Strategy fails in ways that feel mysterious: the plan looked solid, the logic was sound, and yet reality does something else.

I’m joined by Luiz von Paumgartten, a patent attorney who has spent the last decade developing a model he calls Natural Reality. Using a handful of diagrams and plain language, we dig into “meaning” (everything produced inside your mind) versus “happening” (uninterpreted action in the world). We sharpen the map-territory distinction, the idea that your mind is bounded by an electromagnetic interface, and why light matters as the boundary where happenings become perceptions and intentions become actions.

The conversation turns practical fast: if minds sit in parallel, then communication is not the transfer of meaning. It is the sharing of expressions that each listener must interpret using their own rules, expectations, and perspective. That single point- meaning doesn’t transfer- helps explain misalignment in leadership, friction in organisational strategy, and why people can hear the same words and walk away with different realities. We also connect this to perspective change, accumulated tension, and the John Boyd OODA loop style of sensemaking and orientation.

If you want clearer thinking about strategy, communication, and decision-making under uncertainty, you’ll get a fresh mental model to test immediately. Subscribe, share this with a colleague, and leave a review with the biggest “misinterpretation” you’ve seen at work.

Connect with Luiz here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vonpaumgartten/
Here are The Abstractionist’s Papers
Find more of his work here: https://welcometothebluespace.com/

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🔗 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 you can't deliver isn't ambitious; it's wishful thinking. Mike sits down with Ben Chappell, founder of Cove Ops, to get brutally practical about the gap between strategy and execution and why “operations” is the missing piece in so many SMEs that are scaling, preparing for investment, or gearing up for a sale.

We unpack how strategy drift happens when teams go back to business as usual, mistaking constant activity for progress. Ben reframes strategy as intent and a daily decision rubric, then shows how operations turn that intent into reality through an operating model that actually works. We dig into the real pain signals of poor operations, from duplicated data entry and broken handovers to missed deadlines, customer impact, and the quiet burnout caused by endless workarounds.

You will also hear why investors and buyers look beyond the spreadsheet: financial results are lagging indicators, so confidence comes from leading metrics, clear workflows, visibility, and a business that is not held together by a few heroes. We explore AI and automation with a sober lens, starting with first-principles diagnosis, then building capacity so people can do the human work: collaboration, problem-solving, and continuous improvement. If you want practical ideas on systems thinking, standardisation, knowledge management, and running change like an experiment, this one is for you.

Subscribe for more conversations that connect strategy to real delivery, share the episode with someone battling operational friction, and leave a review so more leaders can find the show.

Connect with Ben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-chappell/

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/

AI is moving faster than our organisations can make sense of, and that gap is where strategy breaks. We sit down with Adrian Wolfberg, a former national security practitioner and author of Who Leads When AI Thinks, to unpack a tough reality: success with AI is not mainly a technology problem; it is a leadership, context, and knowledge integration problem.

We start with boundaries and organisational intelligence, the way functions and hierarchies shape what people see, what they value, and what they miss. Adrian shares a concrete story of “Crossing Boundaries”, a skip-level forum designed to surface intractable problems and turn frontline signals into action through accountability and a real business case. It is a grounded look at strategy execution, not theory.

From there we zoom out to generative AI and large language models, and why this shift feels like a societal transformation rather than another software rollout. AI can be faster than any team, but it isn't accountable, and it cannot truly hold organisational context, history, politics, relationships, or ethical judgement. That means leaders have to design permeability across silos, strengthen feedback loops, and model the behaviours that keep humans and AI aligned as the environment changes.

If you’re thinking about AI governance, organisational design, decision-making, and the future of leadership, this conversation will give you practical angles and better questions. Subscribe, share it with a colleague, and leave a review with your take: where do you think this human-AI relationship is heading?

Find Adrian's work here:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrianwolfberg/

Website: https://www.oicllc.org/

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/