In this episode of Chronicles from a Caribbean Cubicle, Francis Wade reads his Jamaica Gleaner article that warns CEOs against rushing a fresh, high‑impact strategic direction straight from the top. Using a vivid scenario of a CEO returning from a New York conference with three big ideas, Wade outlines three critical implementation gaps that can sabotage success. Gap 1 is the mismatch between the CEO’s long‑term strategic focus and managers’ short‑term, result‑driven mindset, meaning managers need time to absorb and internalise the new vision. Gap 2 concerns the lack of authentic executive engagement; senior leaders must demonstrate emotional commitment, typically through a dedicated “commitment event” or strategic retreat where they co‑create the plan and relinquish sole authorship. Gap 3 is the need for visible, genuine support that reaches lower tiers, avoiding window‑dressing and ensuring staff develop personal commitment over time. Wade recommends a circuitous rollout: allow managers time, hold commitment retreats, let others own the strategy, and foster bottom‑up buy‑in rather than a single town‑hall directive. The episode ends with a call to visit his consulting blog for further resources.
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Hello and welcome back to Chronicles from a Caribbean Cubicle podcast. This is Francis Wade, and here's an article I wrote for the Jamaica Gleaner. It's entitled A CEO's Dilemma: Having a Great Idea for a New Strategy. If you're the leader of an organization, what should you do when you develop an exciting, fresh strategic direction for your company? Before you rush in, take caution. You could do more bad than good if you don't proceed carefully. Imagine yourself as a CEO or MD just returning from a 2-day conference in New York. As you sit in the departure lounge, you're filled with nervous energy. 3 big ideas triggered by your exposure churn in your mind. Your organization needs them to secure its survival in these trying times. However, you also heard from a consultant who cautioned against implementing any new idea from the top down. If the implementation is complex, it's easy for you to chase up the hill only to realize that your troops aren't behind you. How can you ensure that your business transforms in order to survive while engaging staff at all levels along the way? Town hall announcement do the trick? The answer is usually no. As a leader, you must account for several gaps inherent in your leadership that could doom your effort. These must be accounted for in the way you roll out your ideas to ensure implementation. Gap number 1: Your strategic thinking versus that of others. Most CEOs forget that while they are focusing on the company strategy 90% of the time, their direct staff is far less concerned. In my experience, the average leader wants managers who are short-term result producers. As such, each manager spends no more than 10% of their time thinking about long-term strategy, triggered by the event of the annual retreat. Therefore, managers develop strategic skills slowly, if at all. Consequently, many who are promoted to top positions end up floundering, as they simply are not used to the long-term thinking needed to guide the enterprise. This means that your bright strategic idea might not be readily understood by your colleagues. While you came to these sudden insights based on your foreign exposure, it might take them much longer to arrive at the same conclusion. Therefore, You need to give them time to come up to speed just to appreciate the nuances of your proposal. Don't be impatient. Gap #2: Your executives' engagement. While your top executives are used to managing their departments for quick results, they are probably not used to putting the hours into projects that have a long-term payoff. This can doom your strategy. Most important strategic initiatives impact several departments at once. Also, the people who must implement them are usually far away from the CEO's office. Therefore, top managers must have more than an abstract understanding. They need to show an emotional connection with the new project. That's the only way to inspire those who need to set aside old behaviors and implement new ones. Such executive bonds aren't crafted via a town hall speech. Or by sending out messages on the importance of creating shareholder value. Instead, you must hold a commitment event—an occasion specifically intended to bring your top managers together in a public show of solidarity. This usually takes place in a strategic planning retreat. By the time it concludes, each attendee has been asked to craft and engage with the new strategic plan. But it's not a majority vote in which the losers are forced to sign up to something they don't believe in. Instead, there needs to be a sense that your 3 big ideas are self-evident—conclusions that any team of smart people would arrive at. As this happens, as the CEO, you must release any authorship of the original insights and allow others to build their own commitment in their own words. For their own reasons. Gap number 3: Their visible support. But this can't be window dressing. Having everyone nod together is a start. The rubber hits the road when the plans hit the lower tiers of the organization. Now, leaders must engage staff so that they develop their own commitments as well, which cannot happen in an ordinary meeting. The point of taking this circuitous route rather than just issuing a directive is that complex changes need the buy-in of many people who often don't work together. The energy required to bring them to a single vision is considerable and doesn't happen in an instant. Don't be fooled by those who offer instant assent. Instead, realize that success occurs only when staff members are applying private discretionary time and effort. This approach may not do much for the ego-driven CEO, who is a magnet for credit and attention, but it's the right one for the organization. In the long term, the best way to implement a new idea is through others. Thanks for listening. Do you have an unsolved problem in your Caribbean company related to strategy, productivity, engagement, or business development? Business process improvement? Just visit a searchable listing of all my prior articles and you may be able to help yourself to a fresh line of thinking. Go to blog.fwconsulting.com or see the show notes.
