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Beyond the Boardroom: Giving Voice to Silent Stakeholders in Strategic Planning

When companies embrace long-term, aspirational strategic thinking, they often stumble upon a neglected truth: not all stakeholders have a voice. Some are silent—like the natural environment, social infrastructure, or even future generations. These sometimes non-human entities are easily overlooked because they don’t speak up, file lawsuits, or stage protests. Yet, their well-being may determine the future success or failure of your organization.

Consider the Hotelier’s Dilemma

Imagine you’re a hotel owner. Guests praise your beachfront property—drawn to the beauty, the warmth of the staff, and the authentic local culture. You enjoy a reputation built over decades, and visitors return annually, treating your resort like a second home.

But as you prepare for your next strategic planning retreat, the future doesn’t look quite as sunny. The once-pristine beach is eroding year by year. Crime in the nearby community is inching upward. Long-time guests are beginning to voice their concerns—some loudly. And deep down, you know they’re right.

These aren’t new problems. You’ve noticed the beach disappearing one foot at a time. The rising tension in the community isn’t news either. But like the proverbial frog in warming water, you’ve adapted, explaining it all away as “the cost of doing business.” Worse, your previous attempts to raise these concerns during past meetings were met with polite nods and quick pivots to more “urgent” topics.

Now, as your team embarks on a long-term strategy session—looking ahead 15, 20, even 30 years—you sense a chance. These issues can no longer be swept under the rug. But how do you surface them meaningfully, especially when they don’t fall neatly into traditional stakeholder categories?

Step 1: Rethink What a Stakeholder Is

In most boardrooms, a stakeholder is understood to be anyone with a vested interest in your company’s activities—customers, employees, shareholders, suppliers, regulators. The common thread? They’re human, vocal, and often powerful.

But in the context of long-term strategy, that definition is limiting. It omits key players—those without voices—who nonetheless play a pivotal role in your enterprise’s future. These silent stakeholders might include:

  • A fragile ecosystem like a beach or watershed.
  • A vulnerable public utility or road network.
  • An endangered product ecosystem or supply chain.
  • A future executive team that hasn’t been born yet.

These stakeholders don’t show up in your inbox or on quarterly earnings calls, but ignoring them could cost your company everything.

Step 2: Understand the Nature of Silent Stakeholders

What makes these stakeholders “silent”? They don’t complain when mistreated. They don’t strike or picket. They may be conceptual, abstract, or not yet in existence. But their relevance to your organization’s future is profound.

Take that eroding beach. Today, it’s a scenic asset. Tomorrow, it could be the reason your tourism business collapses. Or consider the future leaders of your company. Today, they’re in primary school—or not even born. Yet your decisions now will shape the environment they inherit, including the problems they’ll be tasked with solving.

These aren’t philosophical musings. They are strategic realities. And recognizing them is the first step toward future-proofing your enterprise.

Step 3: Spot Silent Stakeholders in Real Time

It’s tempting to generate a list of silent stakeholders as a pre-work exercise. While useful, such lists are often constrained by the current thinking of participants. Instead, look for these stakeholders as you build your strategy.

One helpful tool comes from the Strategy Map framework by Robert Kaplan and David Norton. Traditionally, it includes a “customer perspective,” encouraging companies to view their operations through the eyes of customers. But you can go further. What if you considered how the strategy looks from the viewpoint of a future community member, a depleted aquifer, or a degraded coastline? Or even an abstraction like a supply chain or business ecosystem?

In sessions I’ve led, teams begin to see these non-traditional entities not as passive resources, but as active partners in a long-term relationship. A beach becomes more than a commodity—it’s a co-steward of your brand. A road system isn’t just infrastructure—it’s part of your delivery promise. A stable climate isn’t background noise—it’s foundational to your survival.

Step 4: Make the Strategic Case

Some executives will push back. “We can’t worry about what we can’t control,” they’ll say. But that’s a false dichotomy. You don’t need direct control to take action. Awareness and influence can be just as powerful.

To make the case, bring stories. Describe the hotelier who ignored the early signs of decay, only to face a PR and revenue crisis later. Highlight how failing to address today’s issues amounts to borrowing against the future—without consent.

