Strategy Meets Reality Podcast

Mike Jones
  • 0.0 (0)
  • Management

Traditional strategy is broken. The world is complex, unpredictable, and constantly shifting—yet most strategy still relies on outdated assumptions of control, certainty, and linear plans. Strategy Meets Reality is a podcast for leaders who know that theory alone doesn’t cut it. Hosted by Mike Jones, organisational psychologist and systems thinker, this show features honest, unfiltered conversations with leaders, strategists, and practitioners who’ve had to live with the consequences of strategy. We go beyond frameworks to explore what it really takes to make strategy work in the real world—where trade-offs are messy, power dynamics matter, and complexity won’t go away. No jargon. No fluff. Just real insight into how strategy and execution actually happen. 🎧 New episodes every Tuesday. Subscribe and rethink your strategy.

  1. 2d ago

    Strategy Meets Reality In Higher Education And Community Wellbeing

    Strategy sounds tidy until funding shocks, shifting policy, and the messy reality of local communities hit. We sit down with Craig Hobbs, senior lecturer and systems thinker, to ask a deceptively simple question: what are universities actually for now, and what must change for them to stay viable without losing their public purpose? We explore universities as social anchor institutions within a wider civic ecosystem of employers, local authorities, health services, voluntary groups, and citizens. Craig shares why some institutions thrive by building open, connected “active campus ecologies”, while others drift by chasing fashionable ideas that ignore local strengths. Along the way, we unpack the UK’s unstable education funding model, the risks of over-reliance on international recruitment, and why governance, culture, and hierarchy often block the voices that most need to be heard. The conversation turns to place-based education and the growing need for flexible learning models: blended learning, block delivery, degree apprenticeships, CPD, and micro-credentials designed around real working lives. We also explore a theme rarely treated as strategy: physical activity, health creation, and wellbeing. Craig argues that movement and self-care aren't “nice-to-haves” but core conditions for learning capacity, resilience, and long-term employability, especially as health inequality and mental health pressures rise. If you care about higher education strategy, civic universities, systems leadership, or building healthier communities through learning, this is a practical, challenging listen. Subscribe, share with someone shaping education or policy, and leave us a review with your take: what constraint would you challenge first to make universities work better for everyone? Connect with Craig: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craig-hobbs-fhea-fcimspa-ch-7b716727/ Send Mike a Message Enjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast. 🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast 📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsReality Connect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

    Strategy Meets Reality In Higher Education And Community Wellbeing

  2. Oct 13

    Meaning Does Not Transfer | Luiz von Paumgartten

    Strategy fails in ways that feel mysterious: the plan looked solid, the logic was sound, and yet reality does something else.  I’m joined by Luiz von Paumgartten, a patent attorney who has spent the last decade developing a model he calls Natural Reality. Using a handful of diagrams and plain language, we dig into “meaning” (everything produced inside your mind) versus “happening” (uninterpreted action in the world). We sharpen the map-territory distinction, the idea that your mind is bounded by an electromagnetic interface, and why light matters as the boundary where happenings become perceptions and intentions become actions. The conversation turns practical fast: if minds sit in parallel, then communication is not the transfer of meaning. It is the sharing of expressions that each listener must interpret using their own rules, expectations, and perspective. That single point- meaning doesn’t transfer- helps explain misalignment in leadership, friction in organisational strategy, and why people can hear the same words and walk away with different realities. We also connect this to perspective change, accumulated tension, and the John Boyd OODA loop style of sensemaking and orientation. If you want clearer thinking about strategy, communication, and decision-making under uncertainty, you’ll get a fresh mental model to test immediately. Subscribe, share this with a colleague, and leave a review with the biggest “misinterpretation” you’ve seen at work. Connect with Luiz here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vonpaumgartten/ Here are The Abstractionist’s Papers Find more of his work here: https://welcometothebluespace.com/ Send Mike a Message Enjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast. 🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast 📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsReality Connect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

