The Unveiling and the Aching Molars

The projector hums at a frequency that makes my molars ache, casting a pale cyan glow over the 237 faces gathered in the windowless ballroom. We are here for the unveiling. The lights dim, the bass drops, and a high-definition video begins to play. It features drone shots of mountain ranges and close-ups of smiling people shaking hands in slow motion. This is “Project Horizon.” It is the result of 7 months of secret meetings and a consulting fee that likely hovered around $777,447. The CEO stands up, silhouetted against a slide showing a golden star, and tells us that this is our new reality. This is our North Star. We are going to disrupt, we are going to pivot, and we are going to achieve “unparalleled synergy” by the third quarter of 2027.

The Strategy of Survival vs. The Strategy of Scale

I’ve spent the last 17 years as a refugee resettlement advisor. In that world, strategy isn’t a PowerPoint deck; it’s a logistics map that determines whether 47 families have a roof over their heads by nightfall. If I spend my time designing a “North Star” vision for the resettlement process without checking if the local landlords actually accept our vouchers, people sleep in the rain.

But I am honest enough to admit that when a bus arrives 47 minutes late and the intake system crashes, the colors don’t matter. The only thing that matters is the soup in the pot and the blankets in the stack.

97 Pages of Upward Trends

Most corporate strategy is just color-coding folders while the bus is already on fire. It is a theatrical performance designed for the board of directors and the hungry eyes of investors who need to believe that someone is steering the ship. The deck is thick, usually around 97 pages, filled with charts that trend upward at a 37-degree angle. It is polished to a mirror finish. But it is fundamentally disconnected from the operational reality of the person who has to answer the phones at 8:07 AM.

The Cost of Polish

I admitted it to my team, and you know what? They trusted me more after that than they did after any of my “visionary” speeches. Vulnerability is a better strategy than polish.

Listening in the Breakroom

If you want to know if your strategy is working, don’t look at the engagement metrics on the internal portal. Instead, go to the breakroom at 2:07 PM. Listen to what the people are complaining about. If they are complaining about the same things they were complaining about 7 months ago, your strategy is a failure. It hasn’t touched the earth yet.

I still color-code my files. It’s a 7-step process that makes me feel like the world is orderly. But I no longer mistake the colors for the work. I know that the blue folder might contain a tragedy and the red folder might contain a miracle. The strategy is just the box we put the reality in, and sometimes, the reality is too big for the box.