” how to avoid self-induced ambiguity, and what Eastern comfort with change can teach Western efficiency cultures. Real-world examples—from Netflix’s global-local bet to Nvidia’s pivot from gaming to AI—show how capability compounding and orientation shifts tilt markets.The close is a call to shape the conditions before you need a burning platform. Make the terrain visible, invest time in improvement work, and reward independent thinking within shared intent. If this conversation helps you see strategy as a daily practice—mapping, choosing, experimenting—tap follow, share with a colleague who loves real strategy, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.Find Erik's work here:blog post: https://medium.com/an-idea/the-art-of-strategy-ac4165c0c085 Book site: https://yokosopress.jimdofree.com/#ArtOfStrategySend Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

What if the most powerful strategy lessons aren’t found in boardrooms but in everyday life at the edge of uncertainty? We sit down with Sarah Kernion, founder of Inch Stones and mother of two non-speaking autistic children, to explore how frontline parenting becomes a masterclass in orientation, sense making, and adaptive leadership. The conversation is candid, challenging, and grounded: you can’t outdecide a misaligned orientation, and quick decisions that endure are the by-product of clarity, not adrenaline.We dig into why “inch stones” beat grand milestones when growth isn’t linear and why accommodations, far from signalling weakness, often expose the exact places a system can get stronger. Sarah shares practical examples, like visual scheduling that helped her children and unexpectedly improved routine for a neurotypical sibling—proof that inclusive design scales value. Together we dissect John Boyd’s OODA, clearing up the myth that it’s about speed. Orientation is not what you see; it’s how you make sense of what you see. Leaders who build cultures of sense making ask better questions, retire dead KPIs, and trade control for clarity—because comfort is optional, but learning is non-negotiable.There’s also a provocative look at neurodiversity as an operational edge. Different brains notice different signals, and in dynamic environments that diversity of noticing can become decisive advantage. We talk echo chambers, identity, and how tactical humility keeps orientation tethered to reality. Expect crisp takeaways: replace fear with strategy, define outcomes before metrics, and anchor decisions in environment, intent, and constraints. When you do, speed emerges naturally, teams act with confidence, and progress compounds—one inch stone at a time.If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a colleague who protects green dashboards, and leave a review with the one assumption you’ll destroy and replace next.Send Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Strategy only matters if it changes what people do tomorrow. We bring Stephen Bungay, author of The Art of Action, to unpack how mission command turns intent into execution without drowning teams in detail. Instead of orders that prescribe how to act, directives clarify what to achieve and why it matters—freeing people to adapt their methods as conditions shift.We trace the roots from Prussian Auftragstaktik to modern NATO doctrine, then translate the core ideas into the boardroom. Stephen lays out a practical framework: share the real context, state higher intent and your own intent, surface implied tasks, and set clear boundaries. The heartbeat is the backbrief: teams explain how they’ll deliver the outcome, leaders confirm alignment, and everyone moves faster with fewer escalations. Along the way, we tackle the persistence of Taylorism, why lists and slide decks masquerade as strategy, and how over‑control smothers initiative while under‑guidance invites chaos.If you lead teams in uncertain markets, this conversation gives you tools to create high alignment and high autonomy at the same time. You’ll hear battle‑tested examples, from SOPs that help without handcuffing, to writing intent that drives real trade‑offs, to building situational awareness so people can decide well under pressure. Start small: give problems, not solutions; ask for a backbrief; reward judgement over compliance. Subscribe for more conversations on strategy that survives contact with reality, and leave a review to share where you’ll test mission command first.Send Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Modern work is overflowing with nonsense. Mandatory e-learning that teaches nothing, policies no one reads, collaboration that never happens, and metrics that drive the wrong behaviour.In this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Mike Jones is joined by James Healy, applied behavioural scientist and author of BS at Work, to unpack why organisations get pulled into performative nonsense and how behavioural science helps us escape it.James talks about the realities of human nature, why environment shapes behaviour, and why organisations keep adding more policies, processes and tech instead of removing what gets in the way. From the illusion of collaboration to the seduction of simple solutions, this is a grounded, funny and painfully accurate look at how modern work goes wrong and what to do instead.🔍 In this episode:• Why so much of modern work is BS • The behavioural science behind human nature at work • Why mandatory e-learning never changes behaviour • The paradox of human behaviour and herd dynamics • How metrics distort decisions and create perverse incentives • Collaboration myths and why people do not collaborate • Why organisations always add and never subtract • Technology overload and the infinite workday • Principles over policies • Outcomes over activities • The do less principle and why subtraction matters • Challenging organisational norms and asking why🎧 Keywords: Behavioural Science, BS at Work, Human Behaviour, Collaboration, Metrics, Organisational Culture, Decision Making, Leadership, Performance, Simplicity, Strategy Execution📘 James’s Book: https://amzn.eu/d/a1XHcvV 📬 Connect with James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-healy-behaviour-boutique/ 📬 Connect with Mike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones 🌐 Full Episodes: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategy-meets-realitySend Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Most organisations overthink strategy and underdo it.In this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Mike Jones sits down with Alex Smith, author of No Bullsh**t Strategy, to explore why strategy has drifted into a thinking exercise instead of a doing discipline.Alex explains why the fundamentals of strategy are simple, why leaders obsess over the wrong things, and why the real work starts when you make a move your competitors cannot or will not copy. From diagnosing industry flaws to the value of sacrifice and contrarian thinking, this is a grounded conversation that cuts through jargon and brings strategy back to action.