Your 2027 Strategy
Most strategic plans don’t fail because the strategy was wrong. They fail because the leadership team agreed in the room and then didn’t follow through.
Here’s how to test trust and alignment before your 2027 plan rolls out.
Make sure your 2027 Strategy is set up for success!
Every year around this time, I sit with leadership teams finalizing next year's strategic plan. The slides are polished. The goals are ambitious. And when the CEO asks, "Are we all in?" every head in the room nods.
By March, half of those heads are quietly working a different plan.
The gap between agreement in the room and action outside it is where most strategies fall short. And the research backs up what I've seen for nearly three decades.
The plan is rarely the problem
In AchieveIt's 2025 State of Strategy Execution report, more than 250 senior leaders ranked the top reasons strategic plans fail. Lack of leadership came first, followed by unclear objectives and inadequate communication among the top five. Three in four leaders said poor collaboration across teams hampers execution.
Notice what isn't on that list: bad strategy. Plans fail because the people responsible for carrying them out aren't truly aligned, and often don't trust each other enough to say so.
Agreement is not alignment
True alignment requires clarity and buy-in across six factors: purpose, values, vision, goals, priorities, and roles. When even a few members of a leadership team are unclear or unconvinced on two or three of these, the plan begins to fracture on its way down the organization.
The part leaders often miss is that alignment can't exist without trust. When trust is low, people nod in the meeting because disagreeing feels risky. The robust conversations that would surface the real concerns never happen. So the organization launches a plan that only looks unanimous.
Three questions to ask your leadership team this month
Before you finalize your 2027 plan, try asking your senior team these questions, and give them a safe way to answer honestly:
If you had to explain our top three priorities to your team tomorrow, what would you say? Compare the answers. The differences tell you more than the agreement.
Which of these priorities do you have real doubts about? If no one names a doubt, that's not alignment. It's a trust signal.
What will you stop doing to make room for this plan? Plans that add without subtracting are plans that stall.
Measure before you launch
Most organizations check alignment a year into a strategic plan, when things already aren't going smoothly. By then, the cost is missed targets, rework, and lost momentum.
I recommend the opposite. Measure trust and alignment before the plan rolls out, while there's still time to have the hard conversations. At ROI, we use the Conscious Leadership Alliance Team Alignment Survey™ to show leadership teams exactly where clarity and approval break down across those six factors, then pair it with Everything DiSC® Work of Leaders® to build the vision, alignment, and execution habits that carry the plan forward.
What you measure, you can achieve. And the best time to measure alignment is before you need it.
Planning 2027 now? Let's talk about where your leadership team is truly aligned, and where you only think you are.