Tommes Snels
For over 20 years, I have been working with organisations on change. Not by making even better plans, but by bridging the gap between strategy and execution. Driven by a human-oriented philosophy, we help to really roll Groupmapping strategies. Curious how? Read more or contact us.
The human being behind the work
For those who may not feel like digging through my LinkedIn profile: Tommes is my first name, I'm fast from behind and I've been dealing with all kinds of big and smaller changes in organisations for over 20 years. In Europe and even Australia, I (we, at Groupmapping) never do that alone and always from a very rich philosophy and methodology, focused on people and collaboration (very flatly put). Matt and Gail Taylor are the founders of this and in which many different methods and approaches come together.
Full gas in the year
We flew out of Groupmapping 2025 and got on full gas 2026, so I wondered at the end of the first weeks where that huge bucket of energy I feel came from.
The first few weeks of this year were characterized by a large number of extremely interesting conversations, within our ongoing projects but also with new faces for us. From different organisations that are facing a challenge. And whether it was "upcoming re-evaluation of the strategy," "the putting into operation of the strategy," "the shaping of a fundamental transformation" or "the speeding up of the project," each time came up with a number of things: mobility, resilience, decision-making power and humanity and "what should we do with AI?"
Not bad, considering that organisations are the construct in which people work together...
A world that demands more from us
It may have been chewed out quite well by now, but that is why it is still true: the world we live in is more fragile, more insecure, non-linear and incomprehensible than ever before. And that has a direct impact on man. In private life and of course in work. Trust, energy, experience and (personal) leadership are very important in my opinion to be able to cope with this demanding world.
Look back to see patterns
During my out-the-window-view reflection I once thought of diving into our projects over the past ten years, looking for patterns and red wires. I didn't just do that, but our friend Gemini helped me to do that (with an average of 70 projects a year, that was just too much for my limited processing capacity). And there were already some interesting insights. Understanding that I then started to check out in the world web world and again I was happy with our friend (NB: we work with a secure version).
The gap between strategy and execution
This came out, among other things:
"The gap between strategy and execution is one of the most studied but least solved problems in management science. From an in-depth analysis of the top 10 global studies and frameworks, a clear, overarching conclusion emerges: the execution gap is not a primary technical, process-based or intellectual problem. It is a fundamental human, cultural and leadership problem. The most brilliant plans, the most advanced models and the most detailed project plans fail if they ignore the complex reality of organisational dynamics, human behaviour and the need for adaptive leadership."
Let's check on my own assumptions.
I had to go back to my (a little elaborate) prompt, to make sure that I hadn't written it so that I would end up in the confirmation bias tunnel ("See? I thought so!"). The prompt was general enough, fortunately...
The paradox of knowledge
Another conclusion was even more important to me:
"We are confronted with the paradox of knowledge: we know more than ever about why strategies fail, and yet they continue to fail on a large scale. The failure rates of 70% to 88% have been shockingly stable for decades. This suggests that the challenge lies not in gathering even more knowledge, but in the courage, discipline and humility to consistently apply the well-known principles. Success requires a holistic approach that combines radical focus, light-foot execution, human-oriented implementation and disciplined leadership."
Four recurring themes
Courage, discipline, humility. Typical human qualities. In addition, radical focus and ruthless prioritisation (theme 1) emerged from all research. Don't want everything, dare say no, focus and leadership are essential in that.
Lightness and iterative learning (agile, so to speak, theme 2), in short cycles, aimed at adaptation based on new insights, are also very important. Again, typical of such a set of things that are part of our nature as a human being, but which are taught us from a very early age.
A third theme that emerges from all research is human orientation and ownership. Human orientation in the development and execution of a strategy, ownership of the choices that must be made and their meaning (the why) appear to be successful. These three themes are about people, knowledge, skills, insight and above all cooperation.
The fourth theme was also no surprise: disciplined control and visible measurement of success. A theme that offers a unique place for all kinds of frameworks, methods and approaches. Of course, these three themes can also be useful. Joint understanding, understanding and language are crucial within all four themes.
A strategy that keeps moving
In one of those very interesting conversations I talked to my partner about what it takes to bring a strategy to life at a rapid pace.
We have been preaching for years that a strategy has to roll, that you do not have to want to make a new strategy over and over again. And in that role all your people have to play a role. You build the bridge between strategy and result, in which brave leadership dares to make difficult choices. In which you involve all your people and dare to give your best talent a leading role. In which you realize that your organisation should not only perform, but should be able to adapt, to change when the context so requires.
And then again, it's just people and how you help and support them in this, and that's exactly what we're happy to help with.
Want to know more about us and/or with our friend Gemini? Play with building a good prompt, but don't hesitate to give us a call.
Sharper, faster, smarter: I want that too!
Contact us to explore the possibilities together.