🔍 In this episode:• Only as better than best: why out-competing rarely works • Sacrifice as the engine of real innovation • Strategy as a doing discipline • The macro vs micro problem in organisations • Why language corrupts strategic thinking • Why customer obsession kills good strategy • Diagnosing industry problems, not customer problems • Simple execution that people can actually act on🎧 Keywords: Strategy, No Bulls**t Strategy, Competitive Advantage, Industry Diagnosis, Strategic Simplicity, Execution, Action, Contrarian Strategy, Leadership, Decision Making📘 Alex’s Work: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-m-h-smith/📬 Connect with Mike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones 🌐 Full episodes: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategy-meets-realitySend Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

In this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Mike Jones is joined by Julian Chender—organisational design expert, strategy advisor, and founder of 11A Collaborative—to explore how to make strategy work in the messy reality of organisational life.Julian draws on years of experience helping purpose-driven organisations redesign themselves to stay viable. They unpack the challenges of structure, capabilities, and leadership transitions—revealing how real constraints can actually sharpen strategic execution when handled with clarity and care.From trust and convergence to feedback loops and freedom within constraints, this is a practical conversation for leaders navigating change, collaboration, and complexity.🔍 In this episode:What organisational design really means—and why it’s strategicAdapting capabilities when strategy shiftsFreedom within constraints: the paradox of effective deliveryBuilding trust, feedback, and convergence into your operating modelHow organisational structure shapes—and enables—impact🎧 Keywords: Strategy, Organisational Design, Operating Models, Structure, Capabilities, Leadership, Execution, Collaboration, Purpose-Driven, Julian Chender📘 Learn more about Julian’s work: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julianchender 🌐 11A Collaborative: https://www.linkedin.com/company/11a-collaborative/Send Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

What if the future of health isn’t just about fixing sickness—but creating value in how we live?In this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Mike Jones is joined by Andy Wilkins—founder of Future of Health, futures strategist, and author—to rethink what strategy means in health and care systems.They explore why efficiency often works against long-term health outcomes, how integrated care and lived experience must shape policy, and why the next generation of strategy must learn faster than the systems it’s trying to change. This is a forward-looking, systems-based conversation on rethinking health, leadership, and public value.🔍 In this episode:Why healthcare strategy must move beyond efficiencyFrom treating sickness to building resilienceUsing lived experience and Three Horizons thinkingRethinking leadership and the role of AIDesigning health systems that adapt and learn🎧 Keywords: Healthcare Strategy, Value in Health, Futures Thinking, Systems Change, Integrated Care, Three Horizons, Public Sector Leadership, AI in Health, Resilience, Andy Wilkins📘 Learn more about Andy’s work: https://www.vision4health.co.uk/ 📬 Connect with Andy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andywilkins/Send Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Strategy isn’t a performance—it’s a practice.In this special solo episode, host Mike Jones reflects on what 30 episodes of Strategy Meets Reality have revealed about the state of modern strategy. He explores why strategy fails first in perception, not execution, and how organisations confuse alignment with coherence, performance with action, and control with orientation.Drawing on lessons from Boyd, Sun Tzu, and the 30+ guests who’ve shaped this journey, Mike challenges the branding-led view of strategy and calls for a return to strategy as movement—anchored in perceptual clarity, structural capability, and a shared sense of reality.🔍 In this episode:Why strategy fails in the boardroom, not the fieldThe perceptual complexity behind strategic failureHow structural inertia widens the decision-to-action gapWhy coherence beats alignment in turbulent environmentsThe role of freedom of action in resilient executionHow we lost the art of manoeuvre—and how to bring it backFollow Mike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/ Learn more: https://substack.com/@strategymeetsreality https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast🎧 Keywords: Strategy, Execution, Leadership, Coherence, Perception, Structure, OODA Loop, Viability, Emergence, Strategic Orientation, Adaptive Organisations, Boyd, Sun Tzu, Viable System ModelSend Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

The brain is your most powerful strategic tool—if you know how to use it.In this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Mike Jones talks with Dr. Delia McCabe—neuroscientist and expert in nutritional neuroscience—about how neuroplasticity, nutrition, and stress shape leaders’ ability to think, decide, and adapt. They dive deep into the biology of creativity, the traps of mental fatigue, and why the structure of your brain determines the structure of your strategy.Dr. McCabe explains how chronic stress, poor sleep, and cognitive overload literally close down creativity—while the right nutrients, rest, and mental frameworks can rewire your brain for better decision-making. From “additive thinking” and uncertainty fatigue to the dangers of believing what you feel, this is a masterclass in how to think better, not just faster.