Silent Stakeholders Are Strategic Stakeholders

Your company’s future doesn’t only depend on customers and cash flow. It hinges on the entities that can’t speak for themselves but whose health and presence are essential to your strategy. These silent stakeholders are often the canaries in the coal mine—overlooked until it’s too late.

As you engage in long-term planning, don’t wait for them to raise their voices. They never will. But their impact will be felt—whether you choose to listen or not.

Closing Thought
Silent stakeholders shape your future—whether a beach, a community, or unborn leaders. Ignoring them risks irreversible damage. Today’s strategy must speak for those who can’t. Will you listen before it’s too late?

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Ep 30 Implementation Issues | A Community’s Role in Strategic Change

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit longtermstrategy.substack.com

You are the champion of a long-term strategic plan. However, you understand some of the disciplines required to make strategic plans implementable – program management and change management.

But as you try to educate others on the importance of these disciplines you find yourself alone. They just don’t get it.

And if they continue to not understand it, the strategic plan could be a failure just because of the way it’s defined, and because it’s missing important perspectives.

Tune into this episode to hear from me and my special guest, Lisa Carlin from The TurboChargers, as we tackle and try to solve this wicked problem together.

Show Notes

In this episode, Francis Wade and Lisa Carlin discuss the complexities of long-term strategic planning, emphasizing the importance of change management and project management in ensuring successful strategy execution. They explore the disconnects often found in organizations between different stakeholders and the need for a collaborative approach to strategy development.

Lisa introduces her framework for effective strategy execution, which includes a focus on community and the integration of various perspectives. The conversation highlights the necessity of transforming strategy into actionable plans while maintaining a long-term vision amidst a rapidly changing environment.

* 2 day strategy execution bootcamp https://theturbochargers.com/strategy-execution-bootcamp/

* CEO Guide: Boost Your Productivity with AI Tools for Strategic Initiatives

* 5 Future Trends in Change Management

* Discover your capability for strategy execution and transformation. Calculate your free Transformation Success Score

* Subscribe to Turbocharge Weekly. Join over 7,000 business leaders and innovators are interested in accelerating their strategic projects with a Culture-Friendly approach.

* https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisacarlin/

* Turbocharge Hub, for frameworks, learning and community to reach your full potential as a change leader.

* The Turbochargers Website

* Lisa Carlin New YouTube channel

Here’s a 20-minute video excerpt.

To view the full video, see below the paywall, available with a subscription.

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Tumultuous Times? Learn to Persuade Others to Think Decades Ahead

As a member of the C-suite with a commitment to long-term success, you may find yourself at odds with the culture around you.

You’ve come to realize that your role has subtly but fundamentally shifted. While others are chasing quarterly numbers, you’ve begun to see your job through a different lens: one of legacy-building. You’re being pulled into the future, tasked—whether formally or not—with the responsibility of stewarding the organisation across decades, not just financial years.

But here’s the challenge: how do you bring others along with you? How do you persuade a board of directors, fellow executives, investors, and employees to prioritize the long game in a world of short-term incentives?

This is not an easy undertaking. In fact, changing how leaders think about strategy is one of the most difficult challenges in any organisation—especially successful ones.

The Resistance You’ll Meet

Take a step back. The leaders around you didn’t get to the top by being slow or visionary. They were rewarded—often repeatedly—for producing immediate results. Many of them built careers by tackling crises, hitting aggressive targets, and outpacing competitors. To them, leadership is synonymous with rapid action and tangible wins.

So when you start talking about “the next decade” instead of “the next quarter,” expect to encounter skepticism—or worse, indifference. You’ll find yourself talking about long-term transformation to people whose reputations, bonuses, and egos are anchored in the short term.

Yet your instincts tell you that this moment demands something different. You’ve seen what happens to companies that delay the future. Think Netflix versus Blockbuster. Apple’s iPhone versus Nokia and Blackberry. You understand that anticipating and shaping what’s next is no longer optional—it’s essential for survival.

