Strategy doesn’t fail in spreadsheets; it fails when people can’t see themselves inside it. We sit down with David Slowly—journalist turned radio producer turned B2B strategist—to unpack a practical, repeatable way to turn direction into action through narrative. David traces how radio taught him to spark imagination without visuals and how working with data-driven teams demanded proof that stories change minds. The result is a simple 5-4-3-2-1 toolkit leaders can use on Monday morning: five Ws for raw facts, four Ps (princes, purses, pets, places) to hook attention, three acts to structure challenge–struggle–resolve, two states to maintain emotional momentum, and one killer headline that sticks when the room closes the deck.

We stress why most “strategies” read like to-do lists and how to shift from internal busyness to external effects. You’ll hear how to define the effect you want on your environment, then show what you will actually do to enable those effects to emerge. We build vision stories that make future states tangible without pretending certainty, and we argue for embracing ambiguity as a source of agency. People act when they feel trusted to fill intelligent gaps. That’s where identity matters: know what your organisation is today—capabilities, constraints, ethos—so you can choose the next credible moves and the options they unlock.

Expect hands-on tactics you can apply now: one-message emails that reduce friction, headlines that are promise, intrigue, or news, and live read-backs to test whether a message landed. We show how to use real places and specifics to feel true to your culture, map likely struggles by function, and define a crisp resolve: when the smoke clears, what will be observably different out there. Tell the journey and cast your audience as the hero; they’ll start pre-solving as you speak. If people can’t picture it, they won’t do it—so give them a story that fits the work and earns belief.

If this conversation helps you rethink how you communicate strategy, subscribe, share it with a leader who needs it, and leave a review with your one killer headline.

Find David's work here: https://harveydavid.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Why-You-Need-A-Business-Story-And-How-To-Create-It-1.pdf

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🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast

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Strategy often treats the future like a straight road. We treat it like a landscape. With Lasse Jonasson, Chief Foresight Officer at the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies, we unpack how to swap predictions for preparedness and why language is the first tool of good strategy. When leaders share a vocabulary for assumptions, signals, and scenarios, conversations stop drifting and decisions start compounding.

We dig into practical moves that any team can run this quarter. Start by stress testing your three-year plan against plausible ten-year futures: what must stay true for it to work, what signals would disprove it, and who owns the call to pivot. We show how to identify elements of your organisation that endure across scenarios and those that demand redesign. Rather than chase certainty, build optionality with explicit triggers, resource pathways, and decision rights. You’ll hear why “strategic ambiguity” is not vagueness but a guardrailed space where discovery and delivery both win.

AI and geopolitics headline the change, but their real impact lies in how they reshape relationships, processes, and business models. Most leaders explore AI for efficiency; the advantage arrives when you reimagine work and value creation. We contrast the machine metaphor of management with the ecosystem metaphor, making the case for cultures that sense, adapt, and learn in public. We also challenge tidy hero stories and winner’s myths, highlighting how documenting assumptions and debates—now easier with AI—helps teams separate preparation from luck and improve cycle after cycle.

If you’re ready to make strategy a living practice—futures literacy, scenario thinking, and identity-aware choices—this conversation will give you the prompts and patterns to begin. Subscribe, share with a colleague who owns a roadmap, and leave a review with the one assumption you plan to test next.

Send Mike a Message

Enjoying the show?

Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.

🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast

📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsReality

Connect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Strategy doesn’t live in a binder; it lives in motion. We sit down with practitioner-author Erik Schön to reconnect strategy with doing, drawing on Sun Tzu’s correlative pairs, Boyd’s OODA orientation, and Wardley Maps to turn abstract plans into concrete manoeuvres. From the first minutes, we challenge the ritual of annual decks and fixed KPIs, arguing for shorter strategy loops that privilege learning, outcomes, and a clear line of sight to the customer.

Erik unpacks the engine behind durable advantage: the dance of expected and surprise. Customers must get the table stakes they anticipate, but loyalty and growth emerge when you add a well-timed, positive surprise. Think iPhone’s shock, or Ericsson’s practice of shipping at least one “desire to use” feature per release. We translate this into practical moves: mapping capabilities, exposing gaps, and deciding when to build, buy, or outsource. Wardley Maps become the team’s shared terrain, shifting debates from personalities to dependencies and evolution—from novel to commodity.

We also tackle culture and cadence. Quarterly retrospectives and prospectives beat annual ceremonies because they compress feedback, curb KPI tunnel vision, and empower small experiments with fast ROI. Drawing on mission command, we favour firm intent with flexible plans: leaders set outcomes, teams design manoeuvres. Along the way, we explore why some firms stall on “expected, expected, expected,” how to avoid self-induced ambiguity, and what Eastern comfort with change can teach Western efficiency cultures. Real-world examples—from Netflix’s global-local bet to Nvidia’s pivot from gaming to AI—show how capability compounding and orientation shifts tilt markets.

The close is a call to shape the conditions before you need a burning platform. Make the terrain visible, invest time in improvement work, and reward independent thinking within shared intent. If this conversation helps you see strategy as a daily practice—mapping, choosing, experimenting—tap follow, share with a colleague who loves real strategy, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

Find Erik's work here:
blog post: https://medium.com/an-idea/the-art-of-strategy-ac4165c0c085
Book site: https://yokosopress.jimdofree.com/#ArtOfStrategy

Send Mike a Message

Enjoying the show?

Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.

🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast

📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsReality

Connect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/