🔍 In this episode:How brain structure shapes creative thinkingWhy stress kills neuroplasticity and creativityThe additive problem—and why leaders avoid subtractionInformation overload and the myth of productivityHow to build resilience to uncertaintyChanging minds through emotion and safetyThe “feeling of knowing” and decision-making trapsThe delicate balance between human cognition and AI🎧 Keywords: Neuroplasticity, brain health, leadership, neuroscience, cognitive load, uncertainty, stress, nutrition, decision-making, creativity, mental resilience, emotional intelligence, organisational change, AI and cognition📘 Learn more about Dr. Delia McCabe:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-delia-mccabe/Substack: https://deliamccabe.substack.com/Send Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Success can be blinding. Strategy is often where complacency hides best.In this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Mike Jones speaks with Saul Betmead de Chasteigner—strategic advisor and transformation leader—about the hidden traps in organisations that seem to be “winning.” They unpack how strategy becomes theatre, why organisations resist feedback when things are going well, and how real transformation depends on psychological safety, clarity, and structural intent.From autonomy and structure to feedback loops and values, this is a conversation about the inner work of organisational change—why it’s not just a structural fix, but a mindset shift.🔍 In this episode:Why strategy breaks when we confuse motion for progressHow “success syndrome” creates blind spotsAutonomy, structure, and the tension in betweenThe value of anti-complacency systems and lived feedbackWhy real transformation challenges power—not people🎧 Keywords: Strategy, organisational change, transformation, autonomy, structure, feedback, success syndrome, leadership, psychological safety, execution, decision-making📘 Learn more about Saul’s work: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saul-betmead/Send Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Viability doesn’t come from vision. It comes from feedback, iteration, and the courage to learn.In this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Mike Jones is joined by Mick Brian—a consultant with a military background and a passion for learning systems—to unpack how organisations can survive and thrive in complex environments.They explore what bees can teach us about decentralised decision-making, how the OODA Loop supports learning under pressure, and why real-time feedback is the foundation of strategic adaptability. From AI adoption to after-action reviews, this conversation connects lived experience, strategic thinking, and practical tools for evolving organisations.🔍 In this episode:What organisations can learn from bee coloniesWhy after-action reviews matter more than performance reviewsHow the OODA Loop supports emergent learningThe role of AI, autonomy, and self-organisationWhy sensemaking starts with feedbackThe importance of collective purpose and decision-making at the edge🎧 Keywords: Strategy, Feedback, Viability, Emergent Learning, OODA Loop, After-Action Reviews, Complexity, Beekeeping, Leadership, AI Adoption, Organisational Learning📘 Learn more about Mick’s work: Agile on the Beach Sketch 📬 Connect with Mick: Mick Brian on LinkedInSend Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Are your goals helping you adapt—or just perform?In this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Radhika Dutt joins Mike Jones to expose the hidden trap of OKRs and KPI-led management. Drawing on her latest work and the OHL Toolkit, Radhika introduces a radical shift: move from setting performance targets to setting puzzles.They explore how metrics create fragility, why freedom of action matters, and how to scaffold real learning without losing direction. From military concepts to corporate leadership, this is a sharp critique of goal setting gone wrong—and a practical alternative for those ready to rethink success.📥 Download the OHL Toolkit 🌐 Visit Radhika’s Website 🔗 Connect with Radhika on LinkedIn🔍 In this episode:Why OKRs often create performance theatrePuzzle setting vs puzzle solvingHow scaffolding enables experimentationFreedom of action without losing controlRethinking what good leadership looks likeThe danger of mistaking metrics for outcomes🎧 Keywords: OKRs, KPIs, leadership, complexity, adaptability, performance theatre, puzzle mindset, experimentation, scaffolding, radical product thinking, Radhika DuttSend Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Most nonsense in organisations isn’t malicious—it’s magnetic.In this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Mike Jones is joined by Paul Sweeney—author of Magnetic Nonsense: A Short History of Bullshit at Work—to unpack the rituals, myths, and illusions that derail progress inside organisations.They dive into the dangers of detached leadership, the myth of heroic CEOs, and why so many change programmes fail before they begin. From performance theatre and wellbeing platitudes to the real impact of meetings, Paul exposes how nonsense embeds itself in culture—and what it takes to replace it with something better.🔍 In this episode:Why magnetic nonsense is so attractive—and so hard to spotThe gap between executive fantasy and frontline realityHow buzzwords and best practices become blockersThe illusion of change and the truth about transformationWhat critical thinking really looks like in leadershipThe importance of autonomy and design that fits reality🎧 Keywords: Critical Thinking, Leadership, Culture, Organisational Nonsense, Change, Strategy Execution, Transformation, Autonomy, Corporate Myths📘 Learn more about Paul’s book: Magnetic Nonsense 📬 Connect with Paul: Paul Sweeney on LinkedInSend Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Antifragile is more than a buzzword—it’s a design principle.In this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Mike Jones sits down with Janka Krings-Klebe—author of The Antifragile Organization—to explore what it means to design organisations that thrive under stress. They unpack why most governance systems constrain innovation, how financial incentives can block adaptability, and why autonomy and accountability must go hand in hand.From ecosystem design to cultural enablers, this is a practical look at what it takes to shift from hierarchies to ecosystems—where learning, change, and resilience are not afterthoughts, but built into the DNA.