When the Future Becomes Your Responsibility

The strange thing is, you probably didn’t sign up for this. Most executives aren’t formally tasked with long-range planning. You may not have a title like “Chief Vision Officer” or “Head of Strategic Futures.” But somewhere along the line, the burden of long-term thinking has landed on your shoulders. You are the unofficial guardian of the future.

And while some rise to the challenge, others freeze. Some feel paralysed, unsure of how to move forward without formal authority or clarity. Others rationalize their inaction: “The world is changing too fast,” they say. “We need to stay agile, not idealistic.” Or, “We can’t focus on tomorrow when we’re struggling to meet payroll today.”

Those may sound like pragmatic statements—but left unchallenged, they become excuses that entrench short-termism and degrade strategic clarity.

You Might Be a Liability

Here’s a difficult truth: if you’ve seen the need for long-term strategy and choose not to act on it, you may be doing more harm than good.

Executives often see promotions as rewards for past performance. Some become preoccupied with proving they belong in the role. Others fall into the trap of “Imposter Syndrome,” second-guessing their right to think differently or challenge existing paradigms. And many double down on what worked in the past: more short-term execution, more urgency, more firefighting.

But that’s not what your organisation needs from you now.

Remember Kodak? At its height, it was a global juggernaut. But a failure to confront long-term realities cost it over US$31 billion in value and 128,000 jobs. The signs were there. What was missing was leadership willing to act on them.

Persuasion as a Strategic Skill

If you’re waiting to take a course or attend a strategy retreat before acting, think again. The pace of change means you can’t afford to disappear for even a day without consequence.

Instead, see persuasion itself as a mode of learning. Every time you initiate a courageous conversation with a colleague about the future, you sharpen your understanding. Use questions like:

  • “What’s the long-term impact of this decision?”
  • “What systemic issues are we failing to address?”
  • “What future trends are we not discussing?”
  • “What goals would inspire our stakeholders ten years from now?”
  • “Which breakthroughs are we ignoring because they don’t pay off this quarter?”

These questions are disarming. They don’t require formal authority. But they do require courage.

You’ll need to tailor your approach to your context—whether you’re in a multinational corporation, a government ministry, a non-profit, an educational institution, or a startup. The principles remain the same: be the voice of long-term thinking in rooms dominated by short-term pressure.

Building Fluency, Not Just Faith

You may wonder whether it’s enough to just champion long-termism and let your enthusiasm carry the message.

Unfortunately, no.

If you’re not fluent in the arguments and counterarguments, you’ll be vulnerable to professional naysayers—those who use sophisticated logic to resist change. They’re often well-respected, experienced, and deeply invested in the status quo. Without preparation, they will derail your meetings, stall your initiatives, and seed doubt in others.

So don’t stop at intuition. Build expertise. Study long-term successes and failures. Read case studies. Watch YouTube documentaries. Analyze how visionaries like Steve Jobs, Satya Nadella, or Zohran Mamdani frame the future in specific, compelling language. Study the language of leaders who inspire action across timeframes.

Becoming fluent allows you to do more than make a good point—it allows you to win the room.

Final Thought

No one is born with the ability to shift other minds from a focus on “this quarter” to “this decade.” It’s not a natural skill—it’s a deliberate one. But if you cultivate it, refine it, and use it consistently, you’ll help your organisation navigate the future with intention instead of reaction.

Otherwise, you risk remaining a hostage—trapped by the logic of short-term thinkers and the inertia of yesterday’s success.

Start the practice today. The future is waiting for your leadership.

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Strategy Communication to Staff: One-Way Message or Two-Way AI?

As a senior executive, one of your most crucial and delicate responsibilities is the communication of strategic plans to employees, board members, and key stakeholders. But how should you do it? Is it enough to share a dense, one-off report? Or can AI finally offer a way to transform this traditionally frustrating task into something more interactive and engaging?

Most leaders dread this stage of the strategy cycle. The excitement of a successful off-site retreat or board strategy session has passed. Now, the hard part begins: conveying the essence of the plan to those who weren’t in the room, yet are expected to bring it to life.

