Adapt to Win: Why Strategy Decays and How to Fix It with Evan Campbell

Liz and Marco talk with Evan Campbell about how strategy breaks down inside organizations long before execution begins. Evan shares how his background in the military, technology, and consulting led him to focus on the gap between strategic intent and what gets funded, communicated, and delivered. They dig into strategy decay, organizational coherence, and why a B-level strategy with A-level execution often beats the reverse. The conversation also covers OKRs, lean portfolio management, leadership accountability, and how executives can test whether strategy has truly landed.

More About Evan:

https://adapttowin.co/

https://www.chinookranch.com/founder.html

01:10 - Evan's path from Special Forces to software, startups, and consulting 03:59 - How the book came together from blog posts into Adapt to Win 06:10 - Why the portfolio of initiatives reveals the real strategy 07:38 - What strategy decay means and why it spreads through organizations 09:25 - Why leaders have to fight noise, inertia, and organizational drift 11:12 - The danger of shiny new executive priorities with no clear "why" 13:06 - Commander's intent versus micromanagement and rigid task lists 15:33 - Why CEOs and strategy officers often discover years of stalled progress 16:52 - The three strategy subprocesses: development, deployment, execution 18:46 - Why accountability for execution cannot stop at the strategy office 19:49 - Why the CEO is ultimately responsible for making strategy happen 21:35 - Why A-level execution beats A-level strategy with weak execution 22:28 - Strategy as a hypothesis, with feedback loops driving learning 23:33 - Gemba thinking and the gap between executive strategy and real operations 24:46 - Organizational coherence across strategy, business model, and operating model 26:42 - Too much work in progress makes strategy decay worse 28:06 - Hidden disagreement in the boardroom beneath surface alignment 29:41 - Ambition, risk, and whether a strategy is actually executable 31:10 - Why strategic adaptability starts with basic execution discipline 32:18 - How leaders should quickly adjust strategy when conditions change 33:44 - Using pulse surveys and quick conversations to test strategy deployment 34:47 - The questions every executive should ask: where do we play, how do we win 36:32 - Why the funding portfolio tells you what the organization is really building 37:59 - Public versus private companies and the wide range of strategy maturity 41:35 - Where to find Adapt to Win and Evan's consulting work