Labeling the relationships between goals, initiatives, and other operating-system elements exposes hidden assumptions that shape strategy execution, helping leaders pick models that scale and avoid misaligned cascades.
The core idea is that the way we label edges in our mental models changes how strategy flows through an organization. By treating goals, initiatives, capabilities, and beliefs as distinct relationship types, leaders can see why a simple hierarchy often hides critical dynamics. The article walks through four mental models of the goal-initiative relationship - from goals as strategic anchors to initiatives as bets - and shows how each label rewires responsibility and decision-making.
Two contrasting strategy-to-execution diagrams illustrate the impact: one assumes linear, stable layers where teams execute predefined intent, the other assumes an uncertain world where bets and insights drive iterative learning. The former scales well for large, predictable projects; the latter preserves creativity and adapts to rapid change.
A quick sketch of an Amazon-style operating system demonstrates how a rich network of relationships - diagnosing, escalating, grounding, influencing - can replace a simple project-deliverable-story tree. The edges carry mechanisms, not just containers, revealing a messier but more accurate picture of how work actually moves.
The piece then connects these ideas to scaling agile practices, warning that repeating team-level rituals at higher levels often breaks because dynamics change with distance, politics, and translation. Understanding which relationships are truly scale-free and which are not helps leaders avoid futile cascades of OKRs, over-engineered boards, and mis-aligned trains.
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