The conventional approach hasn’t changed much in decades. First, circulate a written document filled with bullet points, jargon, and long-term goals. Next, convene a town hall meeting, supported by a string of PowerPoint slides. Questions are few. Attention drifts. Finally, you pass the baton to middle managers to cascade the strategy to their teams, hoping they convey the message with clarity and enthusiasm. Often, they don’t. Miscommunication spreads. Employees receive mixed signals. Strategic alignment becomes a fantasy.

The result is predictable: confusion, disengagement, and inertia.

The Communication Gap

Why does this happen, even in well-managed companies?

Because strategy is inherently difficult to explain. Unlike routine business matters, it deals with the future—a future that is unpredictable and unknowable. Strategic thinking requires executives to rely on incomplete data, make educated bets, and reason through complex interdependencies.

Most employees, however, are trained to execute, not theorize. They want certainty. But strategy rarely offers it. It requires abstract thinking, conceptual frameworks, and trust in leadership judgment.

To compound the problem, many employees have no idea what the company’s strategy is. Surveys routinely show that a significant portion of the workforce cannot articulate their organisation’s strategic direction. That’s not because they lack intelligence, but because the way strategy is usually communicated makes it inaccessible.

The old approach—a top-down, one-way message—no longer suffices in a world where you are hiring for brains, not brawn. If your employees are going to make smart, real-time decisions that support the strategy, they need to understand the “why” behind the “what.”

From Monologue to Dialogue

Today’s leaders must embrace a new mindset: communication is not just about broadcasting; it’s about engagement. The onus is no longer on the employee to decipher a static report or passively sit through a presentation. Instead, it is the executive’s responsibility to foster understanding—to create conditions in which meaningful dialogue can occur.

Fortunately, advances in artificial intelligence offer new pathways. Specifically, large language models (LLMs) such as NotebookLM, a “Source Language Model,” can help transform strategy communication from a passive event into an interactive, personalised experience.

What Makes NotebookLM Different?

Unlike general-purpose AI tools that respond based on pre-trained knowledge, NotebookLM grounds its responses entirely in documents you upload. This means your actual strategy files—slide decks, board reports, workshop outputs—become the exclusive source of truth. The app processes your data, then allows users to interact with it intelligently.

Here’s how to use it.

  1. Upload your strategic materials. These could include the formal plan, background analyses, executive summaries, transcripts or even FAQs.
  2. Design prompt sets for different levels of strategic maturity:
    • Basic Prompts for new hires or employees unfamiliar with strategic planning. These focus on summaries, definitions, and the background story—ideal for onboarding or setting context.
    • Intermediate Prompts for general staff. These might explore implications, comparisons, and potential challenges in execution.
    • Advanced Prompts for experienced team members or high-potentials. These require synthesis across documents, evaluation of assumptions, or the generation of novel ideas based on strategic intent.

The goal is to provide each employee with an opportunity to interrogate the strategy at their own level. Because the responses are personalised and context-aware, employees engage with the material in a way that suits their curiosity, experience, and role.

Make It Playful and Challenging

To increase engagement, you can even add a layer of gamification. Frame the interaction around a scenario—for example, “Play the Devil’s Advocate.” Ask staff to identify potential flaws, contradictions, or unspoken assumptions. Give their inputs scores or feedback. Celebrate insightful critiques.

This simple, low-cost exercise can breathe life into a strategy document that would otherwise be skimmed or ignored. It empowers employees to participate in shaping strategic thinking, rather than being passive recipients of edicts from above.

A New Era of Strategic Engagement

We are entering an era where employees expect more than a memo or slide deck. They want to understand the company’s direction, contribute ideas, and be involved in shaping the future. AI tools like NotebookLM don’t just allow this—they encourage it.

For the first time, executives can enable a genuine two-way dialogue about strategy, at scale. They can foster a sense of ownership among staff who would otherwise feel excluded or overwhelmed.

The days of rolling out a strategic plan as a one-way monologue are over. Embrace a model that invites curiosity, fosters understanding, and deepens engagement. With the right tools and mindset, your strategy won’t just be communicated—it will be understood, internalised, and acted upon.

