Culture Lags Strategy

I recently had James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, on my podcast (below) to talk all about — surprise surprise — habit building.

Episode #369: James Clear on Replacing Bad Habits with Good Habits

One thing we touched on was time — the time between the development of a habit, good or bad, and the associated outcome.

James went on to say that:

1. Your outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits.
2. Your weight is a lagging measure of your eating habits.
3. Your knowledge is a lagging measure of your learning habits.

This all makes perfect sense because nobody goes from a 34” waistline to a 30” waistline after just one workout.

Strategy Eats Culture for Breakfast

I once wrote that strategy eats culture for breakfast, contrary to the popular meme, because if your strategy involves creating an environment that stimulates certain behaviours, then the culture will inevitably follow.

For example, if I lower an organisation’s delegations of authority, this will result in distributing…