🔍 In this episode:Why fragility is baked into most governance and budgeting modelsHow antifragile organisations navigate market disruptionDesigning autonomy and accountability togetherWhat value stream thinking means in practiceThe role of learning, culture, and failure in adaptabilityWhy the shift is from stability to direction, not control🎧 Keywords: Antifragility, ecosystem organisation, governance, budgeting, innovation, adaptability, autonomy, learning, organisational design📘 Learn more about Janka’s work: https://www.co-shift.com/ 📕 Read her book: The Antifragile Organization (Amazon) 📬 Connect with Janka: LinkedInSend Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Cybersecurity isn’t just about protecting data—it’s about enabling execution under pressure.In this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Mike Jones is joined by Glenn Wilson—cybersecurity expert, OODA loop practitioner, and founder of Dynaminet—to explore how the challenges of security mirror those of strategy. From technical debt to tool overload, commander's intent to learning loops, they unpack how poor decision-making, misaligned incentives, and lack of feedback erode both resilience and execution.This is not a technical talk. It’s a strategy conversation about where things break—and what to do about it.🔍 In this episode:Why strategy and cybersecurity face the same execution challengesThe hidden cost of technical debt and over-engineeringWhy developer voice matters for resilience and toolingUsing OODA and chaos engineering to build adaptive responsesWhat commander's intent looks like in securityHow to embed security without killing innovation or joy🎧 Keywords: Strategy Execution, Cybersecurity, OODA Loop, Technical Debt, Developer Experience, Chaos Engineering, Mission Command, Distributed Decision-Making, Leadership, Resilience📘 Learn more: https://dynaminet.com 📬 Connect with Glenn: Glenn Wilson on LinkedInSend Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Most strategy documents belong in a drawer. Real strategy is lived, spoken, and constantly adapted.In this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Mike Jones is joined by Professor Donald MacLean—physicist, strategist, and founder of Strategy Story—to unpack what makes strategy real, why we confuse it with policy and vision, and how governance is quietly killing adaptability.Donald shares why strategy is emotional before it’s intellectual, why leadership is about enabling sensemaking, and why conversation—not control—is the engine of execution.🔍 In this episode:Why real strategy is spoken, not writtenThe difference between policy, vision, and strategyWhy governance often strangles adaptabilityThe human side of strategic commitmentHow to re-personalise strategy without dumbing it downWhat Clausewitz, Sun Tzu, and football managers have in common🎧 Keywords: Emergent Strategy, Governance, Strategic Execution, Complexity, Systems Thinking, Organisational Design, Engagement, Clausewitz, Storytelling, Open Strategy📬 Connect with Donald: https://www.linkedin.com/in/professordonaldmaclean/Send Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Most strategy frameworks promise clarity—but what happens when there is no map?In this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Mike Jones is joined by Elsa Henderson—consultant, facilitator, and PhD researcher on “wayfinding” in complexity. Drawing on her work with impact networks and her doctoral research into real-world leadership practice, Elsa explores what it means to make decisions, build strategy, and lead effectively when the future is unclear.They unpack why traditional navigation fails in dynamic environments, why capacity matters more than capability, and how the aesthetics of leadership—the felt experience—shape what we notice, trust, and act on. It’s a rich, grounded conversation for leaders rethinking how strategy and sensemaking really work in practice.🔍 In this episode:What wayfinding means—and why it matters in strategyThe difference between capability and capacity in leadershipWhy frameworks are only useful if you can adapt themPractical wisdom and anticipatory capacity in actionThe emotional and aesthetic dimension of leadership decisionsRethinking time, identity, and feedback in organisational change🎧 Keywords: Wayfinding, Strategy, Capacity, Complexity, Anticipatory Capacity, Practical Wisdom, Leadership, Dynamic Environments, Change, Sensemaking, Aesthetics, Tacit Knowledge, Adaptation📬 Connect with Elsa: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elsa-henderson-48b720132/Send Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Most organisations measure success by profit. Hunter Hastings says that’s the wrong compass.In this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Mike Jones is joined by Hunter Hastings—strategist, author, and leading voice in systems thinking—to challenge the way businesses define and deliver value. They unpack why profit maximisation blinds leaders to opportunity, how autonomy unlocks creativity, and why removing barriers is the real work of leadership.From shifting the paradigm away from efficiency to focusing on effectiveness, to breaking down the power structures that stifle action, this episode offers a practical roadmap for leaders who want to organise for adaptability and meaningful impact.🔍 In this episode:Why value creation should drive strategy—not profit targetsHow autonomy fuels speed, creativity, and innovationThe limits of efficiency as a business strategyRethinking power dynamics in modern managementRemoving barriers to action across the organisationWhy systems thinking is essential in a boundaryless business world🎧 Keywords: Systems Thinking, Value Creation, Autonomy, Organisational Design, Leadership, Efficiency vs. Effectiveness, Power Dynamics, Strategy, Adaptability, Empowerment📘 Learn more about Hunter: Hunter’s LinkedInSend Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Planning isn’t about precision—it’s about possibility.In this episode, Mike Jones is joined by Johan Ivari—Swedish Armed Forces officer, lecturer at the Swedish Defence University, and author of A Set-Based Approach: Searching for the Problem–Solution Eclipse. Together, they explore how strategy and execution can remain viable in a world shaped by unpredictability and complexity.Johan challenges the illusion of control, unpacks why detailed plans often collapse on contact with reality, and explains how the set-based approach protects adaptability by expanding options, not narrowing them. From mission command and viable systems to cognitive agency and feedback loops, this episode is a rich exploration of thinking, learning, and leading in real time.