To the exec: This is it! You are nearly there, with a strategy you have all worked on together, contributed to openly, and agreed can and will work! Now it’s time to commit.
Module 22
To the exec: This is it! You are nearly there, with a strategy you have all worked on together, contributed to openly, and agreed can and will work! Now it’s time to commit.
No disruptions!
One of the toughest challenges for execs is getting time to focus uninterrupted, but to succeed in these sessions, undisrupted time is everything.
Openness
This is your final point of deliberation when it comes to very important decisions. Be open, critical, debate, leave no stone unturned.
Space
A big flipboard or white board helps keep the ideas flowing and unrestrained. Space to think, deliberate, test and jot down every thought is important!
2 hours
When Alan Mulally became CEO of Ford in 2006, the company was losing billions. Reportedly its culture was fractured, and its leadership team was operating in silos, often with competing agendas. They were reporting good news while the company was falling apart.
One of the first things Mulally apparently did was introduce a colour-coded system to his weekly executive meetings: green for on-track, yellow for at-risk, red for off-track. But for weeks, every executive showed up with green across the board, despite Ford bleeding over billions in a single year.
Mulally knew the truth wasn’t being shared. So he waited.
Then one week, a brave executive finally showed a red. A major launch had failed. The room went silent. Everyone else was waiting to see what would happen.
Mulally clapped. (Ok, we don’t know that for sure, but someone said he did, and we like to believe he was pretty happy about it!)
That moment changed everything. It wasn’t a reprimand, it was a signal. That honesty was the new currency. That the strategy only worked if the people leading it were willing to own the truth, not just the optics.
From that point forward, the leadership team began to shift. They stopped hiding. They stopped protecting turf. They started committing, not just to the company’s direction, but to showing up differently as leaders.
Mulally didn’t ask for blind loyalty. He asked for real commitment: to the plan, to the team, to the values, and to the behaviours that would actually get Ford out of trouble. That shift at the top became the foundation for one of the most admired corporate turnarounds in modern history.
And it started with a room full of executives willing to take responsibility, in full view of each other, for making it work.
Today, you are the first to make that commitment for your company.
Take as long as needed to re-read key sections in the final strategy document provided (you should have read the updated version in full before today). Make any final refinements, additions or notes, you now have a fully editable version — this is your last review as a group.
As a team, discuss any lingering concerns, opportunities, or wording that needs final clarification.
Once complete, review the Strategy Commitment Document provided.
This is a shared declaration of commitment to the strategy, to the triple bottom line, and to each other.
Each executive is invited to sign the document, formally endorsing the strategy and affirming their individual and collective role in bringing it to life.
A signed copy will be retained internally and revisited at regular intervals as a visible anchor of leadership alignment and strategic integrity.