As we wrap up 2024, I want to share a moment of gratitude to those that have read The Pulse over the past year.
Your engagement, replies, feedback, and shared insights have driven me and the team to continually improve and deliver content that resonates.
The Pulse has grown in ways we couldn’t have imagined, and has become a go-to resource for so many leaders passionate about strategic planning and execution.
So thank you for being part of this community—here’s to greater growth and impact in the year ahead.
And, of course, if you're interested in catching up on previous editions of The Pulse, click here.
With all that said, welcome to the 36th edition of The Pulse, your bi-weekly newsletter of Insights for Strategy Leaders. And the final edition of 2024!
In this edition:
- ♻️ Setting Rituals for Results in 2025
- ⬇️ Guide to Building a Successful Operating Rhythm (a download)
- 🍿 Strategy Snacks on Rituals
Let's jump in!
♻️ Setting Rituals for Results in 2025
I’m not usually one to make book suggestions in The Pulse, but if you haven’t read Atomic Habits, it’s one I’d recommend…
There are countless positive takeaways from the book, but one quote has always stuck with me:
The first mistake is never the one that ruins you. It is the spiral of repeated mistakes that follows. Missing once is an accident. Missing twice is the start of a new habit.
This quote resonates deeply when I think about the rituals we implement and recommend at Elate regarding the regular review of your Strategy, because for so many organizations, these inflection points can make or break their year.
It’s the intentional decision we as Leaders make to prioritize our Strategy and the alignment across our organizations, or, allow ourselves to fall victim to managing the fires burning brightest on any given day. 🔥
As we approach 2025, establishing rituals—the operating cadence in which you review, discuss, and take action on the Strategic Plan you’ve put in motion as an organization—is one of the most important steps to delivering the outcomes your organization has set out to achieve.
Timing is Everything
Often, companies are trying to start with a clean slate in setting a new rhythm for reviewing their Strategy. Yet, when we ask the question, “What will be different this year compared to last year in how you review your Strategy?” We are met with crickets. 🔕
The reality is, much of the focus tends to stay on creating the Strategy, aligning it to your operating plan, and providing transparency to employees. But the ‘how’— the processes that turn plans from transactional tasks into purposeful action—is often an afterthought.
As two of our more recent customers shared, the Strategic Planning motion is nascent, which means the rhythm for bringing that strategy to life is likely even less developed.
Yet, there couldn’t be a more opportune time to introduce rituals into your organization to ensure you don’t fall into the same traps as years prior.
Avoiding the Pitfall of Static, Reactionary Strategy
You’ve likely seen the same patterns and traps repeat year after year when it comes to reviewing your Strategy. 🔄 For many organizations, it comes in the form of one or more of the following:
- Priorities reviewed inconsistently
- Leading indicators are neglected
- Leadership meetings lose focus–or stop altogether
While the year starts out strong, likely around spring break when folks start to travel and schedules become harder to coordinate, you miss your first, then your second Leadership meeting, and now all of a sudden that invite on every Leaders calendar becomes optional. Or worst, the agenda of this Leadership meeting gets hijacked by the fires burning brightest, not those most important.
When this occurs we fall right back into the old habits where now everything is managed out of a task-list or we send around a dashboard of static metrics that give us no clear direction for how we drive impact as a Leadership team.
What’s the result?
- Strategy becomes static and uninspiring
- Checklists replace purposeful Objectives
- Teams lose sight of what’s important and when to persist or pivot
A far cry from the intentions we had at the start of the year.
Basics of Rituals
So at this point you’re likely thinking, “Brooks I agree with all of this, but it still doesn’t give me the fundamentals to create the change you’re talking about. Help me understand how to communicate the idea of rituals!”
Well, let’s dive into some basics…
At Elate, we define Rituals as the agreed-upon rhythm, cadence, and process for reviewing your strategy.
Defining your Rituals is important because it’s how you gain mutual agreement across the board on how you’re executing your strategy from the onset. These rituals should be set at the leadership level and communicated to the organization.
Rituals have 3 components:
- When teams provide updates on Objectives
- How they provide these updates
- The frequency of review (Most Critical. If this stops, the first two will as well!)
Now that we have a clear understanding of what Rituals entail, how often should we review.
Well, it can look different for each organization, and if you want to get really tactical, we have built a complete Operating Guide to outline the structure for how to review, the regularity in which you review updates, and how to continue evolving your Strategy over the year.
That said, we do recommend Leadership is meeting weekly or bi-weekly to review the Strategy, as it makes this a much more dynamic, impactful process, rather than one that can get too intensive and reactive. Again, more in the Operating Guide for those interested.
Why Rituals Drive Results
As I shared earlier, timing is everything when it comes to introducing a new operating cadence or bringing back one that worked in the past.
No one wants/needs another meeting on the calendar, nor do they need more things to update. So it’s imperative that you communicate the ‘why’ behind rituals and the value of updating, reviewing, and taking action each week.
For those looking for the main benefit: Better Results.
Your rituals are meant to bring your Strategy to life, and your Strategy is designed to align the work being done across your organization with your Operating Plan.✨
At Elate, we often reference the importance of Operating Metrics, which are 3-5 mission critical metrics that your CEO is held accountable for delivering to a Board of Directors, Shareholders, or just for the overall success of the organization.
When executed correctly, rituals not only drive the accountability of how you review your Operating Metrics, but they also ensure that the Strategy you’ve implemented continues to drive outcomes tied to those Operating Metrics rather than the transactional tasks that might just be top of mind that day. Rituals are the way we review our Strategy as a Leadership team, the cadence for how we communicate performance to employees, as well as the built in rhythm to adjusting our Strategy as needed.
As a Strategy and Operations Leader, if you are looking to drive better results through accountability, visibility, and proactive collaboration, then the most important way to ensure success is through your rituals.
While it might seem basic, it is often one of the most overlooked or underestimated parts of how an organization operates. So as we head into 2025, take a moment to reflect on how your rituals will bring you Strategy to life for Leaders and employees.
⬇️ Guide to Building a Successful Operating Rhythm
I mentioned it above, but here is the guide for building your operating rhythm, or rituals. This guide is full of tips and best practices to ensure you have the right operating cadence that supports your strategy for the long haul. We dive into:
- Building company-wide rituals
- 3 action-items when providing updates on Objectives
- How to review Objectives
- Best practices on running great leadership meetings
- Structuring pre-read reports, and more
🍿 Strategy Snacks: Building Great Rituals
Back with some more snacks - these centered around... you guessed it... Operating Rhythm and Rituals!
1. Why Your Operating Cadence is a Non-Negotiable for 2025 Success
2. Characteristics of Organizations that Excel at Strategic Planning
Have you enjoyed these? If so follow us on LinkedIn to get these in your feed, or check out our Strategy Snacks Playlist on Youtube.
That's all for 2024, have a great rest of the year!
- Brooks