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Inspiration in Leadership | Anchor Your Message in a Compelling Future

As a leader—whether in politics or business—you want to inspire people. You want them to care, commit, and go above and beyond. But earning this level of engagement is difficult. In fact, it’s one of the most elusive challenges in leadership.

Inspiration, after all, isn’t automatic. It doesn’t come from holding a title or issuing commands. It’s something that must be carefully cultivated, often against the backdrop of public skepticism. That’s one reason why political campaigns, like Jamaica’s upcoming election cycle, can offer unexpected leadership lessons—if viewed through the right lens.

Today, many are disenchanted with politics. Voter turnout in Jamaica has declined steadily, echoing global trends that point to growing cynicism about leadership, institutions, and the future. And this problem isn’t confined to government. In the corporate world, executives also struggle to mobilize teams and customers around a vision—especially in environments marked by uncertainty, competition, and fatigue.

Ideally, leaders shouldn’t need to bribe, pressure, or manipulate people into action. Instead, they aim to win over hearts and minds so that others willingly contribute their discretionary time, energy, and creativity. That’s what genuine inspiration looks like—but it’s easier said than done.

Leaders, even well-intentioned ones, often destroy followership without realizing it. They lose focus, fail to articulate a compelling vision, or make careless remarks that erode trust. You’ve likely seen this happen—where someone in authority squanders goodwill with a single tone-deaf comment or decision.

Amidst this leadership crisis, I recently came across a video from Wavell Hinds, the former West Indies cricketer and now a political aspirant with Jamaica’s PNP. His short Facebook message, filmed at a deserted Sabina Park, offers a masterclass in communicating a purpose-driven future—one that transcends personal ambition or partisan gain.

Grounded in Painful Truths

Hinds begins with brutal honesty: West Indies cricket has declined. Once the pride of the Caribbean, it now commands little interest or passion. For many young Jamaicans, he argues, the game no longer holds any allure because they never grew up seeing it at its best.

Standing in an empty Sabina Park, once a symbol of cricketing greatness, he laments: “There’s silence, no noise, no matches, no drinks.” He speaks not just as a politician, but as someone who lived the dream—having represented the West Indies in 45 Test matches and winning a Champions Trophy.

His message is credible precisely because it’s personal. Cricket, he says, was a vehicle for his childhood ambitions. Now, he mourns what appears to be its slow death in the region’s consciousness.

Avoiding Cynicism and Cheap Shots

Yet despite the raw emotion, Hinds avoids the kind of toxic finger-pointing that dominates many political messages. Yes, he questions the current government’s commitment, criticizing superficial gestures like ribbon cuttings and photo ops. But his tone isn’t bitter. He doesn’t vilify.

“Where is the action once the lights and cameras are off?” he asks. The question lands—not because it attacks—but because it invites reflection.

This is instructive. Too often, leaders believe they must attack rivals in order to stand out. But in both politics and business, overemphasizing competition can alienate your audience. Customers don’t care who your competitors are. Employees don’t necessarily rally behind a “we beat them” mentality. And voters? They grow weary of petty battles.

The Power of a Shared Future

What people do care about is the future—and whether a leader has a credible, inclusive path to get there.

Hinds doesn’t merely lament the past or criticize the present. He paints a vision of what could be: a resurgence of West Indies cricket that unites generations and rekindles national pride. It’s not about winning the next match or the next election. It’s about anchoring today’s actions in a future worth striving toward.

For corporate leaders, this is an important lesson. It’s tempting to focus narrowly on market share, quarterly results, or outperforming the competition. But those goals rarely ignite passion. Instead, leaders must craft “probable futures”—like “Sustainable Manufacturing 2040” or “AI for Human Flourishing”—that spark hope and demand innovation.

People don’t follow leaders because they outperform the competition. They follow those who offer a bigger vision—one that includes them, stretches their imagination, and makes them feel part of something meaningful.

Become an Ambassador from the Future

Effective leaders speak and act as if they’ve already visited the future—and are now returning to guide us toward it. They describe what they’ve seen in vivid, practical terms. They acknowledge the obstacles, yes—but they also lay out a clear path forward.