🔍 In this episode:Why narrative—not metrics—should lead executionThe danger of detailed plans and false certaintyHow viable systems enable distributed action and coherenceWhy leaders must protect their organisation’s capacity to actThe value of affordances and ‘coarse’ planningWhy set-based planning improves decision quality and learning🎧 Keywords: Set-Based Planning, Viable Systems, Mission Command, Complexity, Strategy Execution, Feedback Loops, Agency, Command and Control, Adaptive Leadership📘 Read Johan’s paper: A Set-based Approach 📬 Connect with Johan: LinkedInSend Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Leadership is no longer about maintaining the old—it’s about shapeshifting into the new.In this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Mike Jones is joined by Louise Le Gat, creator of the purpose-led roadmap, to explore how leaders must evolve in the face of global disruption, systemic shifts, and societal transformation.Louise challenges us to stop being good soldiers of the status quo and become brave builders of the future. From mental model upgrades to organisational reinvention, this is a deep dive into the inner and outer shifts leaders must make to shape what comes next.🔍 In this episode:Why we’re still acting like we’re safely in port—but we’re already in the stormThe move from control to coherence, from managing to shapingHow imagination and purpose redefine value in uncertain timesDismantling survival mechanisms and embracing uniquenessThe inner system shifts that must accompany outer changeCreating spaces for intrapreneurial agility and reinvention🎧 Keywords: Leadership, System Shifts, Mental Models, Purpose-Led, Inner Work, Shapeshifting, Reinvention, Positive Impact, Complexity, Legacy Leadership📘 Learn more about Louise’s work: https://www.louiselegat.com/ 📬 Connect with Louise: https://www.linkedin.com/in/louiselegatSend Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Engagement isn’t a soft skill—it’s a strategic advantage.In this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Mike Jones is joined by Marcus Dimbleby—former RAF, red teaming expert, and founder of Effective Direction—to explore how critical thinking and challenge cultures sharpen execution in complex environments.Marcus explains why most organisations suffer from self-inflicted complexity, why outputs are mistaken for outcomes, and how empowerment without clarity or capability leads nowhere. From psychological safety to adaptive planning and human-led strategy, this is a grounded conversation on execution that works under pressure.🔍 In this episode:Why red teaming unlocks the best ideas—not just hierarchy-approved onesThe ROI of engagement and the real cost of quiet quittingWhy complexity isn’t the enemy—but confusion isHow psychological safety enables challenge, not comfortThe problem with planning theatre and faux empowermentCritical thinking as the foundation of execution🎧 Keywords: Red Teaming, Strategy Execution, Critical Thinking, Leadership, Organisational Complexity, Psychological Safety, Empowerment, Engagement, Mission Command, Organisational Design📘 Learn more about Marcus’s work: https://www.effectivedirection.com/ 📬 Connect with Marcus: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcusdimblebySend Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Viability isn’t about predicting the future—it’s about preparing for many.In this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Mike Jones is joined by Norman Chorn—strategist, scenario thinker, and author—to challenge conventional planning and explore how leaders can make better strategic decisions under uncertainty.Norman explains why conventional alignment makes organisations fragile, why strategic adaptability depends on coherence, and how low-regret bets create resilience without wasting effort. From complexity and culture to leadership ego and strategic ambiguity, this is a grounded take on how to think, plan, and act when nothing is certain.🔍 In this episode:Why efficiency is fragile and redundancy builds resilienceCoherence vs alignment—and why it matters for viabilityScenario thinking and low-regret betsThe role of purpose and culture in strategic adaptabilityStrategy as continuous learning, not annual ritualWhy humility and decentralisation are strategic strengths📘 Learn more about Norman’s work: https://www.drnormanchorn.com/🎧 Keywords: Strategy, uncertainty, scenario planning, coherence, resilience, complexity, strategic alignment, futures, leadership, organisational design📘 Learn more about Norman’s work: [Insert link to Norman’s website or LinkedIn]Send Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

We don’t just fight wars with weapons, we fight them with ideas, metaphors, and assumptions we don’t even question.In this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Mike Jones is joined by Ben Zweibelson—veteran, military strategist, and author of Reconceptualizing War—to explore why our dominant paradigms of strategy are failing us. They unpack the hidden structures behind military thinking, why complexity demands more than doctrine, and how multi-paradigm design can unlock radically different ways of seeing and acting.This is not just about warfare. It’s a challenge to how we think, how we plan, and how we lead in a world that refuses to conform.🔍 In this episode:Why most strategy is trapped in a single paradigmThe difference between functionalism, complexity, and interpretivismHow militaries (and organisations) mistake activity for understandingWhy the irreversibility of time matters for decision-makingWhat multi-paradigm thinking looks like in practiceHow language, design, and philosophy shape strategic failure or success🎧 Keywords: Strategy, military thinking, complexity, war, paradigms, decision-making, design, multi-paradigm, functionalism, interpretivism, uncertainty📘 Learn more about Ben’s work: https://www.helion.co.uk/military-history-books/reconceptualizing-war-.phpSend Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Control is comforting, but in complexity, it’s often a trap.In this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Mike Jones is joined by Michael Negendahl, founder of Exaptive Labs and a former emergency nurse, to explore why many leadership responses are performative rather than practical. They unpack the psychological need for certainty, the danger of chasing tidy plans in messy environments, and the difference between solving a problem and solving the wrong one.This is a candid conversation about power, ego, and the courage to admit we don’t know. For leaders navigating real-world uncertainty, this one goes deep.