Viability isn’t about predicting the future—it’s about preparing for many.

In this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Mike Jones is joined by Norman Chorn—strategist, scenario thinker, and author—to challenge conventional planning and explore how leaders can make better strategic decisions under uncertainty.

Norman explains why conventional alignment makes organisations fragile, why strategic adaptability depends on coherence, and how low-regret bets create resilience without wasting effort. From complexity and culture to leadership ego and strategic ambiguity, this is a grounded take on how to think, plan, and act when nothing is certain.

🔍 In this episode:

• Why efficiency is fragile and redundancy builds resilience
• Coherence vs alignment—and why it matters for viability
• Scenario thinking and low-regret bets
• The role of purpose and culture in strategic adaptability
• Strategy as continuous learning, not annual ritual
• Why humility and decentralisation are strategic strengths

📘 Learn more about Norman’s work: https://www.drnormanchorn.com/

🎧 Keywords: Strategy, uncertainty, scenario planning, coherence, resilience, complexity, strategic alignment, futures, leadership, organisational design

📘 Learn more about Norman’s work: [Insert link to Norman’s website or LinkedIn]

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

📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsReality
🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Buzzsprout

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

We don’t just fight wars with weapons, we fight them with ideas, metaphors, and assumptions we don’t even question.

In this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Mike Jones is joined by Ben Zweibelson—veteran, military strategist, and author of Reconceptualizing War—to explore why our dominant paradigms of strategy are failing us. They unpack the hidden structures behind military thinking, why complexity demands more than doctrine, and how multi-paradigm design can unlock radically different ways of seeing and acting.

This is not just about warfare. It’s a challenge to how we think, how we plan, and how we lead in a world that refuses to conform.

🔍 In this episode:

Why most strategy is trapped in a single paradigm

The difference between functionalism, complexity, and interpretivism

How militaries (and organisations) mistake activity for understanding

Why the irreversibility of time matters for decision-making

What multi-paradigm thinking looks like in practice

How language, design, and philosophy shape strategic failure or success

🎧 Keywords: Strategy, military thinking, complexity, war, paradigms, decision-making, design, multi-paradigm, functionalism, interpretivism, uncertainty

📘 Learn more about Ben’s work: https://www.helion.co.uk/military-history-books/reconceptualizing-war-.php

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

📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsReality
🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Buzzsprout

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

Control is comforting, but in complexity, it’s often a trap.

In this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Mike Jones is joined by Michael Negendahl, founder of Exaptive Labs and a former emergency nurse, to explore why many leadership responses are performative rather than practical. They unpack the psychological need for certainty, the danger of chasing tidy plans in messy environments, and the difference between solving a problem and solving the wrong one.

This is a candid conversation about power, ego, and the courage to admit we don’t know. For leaders navigating real-world uncertainty, this one goes deep.

🔍 In this episode:

Why control is often just a performance

How strategy becomes theatre when leaders avoid discomfort

The gap between perception and reality in problem-solving

The difference between control and the illusion of control

What distributed intelligence looks like in practice

Why proximity to the customer changes everything

🎧 Keywords: Leadership, complexity, risk, control, decision-making, distributed intelligence, strategy, systems thinking, safety, problem-solving

📘 Learn more about Michael’s work: https://www.exaptivelabs.com/aboutus

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

📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsReality
🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Buzzsprout

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

Innovation isn’t a brainstorm. It’s a way of thinking, organising, and acting in uncertainty.

In this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Mike Jones sits down with Paul Frobisher—engineer, strategist, and founder of Strategic Innovation—to explore how organisations often misdiagnose the innovation challenge. From solving the wrong problems to collapsing under performance pressure, Paul breaks down the real reasons innovation fails—and what leaders can do instead.

They explore the value of TRIZ and IDEF0, the emotional cost of failed innovation, and how to build innovation systems that work over time—not just on slides. With insight from automotive and energy disruption, this is a sharp look at how to think better, decide better, and act with intent.

🔍 In this episode:

• Why most innovation fails before it starts
• How to solve the right problem—not just move fast
• Using TRIZ, IDEF0 and models to design innovation processes
• The emotional and political side of innovation
• Hydrogen, EVs, and the long game of disruption
• Why innovation isn’t about creativity—it’s about clarity

🎧 Keywords: Innovation, TRIZ, IDEF0, uncertainty, strategy, engineering, EV disruption, hydrogen, decision-making, organisational design

📘 Learn more about Paul’s work: https://strategic-innovation.co.uk/

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

📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsReality
🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Buzzsprout

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

What if the most powerful lever in strategy isn’t action—but orientation?

In this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Mike Jones is joined by Mark McGrath—Marine veteran, strategist, and expert in John Boyd’s OODA loop—to unpack how orientation drives adaptation, shapes perception, and rewires how organisations respond to disruption.