This kind of visionary leadership is difficult. It can be lonely. But it’s also the most fulfilling and impactful kind of work.

So ask yourself: what future are you inviting others to help create? Are you giving them something worth committing to—not just because it benefits your organization, but because it matters to the wider world?

The takeaway is clear: whether you’re in the boardroom or on the campaign trail, being inspiring is hard. But when your message is grounded in truth and tied to a compelling, collective future, people will follow—not because they must, but because they choose to.

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The Hidden Risk of Success: How Short-Term Drift Erodes Long-Term Leadership

The Stability Trap

Your organisation is doing well. Revenue is strong. Customers are satisfied. Partners are dependable. From the outside, all indicators suggest smooth sailing.

But under the surface, a dangerous shift is taking place—short-term drift. Ironically, this subtle threat emerges not from crisis, competition, or disruption, but from long-term stability itself.

Consider what has happened in Canada. For decades, Canadian businesses assumed their relationship with the United States—its largest trading partner—was rock solid. The long-term outlook seemed secure. So leaders prioritised immediate operational concerns over deeper, strategic ones.

But when political shifts began to destabilise cross-border relations, many companies were caught off guard. While a few heeded early warnings from new U.S. leadership, most dismissed the risks. That complacency became apparent only in hindsight. What they lost was not just preparedness—but the ability to think long-term in an environment that demanded it.

This is short-term drift in action: the gradual and unconscious narrowing of focus to what seems most urgent, while neglecting the truly important.

And it’s not just Canadian firms. This phenomenon is playing out across industries and borders.

How “Success” Dulls Strategic Thinking

Take a moment to consider your own company. If you’re relying on a traditional five-year strategic planning cycle, short-term drift may already be taking root.

Why? Because a five-year lens quietly removes anything further out from serious discussion. Questions about the world in 10 or 20 years—customer needs, technology evolution, global regulations, talent pipelines—fade from view. The long-term horizon becomes a foggy abstraction. In some Asian corporations, by contrast, planning horizons stretch to 100 years or more.

In many mid-sized or large organisations, strategy retreats become little more than operational reviews dressed up with glossy presentations and smart-sounding goals. These so-called strategies are rarely the product of deep re-evaluation. Instead, they reflect a preference for safety and familiarity. Existing assumptions remain unchallenged. Difficult trade-offs are postponed.

When the unexpected occurs—think pandemics, AI disruption, climate-related volatility or geopolitical conflict—the organisation is caught flat-footed. Recovery is often slow, sometimes impossible.

A case in point: Intel. The once-dominant chipmaker was warned of competitive threats two decades ago. Founder Andy Grove even wrote a book—Only the Paranoid Survive—that outlined how close the company came to losing its lead. Yet that wasn’t enough. By the 2020s, Intel had drifted, allowing TSMC and Nvidia to outpace them in both innovation and growth. The result? A painful loss of relevance in an industry it once defined.

Where True Stability Comes From

The answer to this quiet erosion isn’t reactive crisis management. Nor is it simply extending your planning timeline.

Instead, leaders must draw confidence and stability not from present success or external conditions, but from their organisation’s ability to think—and act—long-term.

Here’s how:

1. Challenge the Five-Year Limit

The five-year plan has become a default tool in many companies. But relying on it alone is a dangerous blindfold. Many known forces shaping your future lie beyond that window—demographic changes, technological revolutions, climate transformation, shifts in global power.

To begin, surface long-term issues currently gathering dust in the boardroom. Think of trends everyone knows are coming—but no one is seriously discussing.

2. Rehearse the Future with Scenario Planning

Scenario planning offers a powerful way to break the tyranny of short-termism. Used in global institutions—and even to craft national visions like Vision 2030 Jamaica—this method allows teams to map a range of future possibilities and stress-test their strategies against them.

Done properly, scenario planning becomes a kind of corporate rehearsal: the leadership team imagines what could happen, what the organisation’s instinctive response would be, and how a more prepared, visionary plan might fare.

