The Execution Gap: Why Strategic Plans Fail And How To Ensure Yours Won't.

It is a familiar ritual in the corporate world. The executive team retreats to an offsite location for two days. There are whiteboards, sticky notes, expensive coffees, and spirited debates. By the end of the retreat, there is a feeling of euphoria. A new Strategic Plan has been birthed. It is bold, it is innovative, and it is going to change the trajectory of the company.

Then, Monday morning arrives.

The emails pile up. The servers crash. A key client complains. The “whirlwind” of daily operations kicks up dust, and that beautiful strategic plan is shoved into a binder, placed on a shelf, and forgotten until next year’s retreat.

This is the Execution Gap.

According to research from the Harvard Business Review and other management consultancies, between 60% and 90% of strategic plans fail to meet their original objectives.¹ The problem is rarely a lack of intelligence or vision. The problem is the inability to translate high-level strategy into ground-level action.²+1

Bridging this gap is the single greatest competitive advantage a company can possess in 2025. This article dissects why the gap exists and provides a structural blueprint for closing it.

I. The Anatomy of Failure: Why the Gap Exists

To fix the problem, we must first diagnose it. The Execution Gap is not a mystery; it is the result of specific, identifiable fractures in an organization.

1. The Clarity Paradox

Most leaders assume their strategy is clear because it is clear to them. However, by the time the message cascades down from the C-Suite to the Director level, then to the Manager level, and finally to the Frontline, it has been diluted like a game of “Telephone.”

The Symptom: If you ask five employees to name the company’s top strategic priority for the year, you will likely get five different answers.
The Reality: You cannot execute what you do not understand.

2. The “Whirlwind” Effect

This concept, popularized by The 4 Disciplines of Execution, describes the massive amount of energy required just to keep the business running.

The Strategy is the “new” thing you want to do (e.g., Launch a new product).
The Whirlwind is the “current” thing you must do (e.g., Answer support tickets, ship orders).
The Whirlwind always wins because it is urgent. Strategy is important, but rarely urgent—until it is too late.

3. Lack of Emotional Buy-In

Strategy is often communicated as a directive: “We need to hit $10M.”

Employees do not wake up excited to make the CEO richer. If the strategy does not connect to a larger purpose or the employee’s specific contribution, they will comply, but they will not commit. Compliance keeps the lights on; commitment drives growth.

II. Step 1: Radical Simplification (The “WIG”)

The first step to closing the gap is to admit that you are trying to do too much. An organization that tries to execute 10 strategic priorities will execute zero.

You must narrow your focus to one or two Wildly Important Goals (WIGs).

A WIG is a goal that, if achieved, makes all other successes matter. If you fail the WIG, it doesn’t matter how many other small boxes you checked.

The WIG Formula:

From X to Y by When.
Bad Goal: “Improve customer service.”
WIG: “Increase Net Promoter Score (NPS) from 40 to 60 by December 31st.”

By narrowing the focus, you create a “laser light” effect. Every resource in the company knows that this is the mountain we are climbing.

III. Step 2: Operationalizing the Strategy (The Translation Layer)

Once the WIG is set, it must be translated. A frontline sales rep cannot “Increase NPS.” That is a result, not an action. You must break the WIG down into behaviors.

The Commander’s Intent

In the military, plans often fall apart upon contact with the enemy.³ To counter this, officers use “Commander’s Intent.” This is a clear statement of the desired outcome. If the plan fails, soldiers are empowered to improvise as long as they achieve the intent.

Translating to Business:

CEO’s WIG: Increase Revenue to $50M.
Marketing Dept WIG: Generate 5,000 qualified leads (leads to revenue).
Sales Dept WIG: Close 20% of leads (leads to revenue).
IT Dept WIG: Ensure 99.9% uptime (supports sales).

Every team needs to answer the question: “What is the one thing we can do that most impacts the company’s WIG?” This aligns the vectors of the organization so everyone is pulling in the same direction.

