Every now and again, I get to see a master at work. A couple of weeks ago, I saw a good friend and mentor walk me through a problem. Calm – no rushing to action – he walked through the problem without giving any guidance. Absorbing information, not jumping to conclusions.

Then he made a couple of simple suggestions. "Plans are great," he told me, "but I work with what's really here, not what's supposed to be here."  

Standing there watching him work, it's hard not to think about how backwards we've got strategy in most organizations.  

We spend months crafting elegant strategies in conference rooms, then wonder why they fall apart when they hit the reality of daily execution.  

We cascade goals downward, translate vision into objectives, break objectives into tasks – all while ignoring what teams can actually deliver day after day.  

My mentor had it right (no surprise there). The plan isn't your strategy. Your daily delivery capability is your foundation. Everything else gets built on top of that.  

Most leaders I meet are essentially trying to build their business on air, hoping the foundation will somehow materialize underneath. They've got beautiful blueprints - market positioning, competitive advantages, growth targets, maybe even a plan or two - but they've never walked the actual ground where the work gets done (the Gemba, for those with a Lean perspective). They never looked at what their teams can consistently deliver.  

Here's what happens when you flip it: Start with an honest assessment of your team's delivery reality. What do they actually ship when everything goes right? What breaks first when pressure increases? What workflows feel effortless versus which ones require constant intervention?  

Then build your strategy around those truths, instead of ignoring them. Stop trying to change reality through loud instruction.  

In our work with organizations, we see this backwards approach everywhere:  

• Leadership sets aggressive growth targets, then discovers their fulfillment process breaks at 30% of projected volume

• Companies announce digital transformation initiatives without checking if their teams can manage the transition while keeping current systems running

• Strategy decks promise market disruption from teams who are already maxed out maintaining existing products  

The most successful strategies we've seen don't cascade down, they are co-created through continuous dialogue. They are based on historical delivery capabilities, not hypothesized objectives.  

The best leaders act more like my mentor: they assess the real capabilities first, then adapt their approach accordingly. This isn't about lowering expectations or playing it safe. It's about building strategy on solid ground instead of wishful thinking.  

Some of the most ambitious outcomes we've witnessed came from organizations that started with brutal honesty about their execution reality, then designed a plan to leverage those capabilities strategically.  

Your team's daily delivery rhythm doesn't have to be a constraint on your strategy. It's the foundation that determines whether your strategy will stand or collapse under the first bit of real-world pressure.  

What would your strategy look like if you started with what your team has shown they can deliver, instead of what you wish they could deliver one day, maybe?