    Meaning Does Not Transfer | Luiz von Paumgartten

  3. Sep 29

    From Strategy To Reality Through Better Operations | Ben Chappell

    A strategy you can't deliver isn't ambitious; it's wishful thinking. Mike sits down with Ben Chappell, founder of Cove Ops, to get brutally practical about the gap between strategy and execution and why “operations” is the missing piece in so many SMEs that are scaling, preparing for investment, or gearing up for a sale. We unpack how strategy drift happens when teams go back to business as usual, mistaking constant activity for progress. Ben reframes strategy as intent and a daily decision rubric, then shows how operations turn that intent into reality through an operating model that actually works. We dig into the real pain signals of poor operations, from duplicated data entry and broken handovers to missed deadlines, customer impact, and the quiet burnout caused by endless workarounds. You will also hear why investors and buyers look beyond the spreadsheet: financial results are lagging indicators, so confidence comes from leading metrics, clear workflows, visibility, and a business that is not held together by a few heroes. We explore AI and automation with a sober lens, starting with first-principles diagnosis, then building capacity so people can do the human work: collaboration, problem-solving, and continuous improvement. If you want practical ideas on systems thinking, standardisation, knowledge management, and running change like an experiment, this one is for you. Subscribe for more conversations that connect strategy to real delivery, share the episode with someone battling operational friction, and leave a review so more leaders can find the show. Connect with Ben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-chappell/ Send Mike a Message Enjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast. 🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast 📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsReality Connect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

    From Strategy To Reality Through Better Operations | Ben Chappell

  4. Sep 15

    Who Leads When AI Thinks | Adrian Wolfberg

    AI is moving faster than our organisations can make sense of, and that gap is where strategy breaks. We sit down with Adrian Wolfberg, a former national security practitioner and author of Who Leads When AI Thinks, to unpack a tough reality: success with AI is not mainly a technology problem; it is a leadership, context, and knowledge integration problem. We start with boundaries and organisational intelligence, the way functions and hierarchies shape what people see, what they value, and what they miss. Adrian shares a concrete story of “Crossing Boundaries”, a skip-level forum designed to surface intractable problems and turn frontline signals into action through accountability and a real business case. It is a grounded look at strategy execution, not theory. From there we zoom out to generative AI and large language models, and why this shift feels like a societal transformation rather than another software rollout. AI can be faster than any team, but it isn't accountable, and it cannot truly hold organisational context, history, politics, relationships, or ethical judgement. That means leaders have to design permeability across silos, strengthen feedback loops, and model the behaviours that keep humans and AI aligned as the environment changes. If you’re thinking about AI governance, organisational design, decision-making, and the future of leadership, this conversation will give you practical angles and better questions. Subscribe, share it with a colleague, and leave a review with your take: where do you think this human-AI relationship is heading? Find Adrian's work here: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrianwolfberg/ Website: https://www.oicllc.org/ Send Mike a Message Enjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast. 🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast 📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsReality Connect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

    Who Leads When AI Thinks | Adrian Wolfberg

  5. Sep 1

    Reality First Strategy | Mike Jones

    Most strategy starts in the wrong place. Someone picks the destination, the deck gets built, and nobody stops to examine the ground the organisation is actually standing on. No guest this week. Mike Jones is solo to talk about where the podcast is heading, why he wants more leaders inside organisations rather than commenting from outside them, and what it's been like finishing the book, which is now with the publisher and out on 2nd of March. Then he gets into the thing he keeps having to argue for. Reality first, aspiration second. Where you actually stand, who else is on the terrain with you, and the constraints that give that ground its topology, because some options look attractive on paper and turn out to be Everest. Start with the aspiration, and you'll do what young soldiers do with a map: shape the ground until it matches what you're holding, then get lost. The second half is the part Mike finds hardest to get across: strategy isn't a straight line you walk; it's a relationship you're locked into. Move, and other actors move back, whether they mean to or not. So who responds, how would you know it's coming, and what happens if you do nothing at all? That last question saved a client from handing a small competitor the room to grow into a serious problem three years out. It all runs on organisational intelligence, which is a reserve. Neglect it, and it depletes, and you end up crossing terrain blindfolded. If this resonates, subscribe, share the episode with someone who owns a strategy, and leave a review. What part of your organisation’s “reality” are you avoiding right now? Send Mike a Message Enjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast. 🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast 📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsReality Connect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

    Reality First Strategy | Mike Jones

  6. Aug 18

    Innovation That Survives Reality | Robyn Bolton

    If your organisation keeps saying "we need to be more innovative" while doing everything possible to crush experimentation, this conversation is for you. I'm joined by Robyn Bolton, founder and Chief Navigator at MileZero, to get brutally practical about what it takes to turn a growth strategy into results when uncertainty, incentives and internal politics get in the way.  We explore the core tension leaders face: most people rise by mastering operating excellence in a high-knowledge environment, then get asked to deliver innovation in a low-knowledge, high-assumption world. Robyn lays out a simple, disciplined alternative to big-bang roll-outs: apply the scientific method, break work into assumptions, write hypotheses, and run quick tests starting with the deal killers. Along the way, we unpack why moving fast in the wrong direction is worse than moving slowly in the right one, plus a memorable McDonald's shrimp salad story that shows what happens when nobody checks the maths early.  We also tackle why innovation is rarely an ideas problem. It's a leadership problem and an organisational design problem: governance that rewards wordy papers over learning, incentives tied to the quarter, and corporate antibodies that swarm anything new. We discuss why "lean is the enemy of learning" can be true in exploration, how to define a clear growth gap that forces focus, why portfolios beat single heroic bets, and how to treat AI as a tool rather than a strategy fad.  If you want innovation strategy, growth strategy and corporate innovation to survive contact with reality, subscribe, share this episode with a colleague, and leave a review so more leaders find the practical playbook. Find Robyn's work here: https://www.milezero.io https://www.unlockinginnovation.co Send Mike a Message Enjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast. 🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast 📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsReality Connect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

