Most transformations don't fail on strategy. They fail on the way down.
A board can align on a five-year plan in a single offsite. Getting that plan to survive contact with a front-line team eighteen months later — still recognizable, still resourced, still the thing people actually do — is a different problem.
I call the gap between those two moments Strategy Leakage, and it's the problem every engagement I run is built to close.
Why It Happens
Leakage happens at six specific, identifiable points - not randomly.
Whether the strategy is articulated in terms a manager three levels down could restate correctly.
Whether priorities translate into team- and role-level objectives.
Whether people have the time and resourcing to do the new work on top of the old.
Whether people have the skills and tools to execute, not just the intent.
Whether the informal norms reward the new behavior or the old one.
Whether anyone's performance metrics actually move if the strategy fails.
How I Measure It
The Strategy Leakage Diagnostic™
A scored instrument, not a survey — a number and a heat map inside two weeks, built from structured leadership interviews, a pulse survey, and a review of what's actually in the room (strategy decks, org charts, current project plans) versus what people say out loud.
You get the Leakage Index and the six-dimension heat map before you commit to anything beyond the diagnostic itself.