🔍 In this episode:Why control is often just a performanceHow strategy becomes theatre when leaders avoid discomfortThe gap between perception and reality in problem-solvingThe difference between control and the illusion of controlWhat distributed intelligence looks like in practiceWhy proximity to the customer changes everything🎧 Keywords: Leadership, complexity, risk, control, decision-making, distributed intelligence, strategy, systems thinking, safety, problem-solving📘 Learn more about Michael’s work: https://www.exaptivelabs.com/aboutusSend Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Innovation isn’t a brainstorm. It’s a way of thinking, organising, and acting in uncertainty.In this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Mike Jones sits down with Paul Frobisher—engineer, strategist, and founder of Strategic Innovation—to explore how organisations often misdiagnose the innovation challenge. From solving the wrong problems to collapsing under performance pressure, Paul breaks down the real reasons innovation fails—and what leaders can do instead.They explore the value of TRIZ and IDEF0, the emotional cost of failed innovation, and how to build innovation systems that work over time—not just on slides. With insight from automotive and energy disruption, this is a sharp look at how to think better, decide better, and act with intent.🔍 In this episode:Why most innovation fails before it startsHow to solve the right problem—not just move fastUsing TRIZ, IDEF0 and models to design innovation processesThe emotional and political side of innovationHydrogen, EVs, and the long game of disruptionWhy innovation isn’t about creativity—it’s about clarity🎧 Keywords: Innovation, TRIZ, IDEF0, uncertainty, strategy, engineering, EV disruption, hydrogen, decision-making, organisational design📘 Learn more about Paul’s work: https://strategic-innovation.co.uk/Send Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

What if the most powerful lever in strategy isn’t action—but orientation?In this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Mike Jones is joined by Mark McGrath—Marine veteran, strategist, and expert in John Boyd’s OODA loop—to unpack how orientation drives adaptation, shapes perception, and rewires how organisations respond to disruption.Mark takes us deep into Boyd’s legacy, revealing why strategy is less about linear plans and more about continuous learning, destruction and creation, and evolving faster than the environment. From Wall Street trading floors to boardroom transformation, this episode is a masterclass in fighting inertia, rethinking time, and breaking free from the guardians of decay.🔍 In this episode:Why orientation—not action—is the true source of advantageHow destruction and creation enable real adaptationUnderstanding time, tempo, and disruptionWhat it means to lead with curiosity and humilityWhy small shifts create exponential effectsHow to challenge entrenched assumptions and power🎧 Keywords: OODA loop, John Boyd, strategy, orientation, disruption, decision-making, leadership, complexity, learning, strategic advantage📘 Learn more from Mark at: https://substack.com/@markjmcgrathSend Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Design thinking isn’t just for product teams—it can reshape how we do strategy.In this episode, Mike Jones is joined by Leanne Sobel—Director of Strategic Design at Snowmelt and author of a recent PhD on the intersection of design and strategy. Together, they explore what it means to bring design into strategic work: not just as a toolkit, but as an ethos of participation, reflection, and experimentation.Leanne shares how traditional strategy often limits possibility through early assumptions—while design opens up space to sense, test, and adapt. From stakeholder engagement to making strategy usable in practice, this episode reframes how strategy can be done in complex environments.🔍 In this episode:How design challenges traditional strategy modelsBuilding usable strategies—not just presentationsWhy stakeholder inclusion is a risk-reducer, not a slowdownThe difference between design thinking and design practiceWhy reflection is a core strategic actCreating feedback loops to make strategy adaptive📘 Learn more about Leanne: https://www.snowmelt.io/team-members/leanne-sobel 🎧 Full podcast + notes: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality 🎙 Listen on Spotify, Apple, or YouTubeKeywords: Strategic Design, Design Thinking, Organisational Strategy, Adaptive Strategy, Design-Led Change, Stakeholder Engagement, Strategic Practice, Leadership, Systems Thinking, ComplexitySend Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

What if the real barrier to change isn’t resistance—but the stories leaders tell themselves to avoid doing the work?In this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Mike Jones is joined by Steve Hearsum—consultant, coach, and author of No Silver Bullet—to unpack the deep disconnect between strategy, leadership, and organisational change.This isn’t about frameworks or toolkits. It’s about the mess, the uncertainty, and the anxiety that real change creates—and what happens when leaders fall back on control, comms theatre, and performative fixes.Steve brings sharp insight into why so many change efforts fail to stick, the myths that keep organisations stuck, and the work needed to build capability, coherence and culture from the inside out.🔍 In this episode:Why leadership development often misses the pointThe gap between strategy and actual changeHow anxiety and fragility show up in executive behaviourWhy clarity is useful—but coherence is criticalThe danger of “burning platform” narrativesWhat it really means to build organisational capabilityWhy communication isn’t the problem—it’s the shortcut🎧 Keywords: organisational change, leadership, capability, strategy execution, culture, complexity, communication, change management, OD, Steve Hearsum📘 Read No Silver Bullet: Bursting the Bubble of the Organisational Quick Fix: https://amzn.eu/d/bUXQWSn Send Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

What if strategy wasn’t a closed-door ritual—but a way to build commitment from those who deliver it?In this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Mike Jones is joined by Julia Hautz—Professor of Strategic Management at the University of Innsbruck and co-author of Open Strategy—to explore what really happens when leaders invite participation into the strategy process.This isn’t about consensus. And it’s not about giving everyone a vote. It’s about designing strategy so it’s recognised, understood, and owned by the people closest to reality.Julia shares insights from years of research and organisational engagement, unpacking the myths, the structural discipline, and the leadership mindset required to make openness work. From crisis response to long-term strategy shaping, she lays out why open strategy isn’t soft—it’s a strategic advantage when done well.🔍 In this episode:Why open strategy isn’t democracy—and why that mattersHow participation creates psychological ownership and commitmentThe risk of surface-level engagement and ‘black box’ decisionsWhat leaders fear about openness—and how to manage itHow to create structure without killing initiativeWhy “just involving people” usually backfiresThe power of openness in times of crisis🎧 Keywords: open strategy, strategic participation, leadership, decision-making, legitimacy, organisational culture, strategy execution, transparency, inclusion, commitment, strategy process📘 Learn more in Julia’s book Open Strategy (co-authored with Christian Stadler, Kurt Matzler and Stephan Friedrich von den Eichen) https://amzn.eu/d/8RpROITSend Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

