Outcome · Overload became orientation
A strong strategy. And no idea where to begin.
A global communications team in a multinational technology company. An ambitious strategy. And so much on the table that no one knew where to begin.
The situation
The team was busy — but not moving.
When everything is a priority, nothing is. Every topic had weight. Every workstream had momentum. And because nothing could be set aside, nothing could truly move forward.
The shift
Instead of working top-down through the strategy, I shifted the question — away from what the organisation wanted to fix, towards where the impact would be most visible to the people it served.
The move
The decision became easy — not from the strategy, but from the user's perspective.
It also made it easier to explain why other things would come later. Not because they didn't matter, but because sequencing is not the same as ranking...
Ownership became clear. Each person focused on what matched their expertise. Meetings shifted from alignment marathons to focused check-ins — sharing progress, collecting feedback, moving forward.
The complexity didn't disappear. It became manageable.
What became possible
With a clear first step and defined ownership, the team stopped circling. Progress became visible. And because the starting point was grounded in user impact, the results were felt — not just internally, but by the people the work was actually for.
Reducing complexity isn't about doing less. It's about choosing what to do first – and making that choice easy to stand behind.
What this shows
Too much strategy is also a form of standstill.
When you shift the question from "what's important to us" to "what matters most to the people we serve", priorities become clearer — and easier to commit to.
Clarity didn’t reduce the work. It made it possible to move.