Such exercises reveal fragilities before they become fatal. And they generate resilience far more effectively than motivational slogans or “change readiness” workshops.

3. Replace Positivity Theatre with Real Courage

Many executive teams avoid long-term thinking because it’s uncomfortable. It introduces uncertainty. It invites pessimism. And it requires confronting possible failure.

In some companies, a forced optimism takes root—“bring me solutions, not problems” becomes the motto. Dissenting voices are silenced in the name of unity. Difficult conversations are sidelined in favour of morale-boosting pep talks.

But this denial of risk is not leadership—it’s theatre.

Real leadership requires courage. Not the kind that wins applause, but the kind that invites scrutiny, tough questions, and occasional setbacks. It means accepting the possibility of reputational harm, negative press, or even internal dissent if it serves the long-term health of the organisation.

Conclusion: Lead Beyond the Comfort Zone

Short-term drift is a subtle, silent threat. It doesn’t come with alarms or sirens. It hides behind strong earnings and confident forecasts. But it’s corrosive—and by the time its effects are visible, it may be too late.

To guard against it, executives must replace passive stability with proactive foresight. Real strategy starts where comfort ends. It begins with asking the hard questions—about what lies beyond five years, beyond this market cycle, beyond current success.

If you want to protect the future, build your strategy on vigilance, not victory. Reconnect your organisation to its long-term mission. Challenge today’s assumptions. Engage with tomorrow’s unknowns.

Only then can you truly lead—not just for now, but for the decades to come.

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ep 29 USA: Stuck in a Divide

Let’s imagine for a moment that you are a citizen or resident of the USA. You love the country and especially the vision of the founding fathers.

However, you are distressed by the degree of the political divide. It has hijacked popular attention. People seem to hate each other.

Is there a way to find inspiration beyond the current uncertainty? Can leaders possibly come together if only they took a long-term view of the country, and the world?

Tune into this episode to join me in tackling this wicked problem.

Summary

In this episode of the Jump Leap Long-Term Strategy Podcast, Francis Wade explores the deep political divide in the United States and its implications for the future. He introduces a fictional character, Amanda, who seeks to bridge this divide through a bipartisan approach. Wade discusses the importance of long-term thinking in politics, drawing parallels with Jamaica’s Vision 2030 initiative as a model for creating a unified national vision. He emphasizes the need for consensus and a future-back planning approach to address the challenges facing the U.S. and the world.

takeaways

The political divide in the U.S. is a significant issue.

Long-term thinking is essential for political stability.

Bipartisanship can lead to shared goals and outcomes.

Vision 2030 Jamaica serves as a model for national planning.

Consensus building is crucial for effective governance.

Political instability affects global perceptions of the U.S.

Future-back planning can help overcome present challenges.

A unified vision is necessary for the U.S. to thrive.

The process of creating a national vision requires broad consultation.

This is a pivotal moment for the future of democracy.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to the Political Divide

08:42 The Impact of Political Instability

14:29 Exploring Solutions: Vision 2030 Jamaica

20:35 The Process of National Development Planning

26:41 Lessons from Jamaica’s Vision 2030

32:27 The Importance of a Unified Vision

38:38 Future-Back Planning for the U.S.

44:39 Conclusion: A Call to Action

The Long-Term Strategy Conference 2025 – https://strategyconf.fwconsulting.com

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit longtermstrategy.substack.com/subscribe

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Trauma-Proof Strategy: Your Team’s Best Strategic Thinking with AI Prompts

As a CEO or senior leader, you’re responsible for steering your organization into the future. But if you’re being honest, you may feel like you’re falling short. The day-to-day noise is deafening. How can you rise above it all and think strategically—especially now, when AI tools like Large Language Models (LLMs) are reshaping the game?

In the past, you likely comforted yourself with a familiar belief: “We’ll think long-term later…once this urgent issue is behind us.” There was always supposed to be time—just around the corner—to lift your head up and see the big picture.

But when you stop to look back, you realise: that moment never arrived.

Instead, the pressure to be constantly reactive has taken over. Working nights, weekends, even holidays has become your team’s new normal. They understand the stakes. You’ve done your best under the circumstances. And yet, in quiet moments, you fear “It’s not enough.”

