Are You Cultivating the Right Ground for Strategy to Take Root?

Why culture isn’t just a backdrop to your strategy — it’s the foundation that determines whether it thrives or fails.

Rethinking the Relationship: Strategy and Culture in a Volatile World

In boardrooms across the globe, strategy sessions remain the beating heart of business planning. Market analysis, strategic foresight, scenario mapping — all command the attention of senior leaders. But as the world grows more complex, volatile, and interdependent, many organisations are discovering that strategy alone is no longer enough.

Because no matter how brilliant your strategy, if it’s planted in the wrong environment, it won’t grow.

To put it plainly: culture is the soil, and strategy is the seed. And in uncertain times, it’s the health of the soil that determines whether the seed takes root, grows resilient, and bears fruit — or whether it withers under pressure.

Why the Ground Matters More Than the Plan

In leadership circles, catchy phrases often stick. “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” is one such favourite. It’s provocative — but misleading. Culture doesn’t replace strategy. The two are not adversaries. They are interdependent.

Culture has primacy without diminishing the value of strategic thinking. In an unpredictable world:

Just as seeds must be planted in soil that suits their nature — well-drained for some, nutrient-rich for others — strategies must be embedded in cultures capable of supporting their intent. Trying to grow a strategy in the wrong culture is like trying to grow roses in sand.

The Illusion of Control: Why Strategy Alone Falls Short

In calmer times, it was feasible to define a multi-year strategy and drive alignment from the top down. But today, change is not linear — it’s exponential, sudden, and often unforgiving.

Leaders can no longer rely solely on the precision of their plans. Instead, they must rely on the adaptability, trust, and cohesion of their people — and those are cultural outcomes, not strategic ones.

During crises, your strategy might be unclear or even irrelevant for a time. What carries the organisation forward in that moment is culture — the implicit behaviours, values, and mindsets that guide action in the absence of formal instruction.

That’s why in volatile conditions, culture becomes your true operating system.

Cultural Drift: The Silent Erosion of Strategic Intent

Despite this, culture still receives less quality time than strategy in most executive suites. Too often, it’s treated as a project — a standalone initiative handed to HR, decorated with posters and engagement surveys, and then quietly de-prioritised.

This creates “cultural drift” — the slow, almost imperceptible shift away from intentional norms, often shaped by dominant personalities, external pressures, or legacy systems. And in that vacuum, strategy suffers.

The data is compelling. Research shows that only about 20% of organisations actively manage their culture. The other 80% are essentially leaving it to chance. Yet over time, organisations with managed cultures outperform their peers by multiples — in innovation, retention, agility, and even shareholder return.

The Leadership Imperative: Tending the Soil

So, what does it mean for senior leaders to “cultivate” culture?

First, it means recognising that culture isn’t an HR responsibility — it’s a leadership discipline. It involves:

Second, it means accepting that you can’t control culture in the traditional sense — you can only nurture it. Like soil, it responds to consistent care, not command-and-control. It needs listening, feedback, correction, and above all, leadership presence.

Strategy Will Change. Culture Decides How Fast You Can.

In today’s environment, your strategy is likely to evolve — perhaps several times in a single year. But if you’ve cultivated a strong culture, you won’t need to re-educate or re-align your people every time. Instead, you’ll have built a workforce that can absorb shocks, adapt quickly, and remain anchored to purpose.

In essence, culture allows your organisation to move at speed with stability.

That’s the secret not just to surviving volatility, but to using it — to outlearn, out-innovate, and outperform in a world where change is the only constant.

Final Thought: What Are You Really Growing?

Next time you meet with your leadership team, consider this question: Are we spending enough time cultivating the soil, or are we obsessing over the next seed to plant?

Because without the right soil, even the most visionary strategy won’t grow. But with the right culture, you can weather any storm — and perhaps even thrive because of it.

And that’s not just smart leadership. That’s long-term stewardship.

This article explores themes and concepts from content by John O. Burdett.

John O. Burdett is founder of Orxestra® Inc. He has extensive international experience as a senior executive. As a consultant he has worked in more than 40 countries for organisations that are household names. John has worked on organisation culture for some of the world’s largest organisations. His ongoing partnership with TRANSEARCH International means that his thought leading intellectual property, in any one year, supports talent management in many hundreds of organisations around the world. Get in touch with John O. Burdett »

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