A young villager who had been to the city returned, bringing the village elder a map and said, “Look, I have charted the safest and fastest path to the top of the mountain.”
The elder studied the map and replied, “You know the mountain, but not the way.”
The young villager protested, “The map was created by experts, and the path is marked clearly here.”
The elder smiled and said, “Paper can show where the mountain is, but only walking the path teaches you how to climb it.”
The young villager gained a new insight.
The map that lives on paper changes nothing, yet the map that lives in people changes everything.
So it is with strategy, for it becomes real the moment someone takes a step.
Enjoy your November news2use and your walk to the top of the mountain.
Dan
“Relevant & pragmatic ideas, tools and insights to play at your best.”
For You
We operate in three temporal zones: the past, fuelled by memory; the present, shaped by perception; and the future, unlocked by imagination and creativity. Most professionals over-invest in the first two. We analyze, we optimize, we protect what exists; yet we create very little that is truly new.
Growth begins where imagination is no longer optional.
Imagination and creativity are not soft skills; they are the engines of innovation and the birthplace of strategic advantage.
Here’s my invitation: Don’t only manage what you remember or perceive. Build what you imagine.
Make space for imagination, encourage others to explore ideas that don’t yet have evidence behind them, and act boldly on the possibilities that emerge. That’s how leaders move from maintaining today to shaping tomorrow.
For You & Your Team
As 2025 winds down, leadership teams face a pivotal question:
“How do we turn what happened in 2025 into momentum for 2026?”
The best teams know that excellence isn’t created in the mid-year rush; it’s built in December and January, when most are sliding into Christmas parties or slowly returning to the new year.
Taking time to look back, harvest lessons learned, and align priorities creates the confidence to move forward together. That’s why I’m offering a one-day Year-End Leadership Review & Strategic Alignment Session; an impactful day to reflect, realign, and recharge your leadership team for a faster start into the new year.
If this resonates for you, let’s talk or send me an email, and I’ll forward you an overview of the day.
For You, Your Team & Your Business
Are you spending outrageous amounts of money on outside “strategy consultants” who, with an army of daily billers, provide minute insights into market intelligence, segmentation, and other external analyses; yet people inside your organisation have little understanding what the strategy is, why it matters, and how it actually works?
Too many valuable resources are being wasted on external genius that is rarely, if ever, implemented. Research suggests that only about 10–30% of strategies are successfully executed; meaning most never deliver their intended results. Outside insight has value, of course, yet your real competitive advantage emerges when your organization knows how to operate and win with your strategy.
In the world of Executive Ownershift®, we call this a senseful strategy. When leaders and teams share a deeply aligned purpose and engage one another around the strategic direction, remarkable performance becomes possible. Too often, leadership teams; disappointed with their results; simply change their strategy without ever truly owning it. This leads to a repeating pattern of mediocrity and re-starts.
If you want to begin shifting from strategy on paper to strategy in practice, a helpful place to start is with my Senseful Strategy Scorecard; a short, reflection-based assessment to explore how clearly and confidently your organization is prepared to execute and win with its strategy.
At the end of the day, the real question is this: Do you want a strategy people admire from a distance, or a strategy they own and deliver in practice?
People, Places & Technology
Allow me to introduce colleague and friend, Samir Geepee, a leadership thinker and creator of The Clarity Game™, a board-game-based experience that supports the shift from managing to leading in an engaging and pragmatic way.
Samir and I first met during my time in Dubai a few years ago, and what struck me then (and now) is his contagious passion for helping leaders grow with clarity, humility, and courage.
Samir has also just released a new book; “What Made You a Manager Won’t Make You a Leader“; a modern leadership fable set in Dubai, written for people like us who wants to lead with purpose, not position.
Some leadership tools teach. A few of them genuinely transform, and Samir’s work belongs in the second category. Check him out on LinkedIn or lean into his latest book.
Thought for the Day
“You never need permission
to take ownership.”
-Dan Norenberg