This is why companies are bad at strategy, and how to fix it.

Big strategy exercises often loop you back to where you started. I call it the retrofit curse. Faced with a need, your brain grabs whatever is already in the fridge and tries to make it work. Tuna, ketchup, hot dog buns. Fast and familiar, but not what you actually want. The mind does this to save energy, which is why rearranging the old pieces feels easier than creating something new. Teams repeat that pattern with strategy. Results stall, then the offsite shuffles the same offers, the same audiences, and the same channels into a fresher template. New slides. Old assumptions. Same outcome. The way out is a clean brief. Name what you truly want. Challenge every constraint. Design the plan from first principles. Then document the choices so everyone can pull in the same direction. If you feel stuck in that loop, send me a note. We will reset the brief and build a strategy that actually changes the results.