If your organisation keeps saying "we need to be more innovative" while doing everything possible to crush experimentation, this conversation is for you. I'm joined by Robyn Bolton, founder and Chief Navigator at MileZero, to get brutally practical about what it takes to turn a growth strategy into results when uncertainty, incentives and internal politics get in the way.

We explore the core tension leaders face: most people rise by mastering operating excellence in a high-knowledge environment, then get asked to deliver innovation in a low-knowledge, high-assumption world. Robyn lays out a simple, disciplined alternative to big-bang roll-outs: apply the scientific method, break work into assumptions, write hypotheses, and run quick tests starting with the deal killers. Along the way, we unpack why moving fast in the wrong direction is worse than moving slowly in the right one, plus a memorable McDonald's shrimp salad story that shows what happens when nobody checks the maths early.

We also tackle why innovation is rarely an ideas problem. It's a leadership problem and an organisational design problem: governance that rewards wordy papers over learning, incentives tied to the quarter, and corporate antibodies that swarm anything new. We discuss why "lean is the enemy of learning" can be true in exploration, how to define a clear growth gap that forces focus, why portfolios beat single heroic bets, and how to treat AI as a tool rather than a strategy fad.

If you want innovation strategy, growth strategy and corporate innovation to survive contact with reality, subscribe, share this episode with a colleague, and leave a review so more leaders find the practical playbook.

Find Robyn's work here:

https://www.milezero.io

https://www.unlockinginnovation.co

Send Mike a Message

Enjoying the show?

Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.

🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast

📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsReality

Connect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

A strategy can look flawless on a slide deck and still fail the moment it reaches the real world. I’m joined by Evan Campbell, technology executive, former management consultant, and author of Adapt to Win, to unpack why organisations with “good strategy” so often struggle with strategy execution, strategic alignment, and making day-to-day work match leadership intent.

We get practical about what breaks: strategy decay as clarity gets lost down the hierarchy, the inertia of an organisation already in motion, and the false comfort of performative rollout activity. Evan explains why OKRs only deliver focus, alignment, and accountability when they are built with a genuine bottom-up contribution, not pushed downhill like old-school MBOs. We also separate the work into three capabilities you can actually improve: strategy development, strategy deployment, and strategy execution, including the controls and feedback loops that stop teams from discovering failure at the end of the quarter.

From there, we move into lean portfolio management and investment decisions. If you cannot kill projects, you cannot be adaptive. We talk zombie projects, budget defensiveness, and why portfolio managers often default to ROI and NPV because it feels “objective”, even when it quietly starves innovation. The thread running through everything is trade-offs and accountability: executives must be clear about what not to do, give teams decision rights, and shorten the loop between decisions and consequences.

If you want strategy to survive contact with reality, this conversation will give you a sharper lens and a few uncomfortable questions to ask on Monday. Subscribe, share with a colleague, and leave a review with the biggest execution problem you see in your organisation.

Find Evan's work here:
Adapt to Win: https://adapttowin.co/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evcampbell/

Send Mike a Message

Enjoying the show?

Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.

🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast

📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsReality

Connect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

Strategy sounds clean on a slide deck. Then you try to deliver it inside a system with competing priorities, blurred boundaries, and a public spotlight that never switches off.

I’m joined by senior civil servant Alison Guthrie-Wrenn to talk about strategy execution where constraints are real, relationships are long-term, and legitimacy is not automatically granted. We compare what it feels like to drive change from inside an organisation versus advising from the outside, and why power dynamics and internal politics shape what can be challenged and what must be navigated.

From there, we get practical about systems thinking in government: how to start small, build influence, and use a systemic lens to see interconnections rather than isolated projects. Alison shares why large transformation programmes so often fail, and why the most resilient approach is to hold tight to a clear vision and purpose while keeping the plan flexible as reality shifts underneath you.

We also tackle the uniquely public-sector challenge of political cycles, where the route can change overnight, and sometimes even the destination changes too. Add volatility, misinformation, and “trial by Twitter”, and leaders need ways to keep options open without retreating into vague commitments. If you care about adaptive strategy, organisational change, and making better decisions in complex systems, this one will give you the language and tools you can use straight away.

Subscribe, share the episode with a colleague, and leave a review with the most useful question you’re now asking about your own strategy.

Connect with Alison: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisonguthrie-wrenn/

Send Mike a Message

Enjoying the show?

Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast.

🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast

📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsReality

Connect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/