What if AI isn’t the answer—but a way to ask better questions?In this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Mike Jones is joined by Matt Mullan—strategist, technologist, and co-creator of the H-Scan11 newsletter—to explore how leaders can engage with the future in a more intelligent, imaginative, and grounded way.This isn’t another hype piece about AI. It’s a challenge to the illusion of certainty that dominates leadership today. From human-machine teaming to building AI literacy, Matt lays out a compelling case for why the future isn’t something to predict—it’s something we actively shape.Drawing on his work at the intersection of AI and strategic foresight, Matt shares why decision-making is stuck in the past, how to spot the weak signals of disruption, and why emotional engagement—not data alone—is critical for leadership.🔍 In this episode:Futures thinking vs. strategic foresight—what’s the difference?Why AI is a force multiplier, not a crystal ballBuilding futures literacy across teams—not just execsThe danger of chasing perceived certaintyHow constraints fuel innovationWhy strategy needs imagination—not just information🎧 Keywords: AI, foresight, futures thinking, imagination, uncertainty, leadership, decision-making, scenario planning, strategic foresight, organisational capacity📬 Explore Matt’s and David Sloly thinking in H-Scan11: https://hscan11.substack.com/Send Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Why military thinking still matters in businessIn this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Mike Jones sits down with Ben Ford—Royal Marines veteran, technologist, and founder of Mission Ctrl—to explore what the military can really teach us about strategy, leadership, and execution in the business world.This is not about war stories or hierarchy. It’s about decentralised decision-making, strategic adaptation, and why organisations need to stop chasing efficiency and start building real capacity. Ben brings his unique perspective from the front lines of both military operations and tech implementation to challenge how we think about command and control, AI, and organisational resilience.From why most change management is broken to how businesses can learn from military doctrine without blindly copying it, this conversation goes deep into what it means to compete—and win—in uncertainty.🔍 In this episode:Why you can’t manage change—you have to lead itThe danger of over-optimising for efficiencyHow military doctrine evolved through failure and what business can learn from thatWhy planning still matters—even when everything changesHow AI can increase human capacity if you use it rightBuilding resilience through structure, not just tech🎧 Keywords: military, technology, strategy, agility, decentralisation, leadership, adaptability, AI, command and control, organisational design📘 Learn more about Ben’s work: https://missionctrl.dev/Send Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Risk isn’t just about compliance or avoiding failure—it’s about enabling better decisions.In this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Mike Jones speaks with Stefan Gershater, Head of Risk and Governance at Co-op, to explore a radically different view of risk. One that sees it not as a bureaucratic burden but as a long-term strategic asset.They tackle the outdated orthodoxy still dominating boardrooms, unpack the human and cultural dynamics of risk, and discuss how organisations can turn risk into a driver of resilience, agility, and growth. If your risk register feels like a drawer-filler, this conversation will change how you think.🔍 In this episode:Why risk must be tied to strategic objectives—not isolated frameworksHow to challenge the 10,000-year orthodoxy of accounting-led risk thinkingUsing risk to enable growth, not just prevent failureMaking better decisions, faster—with real-world contextHow governance and decision-making must evolve in the age of data🎧 Keywords: risk management, strategy, governance, resilience, decision-making, organisational culture, stakeholder engagement, technology, objectives, risk assessment📘 Learn more about Stefan’s work: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefangershater/Send Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Management isn’t old-fashioned—it’s what makes real execution possible.In this episode, Mike Jones is joined by Adam Thompson, strategy and execution expert, to tackle why management matters more than ever in today’s overloaded organisations. Far from being just about "nice" leadership, success demands clarity, sequencing, and the courage to have adult conversations about real work.Adam shares practical insights into why organisations stall under overload, how to sequence tasks to unlock agility, and why execution without management is just wishful thinking. If you're serious about moving beyond slogans to real outcomes, this conversation is essential listening.If you want to rethink leadership, management, and execution from the ground up, this one's for you.🔍 In this episode:Why overload is the root cause of poor executionWhy management, not just leadership, is critical for successHow sequencing work reduces chaos and improves agilityWhy adult conversations—not assumptions—drive better workplace dynamicsThe real meaning of corporate courage in organisationsHow clarity and direction shape effective executionWhy "good enough" beats perfection in the real world🎧 Keywords: Adam Thompson, execution, management, leadership, clarity, sequencing, workplace dynamics, adult conversations, corporate courage, organisational strategy📘 Learn more about Adam’s work: https://www.thompsonorganisations.com.au/Send Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Mission command isn’t a process—it’s a culture.In this episode, Mike Jones is joined by Don Vandergriff, retired military leader and pioneer of outcomes-based learning, to explore what mission command really looks like in practice. Far from a doctrinal buzzword, it’s about building trust, empowering people, and creating space for thinking leaders.Don draws on decades of experience to show why control, ego, and risk aversion are the enemies of adaptability—and how learning must be active, informal, and continuous. From Von Moltke to tactical decision games, this conversation is packed with insights for anyone leading in complexity.If you want to stop managing and start developing real leadership, this one’s for you.🔍 In this episode:Why mission command is about culture, not command structuresThe critical role of trust, intent, and empowermentHow constraints and control kill initiativeWhy most After Action Reviews are brokenUsing historical insights to shape modern leadershipHow to build critical thinking and initiative with decision games🎧 Keywords: mission command, leadership, trust, empowerment, military culture, decision-making, adaptability, learning, critical thinking, Von Moltke📘 Learn more about Don’s work: https://donvandergriff.substack.com/Send Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

