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#FUTURE · LinkedIn original

The strategy was right. Yet the implementation still failed.

Author: Dr. Michael Zeisig · First published: 25 August 2026

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The strategy was right.

Yet the implementation still failed.

I saw this first-hand at a mechanical engineering company with 750 employees.

The executive team had developed a sound plan in a workshop: a new structure, clear priorities, compelling arguments. Everything was in place.

Only one group was missing from the room: the heads of department.

They learned about the new organisational structure that was supposed to enable the new strategy through the intranet — on the same day as everyone else.

The result:

six weeks at a standstill. Not because of resistance, but because of uncertainty.

Nobody in the second management tier knew what the new structure meant for their own role — so nobody changed anything.

Things only started moving when we involved the heads of department afterwards — their own workshops, their own questions, their own responsibility for translating the change for their teams.

From 0 to 80 per cent milestone achievement in one quarter.

The strategy had been right all along.

The mistake: the heads of department were treated as recipients.

In fact, they were the translators of change.

Where in your organisation does senior leadership officially make the decisions — and where does middle management actually decide whether anything happens at all?

#Transformation #Leadership #Strategy

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I saw this first-hand at a mechanical engineering company with 750 employees.