    Innovation That Survives Reality | Robyn Bolton

  7. Aug 4

    Making Strategy Real | Evan Campbell

    A strategy can look flawless on a slide deck and still fail the moment it reaches the real world. I’m joined by Evan Campbell, technology executive, former management consultant, and author of Adapt to Win, to unpack why organisations with “good strategy” so often struggle with strategy execution, strategic alignment, and making day-to-day work match leadership intent. We get practical about what breaks: strategy decay as clarity gets lost down the hierarchy, the inertia of an organisation already in motion, and the false comfort of performative rollout activity. Evan explains why OKRs only deliver focus, alignment, and accountability when they are built with a genuine bottom-up contribution, not pushed downhill like old-school MBOs. We also separate the work into three capabilities you can actually improve: strategy development, strategy deployment, and strategy execution, including the controls and feedback loops that stop teams from discovering failure at the end of the quarter. From there, we move into lean portfolio management and investment decisions. If you cannot kill projects, you cannot be adaptive. We talk zombie projects, budget defensiveness, and why portfolio managers often default to ROI and NPV because it feels “objective”, even when it quietly starves innovation. The thread running through everything is trade-offs and accountability: executives must be clear about what not to do, give teams decision rights, and shorten the loop between decisions and consequences. If you want strategy to survive contact with reality, this conversation will give you a sharper lens and a few uncomfortable questions to ask on Monday. Subscribe, share with a colleague, and leave a review with the biggest execution problem you see in your organisation. Find Evan's work here:  Adapt to Win: https://adapttowin.co/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evcampbell/ Send Mike a Message Enjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast. 🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast 📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsReality Connect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

    Making Strategy Real | Evan Campbell

  8. Jul 22

    Strategy Meets Reality In Government | Alison Guthrie-Wrenn

    Strategy sounds clean on a slide deck. Then you try to deliver it inside a system with competing priorities, blurred boundaries, and a public spotlight that never switches off. I’m joined by senior civil servant Alison Guthrie-Wrenn to talk about strategy execution where constraints are real, relationships are long-term, and legitimacy is not automatically granted. We compare what it feels like to drive change from inside an organisation versus advising from the outside, and why power dynamics and internal politics shape what can be challenged and what must be navigated. From there, we get practical about systems thinking in government: how to start small, build influence, and use a systemic lens to see interconnections rather than isolated projects. Alison shares why large transformation programmes so often fail, and why the most resilient approach is to hold tight to a clear vision and purpose while keeping the plan flexible as reality shifts underneath you. We also tackle the uniquely public-sector challenge of political cycles, where the route can change overnight, and sometimes even the destination changes too. Add volatility, misinformation, and “trial by Twitter”, and leaders need ways to keep options open without retreating into vague commitments. If you care about adaptive strategy, organisational change, and making better decisions in complex systems, this one will give you the language and tools you can use straight away. Subscribe, share the episode with a colleague, and leave a review with the most useful question you’re now asking about your own strategy. Connect with Alison: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisonguthrie-wrenn/ Send Mike a Message Enjoying the show? Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite platform — it helps more people find the podcast. 🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast 📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsReality Connect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/

    Strategy Meets Reality In Government | Alison Guthrie-Wrenn
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About

Traditional strategy is broken. The world is complex, unpredictable, and constantly shifting—yet most strategy still relies on outdated assumptions of control, certainty, and linear plans. Strategy Meets Reality is a podcast for leaders who know that theory alone doesn’t cut it. Hosted by Mike Jones, organisational psychologist and systems thinker, this show features honest, unfiltered conversations with leaders, strategists, and practitioners who’ve had to live with the consequences of strategy. We go beyond frameworks to explore what it really takes to make strategy work in the real world—where trade-offs are messy, power dynamics matter, and complexity won’t go away. No jargon. No fluff. Just real insight into how strategy and execution actually happen. 🎧 New episodes every Tuesday. Subscribe and rethink your strategy.

Information

  • Creator
    Mike Jones
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    61
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Strategy Meets Reality Podcast
  • Show Website
    Strategy Meets Reality Podcast

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