IV. Step 3: Lead Measures vs. Lag Measures

This is the technical heart of execution. Most dashboards are autopsies—they report on what has already died. These are Lag Measures (Revenue, Profit, Customer Satisfaction).⁴ You cannot influence them directly; they are history.

To close the execution gap, you must focus on Lead Measures.

A Lead Measure has two characteristics:

Predictive: If the lead measure changes, the lag measure will move.
Influenceable: The team can directly control it.

Strategic Goal (Lag)	Execution Metric (Lead)
Lose 10 lbs	Calories consumed / Minutes exercised
Increase Sales by 10%	# of Proposals sent / # of Demos booked
Reduce Safety Incidents	# of Safety Audits performed / % of Staff wearing PPE

The Strategy: Stop fighting over the lag measure. Obsess over the lead measure. If your team sends enough proposals (Lead), the sales (Lag) will come.

V. Step 4: The Compelling Scoreboard

People play differently when they are keeping score.

Imagine a group of friends playing basketball in a park. They are laughing, shooting casually, taking breaks.

Now, imagine someone starts keeping score. The intensity changes. The posture changes. Strategy emerges.

The Execution Gap thrives in environments where employees don’t know if they are winning or losing.

Rules for a Great Scoreboard:

Simple: A 5-second glance should tell you if you are winning.
Visible: It should be physical (a TV screen or whiteboard) in the workspace, or pinned to the top of the digital workspace (Slack/Teams).
Lead & Lag: It must show both the effort (Lead) and the result (Lag).

If your employees have to ask you, “How are we doing this month?”, you have already lost. The scoreboard is the definition of reality.

VI. Step 5: The Cadence of Accountability (The WIG Session)

The final bridge over the gap is Rhythm.

Strategy execution does not happen in the quarterly review; it happens in the weekly check-in.

You need a strict, 20-minute weekly meeting called the WIG Session.

The Agenda:

Account: Report on last week’s commitments. (“I said I would make 10 calls. I made 12.”)
Review: Update the scoreboard. (“Because I made 12 calls, our lead measure moved up.”)
Plan: Make commitments for next week. (“To move the scoreboard next week, I will…”)

The Golden Rule: Do not let the “Whirlwind” enter this meeting.

Do not discuss HR issues, broken printers, or client gossip. This meeting is exclusively for the Strategy. This signals to the team that the Strategy is sacred and distinct from the day-to-day chaos.

VII. The Cultural Shift: Autonomy over Micromanagement

A common mistake in trying to close the execution gap is responding with micromanagement. Leaders try to “force” execution through heavy oversight. This backfires.

Execution requires human engagement.

Old Model: “I (Manager) will tell you exactly what to do.”
Execution Model: “Here is the Goal (WIG). You (Team) tell me how you are going to achieve it.”

When the team defines their own Lead Measures and sets their own weekly commitments, they own the result. They aren’t executing your plan; they are executing their contribution to our plan.

VIII. Technology’s Role in Execution

In 2025, we have tools to assist this, but tools are not a strategy.

Project Management (Asana/Jira): Good for the Whirlwind (tasks).
Strategy Execution (Lattice/Perdoo/Viva Goals): Good for the WIGs (OKRs).

Use software to automate the scoreboard, but never let software replace the conversation. The weekly accountability meeting is a human ritual, not a digital notification.

IX. Conclusion: The Discipline of the Finish Line

The Execution Gap is wide, and it is littered with the carcasses of brilliant strategies that were never implemented.

Crossing it requires discipline. It requires the courage to say “No” to good ideas so you can say “Yes” to great ones. It requires the persistence to hold the weekly meeting even when you are busy. It requires the humility to let your team define their own path to the goal.

When you close the gap, you don’t just hit your numbers. You build a culture of high performance. Your team learns that they are not just cogs in a machine, but drivers of a vehicle. They learn that when they pull the lever, the machine moves. That feeling—of efficacy and impact—is the ultimate driver of employee retention and business growth.

Your strategy is only as good as your ability to execute it. Stop planning. Start building the bridge.

The Execution Gap: Why Strategic Plans Fail and How to Ensure Yours Won’t.