Mark takes us deep into Boyd’s legacy, revealing why strategy is less about linear plans and more about continuous learning, destruction and creation, and evolving faster than the environment. From Wall Street trading floors to boardroom transformation, this episode is a masterclass in fighting inertia, rethinking time, and breaking free from the guardians of decay.

🔍 In this episode:

• Why orientation—not action—is the true source of advantage
• How destruction and creation enable real adaptation
• Understanding time, tempo, and disruption
• What it means to lead with curiosity and humility
• Why small shifts create exponential effects
• How to challenge entrenched assumptions and power

🎧 Keywords: OODA loop, John Boyd, strategy, orientation, disruption, decision-making, leadership, complexity, learning, strategic advantage

📘 Learn more from Mark at: https://substack.com/@markjmcgrath

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

📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsReality
🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Buzzsprout

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

Design thinking isn’t just for product teams—it can reshape how we do strategy.

In this episode, Mike Jones is joined by Leanne Sobel—Director of Strategic Design at Snowmelt and author of a recent PhD on the intersection of design and strategy. Together, they explore what it means to bring design into strategic work: not just as a toolkit, but as an ethos of participation, reflection, and experimentation.

Leanne shares how traditional strategy often limits possibility through early assumptions—while design opens up space to sense, test, and adapt. From stakeholder engagement to making strategy usable in practice, this episode reframes how strategy can be done in complex environments.

🔍 In this episode:

• How design challenges traditional strategy models
• Building usable strategies—not just presentations
• Why stakeholder inclusion is a risk-reducer, not a slowdown
• The difference between design thinking and design practice
• Why reflection is a core strategic act
• Creating feedback loops to make strategy adaptive

📘 Learn more about Leanne: https://www.snowmelt.io/team-members/leanne-sobel
🎧 Full podcast + notes: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality
🎙 Listen on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube

Keywords: Strategic Design, Design Thinking, Organisational Strategy, Adaptive Strategy, Design-Led Change, Stakeholder Engagement, Strategic Practice, Leadership, Systems Thinking, Complexity

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

📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsReality
🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Buzzsprout

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

What if the real barrier to change isn’t resistance—but the stories leaders tell themselves to avoid doing the work?

In this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Mike Jones is joined by Steve Hearsum—consultant, coach, and author of No Silver Bullet—to unpack the deep disconnect between strategy, leadership, and organisational change.

This isn’t about frameworks or toolkits. It’s about the mess, the uncertainty, and the anxiety that real change creates—and what happens when leaders fall back on control, comms theatre, and performative fixes.

Steve brings sharp insight into why so many change efforts fail to stick, the myths that keep organisations stuck, and the work needed to build capability, coherence and culture from the inside out.

🔍 In this episode:

• Why leadership development often misses the point
• The gap between strategy and actual change
• How anxiety and fragility show up in executive behaviour
• Why clarity is useful—but coherence is critical
• The danger of “burning platform” narratives
• What it really means to build organisational capability
• Why communication isn’t the problem—it’s the shortcut

🎧 Keywords: organisational change, leadership, capability, strategy execution, culture, complexity, communication, change management, OD, Steve Hearsum

📘 Read No Silver Bullet: Bursting the Bubble of the Organisational Quick Fix: https://amzn.eu/d/bUXQWSn

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

📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsReality
🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Buzzsprout

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

What if strategy wasn’t a closed-door ritual—but a way to build commitment from those who deliver it?

In this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Mike Jones is joined by Julia Hautz—Professor of Strategic Management at the University of Innsbruck and co-author of Open Strategy—to explore what really happens when leaders invite participation into the strategy process.

This isn’t about consensus. And it’s not about giving everyone a vote. It’s about designing strategy so it’s recognised, understood, and owned by the people closest to reality.

Julia shares insights from years of research and organisational engagement, unpacking the myths, the structural discipline, and the leadership mindset required to make openness work. From crisis response to long-term strategy shaping, she lays out why open strategy isn’t soft—it’s a strategic advantage when done well.

🔍 In this episode:

• Why open strategy isn’t democracy—and why that matters
• How participation creates psychological ownership and commitment
• The risk of surface-level engagement and ‘black box’ decisions
• What leaders fear about openness—and how to manage it
• How to create structure without killing initiative
• Why “just involving people” usually backfires
• The power of openness in times of crisis

🎧 Keywords: open strategy, strategic participation, leadership, decision-making, legitimacy, organisational culture, strategy execution, transparency, inclusion, commitment, strategy process

📘 Learn more in Julia’s book Open Strategy (co-authored with Christian Stadler, Kurt Matzler and Stephan Friedrich von den Eichen) https://amzn.eu/d/8RpROIT

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

📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsReality
🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Buzzsprout

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