What future do you want—and why don’t most organisations stop to ask?In this episode, Eva Tomas—a futurist by nature, engineer by training, and philosopher at heart—joins host Mike Jones to explore how futures thinking can help leaders act with more clarity in a world of complexity. They unpack why linear strategy falls short, how uncertainty is often misunderstood, and why leaders must look beyond the immediate to open up new choices.You’ll learn how Eva’s Banyan model reconnects past, present, and futures—offering a practical way to rethink strategy as collective sensemaking rather than prediction.🔍 In this episode:Why “the future” is a myth—and why we must think in futuresHow certainty is an illusion that limits decision-makingWhat can leaders do to find directionality without fixed goalsWhy diversity of perspective expands strategic insightThe role of participation in organisational foresightHow to spot positive signals in a sea of noiseA simple exercise to surface hidden narratives and beliefsGuest Bio: Eva Tomas is a futurist and founder of Simple Thinking, working with organisations, educators, and youth to rethink strategy, direction, and agency in complex systems. Her work blends foresight, philosophy, and systems thinking to help leaders move from passive prediction to active participation in shaping the future.🔗 Learn more: Eva LinkedIn 📘 Explore the Banyan Model🎧 Keywords: Futurist, Strategy, Complexity, Futures Thinking, Leadership, Decision Making, Banyan Model, Systems Thinking, Positive Signals, Organisational Change, UncertaintySend Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Strategy isn’t a plan—it’s a pattern.In this episode, systems thinker and strategy expert Patrick Hoverstadt joins host Mike Jones to explore what strategy looks like in real life: dynamic, context-driven, and shaped by power, fit, and timing.Patrick introduces the Patterns of Strategy approach, offering a powerful lens to understand the relational, political, and temporal dimensions of strategic positioning—far beyond alignment or linear models.If you're tired of empty strategy decks and want to understand how strategy really unfolds in complexity, this one’s for you.🔍 In this episode:Why strategy is a pattern of positioning over timeUnderstanding power and fit as core to strategic dynamicsWhy “alignment” is often a trapHow to navigate ecosystems and competing playersUsing patterns, not plans, to steer in uncertaintyGuest Bio: Patrick Hoverstadt is the author of Patterns of Strategy and The Grammar of Systems. He works with senior leadership teams on strategic direction and organisational viability in complex systems.📘 Learn more about Patterns of Strategy: https://amzn.eu/d/5ieaTGz🎧 Keywords: strategy, systems thinking, Patrick Hoverstadt, organisational design, complexity, leadership, decision-makingSend Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

What does the OODA loop really mean—and why do most leaders get it wrong?In this episode, Chet Richards—military strategist, Boyd collaborator, and author of Certain to Win—joins host Mike Jones to dive into the deeper layers of John Boyd’s thinking. We go beyond the buzzwords to explore how orientation drives every aspect of decision-making, tempo, and strategic agility.You’ll learn why mental models—not just data—shape how organisations perceive, decide, and act in complexity.🔍 In this episode:What orientation really means in the OODA loopWhy decision-making is more than speed—it’s about fitThe role of decentralisation and trust in military and business leadershipHow culture and power dynamics shape your ability to adaptWhat business can and can’t learn from military doctrineGuest Bio: Chet Richards is a retired USAF Colonel and a leading interpreter of John Boyd’s work. He is the author of Certain to Win: The Strategy of John Boyd, Applied to Business, and has worked with military, government, and corporate leaders on applying Boyd’s ideas to organisational life.📘 Buy the book: https://a.co/d/9ZR4Pvp🔗 Learn more: https://slightlyeastofnew.com🎧 Keywords: Strategy, OODA loop, Decision Making, Chet Richards, John Boyd, Orientation, Decentralisation, Leadership, Military Strategy, Business Agility, Organisational Behaviour, Systems ThinkingSend Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Most organisations focus on structure when they talk about change—but structure isn’t what makes an organisation adaptive.In this opening episode, Mike Burrows joins host Mike Jones to explore what it really means to build deliberately adaptive organisations. Drawing on his work with Agendashift, Mike challenges the assumption that hierarchy or agile-by-the-book can handle complexity—and offers a practical, purpose-driven alternative.We explore:Why designing for participation matters more than structureThe trap of importing organisational models out of contextWhy clarity of purpose is key in uncertain environmentsWhat leaders need to unlearn to support real adaptabilityIf you’re wrestling with how to make your organisation more responsive, this conversation will help you rethink the basics.Guest Bio: Mike Burrows is the founder of Agendashift and author of Right to Left and Agendashift. He works globally with organisations building outcome-oriented, participatory approaches to change.📘 Pre-order his new book Wholehearted: Engaging with Complexity the Deliberately Adaptive Organisation → https://amzn.eu/d/5ezZG1t🎧 Keywords: strategy, organisational design, adaptability, Mike Burrows, deliberately adaptive organisations, Agendashift, leadership, systems thinking, complexity, participation, organisational changeSend Mike a MessageEnjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsRealityConnect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/