Your strategy isn't the problem.
Your systems and conditions driving your execution are.
Strategy Execution by Design is the diagnostic that tells you why, and shows you what to do about it.
A research-backed maturity assessment for executive teams who are tired of seeing their strategies stall.
The execution gap is real. And it is expensive.
Every senior leader I work with tells me a version of the same story. The strategy is clear. The leadership team is committed. The plan looks sound on paper. But twelve months in, momentum has stalled and priorities have drifted.
It is not a strategy problem. It is a problem with the systems and conditions of the organisation. Most organisations are running modern strategies through legacy execution conditions: the governance, the goal systems, the performance frameworks, the decision rights.
55.5%
In my research conducted with 24 senior leaders (tier 1-3), strategy execution effectiveness averaged 55.5 per cent. This means half of all strategic energy is spent without achieving intended outcomes, and not because people are not trying.
of employees are not aware of, or do not understand, their organisation’s strategy.Kaplan & Norton
of the financial performance their strategies promise is what firms actually deliver.Mankins & Steele, 197 companies
to three-quarters of large organisations struggle to execute their strategy.Sull, Homkes & Sull, almost 8,000 managers
Mankins and Steele broke that shortfall into eleven causes. Not one of them is that the strategy was wrong. My research measures the same gap from inside the executive team, and points to where it originates.
Reti, R. (2022). Maximising Firm Performance Through Strategy Execution. Massey University. · Kaplan & Norton (2005). Creating the Office of Strategy Management. · Mankins & Steele (2005). Turning Great Strategy into Great Performance. · Sull, Homkes & Sull (2015). Why Strategy Execution Unravels.
Execution doesn't break in one place.
It breaks across a system.
Seven levers, each with five elements, measured through 261 structural indicators. Not opinions. Not engagement scores.Click on a lever below to see what it covers.
Leadership & Trust
Whether the leadership team operates as a genuine collective, provides clear direction, learns and adapts, trusts each other enough to be honest, and builds the relationships that move work across boundaries.
Strategic Clarity & Alignment
Whether the strategy is clear and focused, the operating model supports it, the translation to action has happened, people can articulate it in their own words, and the organisation adjusts when conditions change.
Execution Management System
The operating system for execution, run by a team with the mandate and capability to make it work. Integrated visibility across all work, goals that drive alignment, value realisation, healthy information flow, and a learning architecture that prevents repeating the same mistakes.
Governance & Accountability
Whether governance is deliberately designed for the current strategy, decision rights are clear, leaders have genuine visibility into execution reality, cross-functional coordination works, and escalation is healthy.
Execution Feasibility
Whether the organisation has the resources, capacity, and infrastructure to deliver. Capital allocation, workforce capacity after BAU, change absorption, delivery capability, and the systems that make feasibility visible.
Performance & Commitment
Purpose, psychological safety, shared ownership, performance recognition, and collective commitment. These are the people conditions that enable discretionary effort.
Culture for Execution
Whether the culture is aligned to what strategy needs, norms support follow-through, constructive challenge is expected and enabled, the right behaviours are reinforced, and culture is consistent across the organisation.
The model also evaluates those conditions within the societal culture the organisation operates in, whether that is Australia, New Zealand, the United States or elsewhere. Societal culture either helps or hinders execution. A system designed without accounting for it will struggle, not because people are not capable, but because the behaviour the system assumes does not come naturally in that context. The recommendations identify how your execution conditions need to adapt to work with the culture rather than against it.
Your strategy is clear. So why isn't it landing?
Score your organisation against 14 execution indicators and get a report you can act on today.
Start the 5-minute assessment →Why execution fails differently in every country.
Many execution frameworks are not built to consider how societal culture shows up in the way people challenge, decide and commit. They assume everyone is comfortable with direct challenge, that hierarchy gets questioned, and that speaking up carries no cost. That is not how every culture works.
The Maturity Model reads your execution conditions alongside the GLOBE Project's published research on societal culture, the most comprehensive study of its kind, currently covering 62 countries.Select a dimension to see how it shapes execution.
Each dimension is measured on two scales: how people actually behave, and what they believe should be true. The gap between them is where the insight sits. It tells you whether an intervention needs to compensate for the culture, unlock it, or simply align with it.
How it works
A structured, time-bound diagnostic that gives you a clear picture of where execution is strong and where it is at risk.
Step 1 · Calibration session
We start with a working session with your leadership team. This is not a briefing. It is a structured conversation that surfaces how the team sees the organisation's execution conditions, where perspectives differ, and what the cultural context means for your environment. It also sets the baseline for the assessment.
Step 2 · Three perspectives in parallel
Your leadership team assesses execution maturity across the full indicator set. Selected functional and thought leaders provide a cross-functional lens. Staff across the organisation respond to experience statements. The gap between what leaders believe and what staff experience is often the most powerful finding.
Step 3 · Consultant evidence review
I review the documents, governance structures, and systems that underpin execution. Where it adds value, I observe leadership and governance forums in action. This gives the assessment an evidence base beyond perception.
Step 4 · Cultural overlay
I overlay societal culture as a lens for reading the findings, drawing on the GLOBE Project's published research on cultural dimensions. This gives context for where culture may be helping or hindering execution in your environment, and informs what type of intervention is likely to work here.
Step 5 · Findings session
A facilitated working session with your leadership team, to share what the data shows, explore perspectives, and talk through the recommendations. The cultural context reframes challenges from “what's wrong with us” to “what do we design for.”
Step 6 · Co-design the action plan
A co-design session, or sessions, to develop a roadmap in 90-day horizons with culturally informed interventions. Each action specifies what it is, who owns it, and what success looks like.
Why the Strategy Execution by Design Maturity Model is different
Built from research, refined in practice
Original eMBA research with senior leaders across New Zealand, evolved through 20 years of practice. Every lever was tested against what breaks execution in practice.
Assesses the system, not the people
The Strategy Execution by Design Maturity Model tells you how the systems and conditions your team operates within are helping or hindering execution. Commitment is a system output, not a people problem.
Designed for execution, not strategy
Most strategy frameworks help you decide what to do. The Maturity Model tells you whether the organisation can actually deliver it.
Culturally grounded, not culturally blind
Every other execution model assumes one cultural context. The model maps execution conditions against societal culture. The recommendations are designed for your culture, not borrowed from someone else's.
A maturity model, not a heatmap
A five-level maturity scale on every indicator, with specific descriptions of what each level looks like. You know exactly what better looks like and how far you are from it.
Ready to see what's really going on?
If your strategy is sound but execution keeps stalling, the answer is not another planning cycle. It is understanding which conditions are in place and which are not.
Across 7 levers, 35 elements and 261 indicators. Triangulated across leadership, peers, staff and independent evidence. Set within your cultural context.
Talk to Becs about the diagnostic →Access the detailed Maturity Model overview
More detail on the research, the seven levers, the cultural dimensions, and how a diagnostic runs.