Is your strategic plan mere ritual?
Every year, leadership teams go on an offsite session. They treat strategic planning as a routine like Holy Week: leadership retreats, planning decks, team meetings and then, boom, there’s a “new” strategy.
But take a closer look and it’s often last year’s plan repackaged in fresher bubble wrap. They churn out the latest buzz words—“story selling”, “agility,” “ecosystem” or “digital first”—but nothing changes underneath.
Same goals. Same teams. Same budgets. Same results.
That’s not strategy. That’s ritual—doing strategic planning because it’s expected, not because it changes anything.
Ritual vs strategy: Know the difference
Rituals are internal. They focus on what we want to say, present or defend.
Strategy is external. It listens to the customers, competition, market forces and challenges the status quo.
If the plan is just a polished version of what you already do, without confronting difficult choices, it’s not strategy. It’s repetition.
3 simple tests: Does your strategy create value?
A real strategy should deliver transformation, not just activity. Ask yourself:
- Better than before: Are we improving real business outcomes—growth, penetration, margin, cost, satisfaction, share of mind, or loyalty?
- Better than others: Are we outperforming the market? Are we serving key customers others ignore or can’t serve well?
- Better than expected: Are we exceeding what we committed? Did we set the right ambition, or just played it safe?
If your plan fails two of these three, it’s not strategy. It’s compliance.
Warning signs you’re in strategic ritual
Certain phrases signal ritual thinking:
“We aligned cross-functional teams.”
Did funding follow that alignment? Or is it just coordination with no power?
“That worked for us last year.”
That may no longer work today. Customers and competitors move faster than your templates.
“We benchmarked best practices.”
Following others isn’t strategy. Strategy is choosing what others haven’t dared to try.
When answers rely more on past comfort than future relevance, it’s time to pause and redirect.
Why rituals hijack strategy
There are reasons we fall into this trap:
- Comfort beats challenge: It’s safer to repeat what worked before.
- Risk aversion: Leaders want predictable delivery, even if it means lower growth.
- Lack of feedback: If there are no reviews tied to results, there’s no discipline.
- Politics over merit: Teams defend existing budgets instead of re-earning them.
- Process over value: Strategy becomes about finishing the deck, not fixing the business.
In short, we manage the appearance of strategy instead of using strategy to manage the business.
5 questions to reclaim strategy
Here are five questions every leadership team should ask before approving any strategic plan:
- What’s truly different this year, in resource, capability, or structure?
If nothing changed in resource allocation, you didn’t change strategy.
- What new consumer or market insight are we acting on?
Strategy should be grounded in insight, not just data, model or preference.
- What are we actively stopping and doubling down on?
Strategy isn’t just choosing what to do. It’s being mindful and brave enough to stop what no longer works.
- Where are we placing real bets, and what’s the risk/reward?
If there’s no risk in the plan, there’s no innovation.
- Where are we choosing to lead, and where are we okay being just good enough?
Strategy is about focus. You can’t win everywhere, so be intentional where you aim to outperform, and where you just need to stay relevant.
If these answers aren’t clear, your strategy is a wish list, not a business plan.
Strategy should be a discipline, not an event
The most powerful strategies don’t come from perfect templates. They come from uncomfortable truths.
A strong strategy forces trade-offs. It reallocates, not maintains, resources. It builds new capabilities instead of recycling old ones. It listens to the front line, not just the corner office. And it creates measurable value, not just motion.
Strategy isn’t what’s written. It’s what is acted on.
Final litmus test
Think back to the last time you presented your stratplan. Can your team clearly answer: “What’s meaningfully different this year, and what new value are we creating because of it?”
If the answer isn’t clear, you don’t have a strategy, you have a ritual. And rituals may keep people busy, but they don’t grow businesses. Strategy does.
Let this be the year you lead with clarity, not routine.