You think of the companies whose leaders failed to plan for the obvious. Today’s executives in those firms are frustrated, pointing fingers at past C-suites who missed what, in hindsight, was plain to see.

Consider the example of Digicel and its success in Jamaica since 2001. You can imagine the regret at Cable & Wireless. Or look at Canadian companies that relied too heavily on U.S. trade policies—only to find themselves exposed. Think of Intel, struggling to compete with Nvidia and TSMC.

In each case, when reality finally forced a wake-up call, it was too late.

You might say, “But I trust my own instincts. I’ve pulled off miracles before.” That may be true. But today, that won’t be enough.

Even if you locked yourself in a room with the best business thinker in the world, you’d still face a serious limitation: your competitors can now access smarter thinking faster. LLMs, paired with local, data-driven insight, are leveling the playing field. You’re not just competing with other executives—you’re competing with every team that knows how to ask better questions.

That’s why strategy today is no longer about just having the “right” answer. It’s about involving your people in the process. Provoking new thinking from insiders who know the terrain best.

Here’s how to do it.

Rethink How You Prompt Your People

If you’ve used LLMs like ChatGPT, you know: a well-crafted prompt makes all the difference. The same idea applies to your team. You need to move beyond weak prompts—like town halls, company retreats, or basic SWOT exercises.

Instead, create what we’ll call an ultra-prompt. Start with these ingredients:

  1. List 5–10 of your organization’s thorniest issues. Pick one—say, attracting top-tier talent under 35.
  2. Gather internal data and case studies. Include hiring stats, exit interviews, culture surveys, pay equity reviews, and more.
  3. Frame the issue differently. Teach a new lens like Jobs to Be Done or Category Design to shift how the problem is seen.
  4. Form diverse, cross-functional teams. Mix tenure, departments, and seniority. Give them a focused 30–120 minutes.
  5. Encourage the use of prompt for input in their LLM of choice. For example:

“Imagine you’re an external consultant hired to diagnose and solve our challenge in attracting top young talent. Based on our data, industry, culture, and location—what invisible obstacles might be pushing people away? What hidden advantages could we better use? Give us three bold, actionable insights. Then suggest strategic moves to make them sustainable. Be bold, but grounded. Push us beyond our echo chamber.”

You can even ask your teams to refine their thinking by requesting ideas in the voice of Peter Drucker or another visionary.

What Happens Next? Expect Disruption

The debriefs—both written and spoken—will be revealing. You’ll hear from employees who are wide awake. Some may offer challenging, unconventional ideas. That’s the point.

Expect friction. Uncertainty. Breakthroughs. You’re not just solving problems—you’re surfacing potential that’s been hiding in plain sight.

Strategy Can’t Wait

Let go of the fantasy that you’ll find “a better time” to think strategically. That ship has sailed.

In today’s landscape, the organizations that win are the ones brave enough to ask hard questions now. While others are buried in busyness, outdated tools, and endless meetings, you can be the one guiding your team with smart prompts—and real engagement.

Not because you’re the smartest person in the room. But because you created a space where the smartest thinking could finally emerge.

Longevity isn’t guaranteed. But with the right prompts, you’ll be ready when the next wake-up call comes.

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Growing the Economy with a Grand Strategy: Four Unavoidable Truths

As a business leader, you’re tired of hearing about countries with stagnant economies. Perhaps your own nation is among them — stuck in low-growth mode, with seemingly no way out. Yet, you’re committed to finding answers. You’re ready for bold ideas, not short-term gimmicks.

Here’s one worth your time.

A few weeks ago, I watched a YouTube video from a university research day featuring Michael Lopez, a BioPharma innovator with ties to Canada and South Korea. He’s also my cousin, so I thought I knew his backstory. But this presentation hit differently.

Lopez has a bold vision: establish a BioPharma manufacturing industry in the Caribbean. He’s not talking about theory — he’s proposing a proven model, grounded in global best practices. And while the facility could go anywhere in the region, he believes Jamaica is the natural leader. It has the infrastructure, location, and skilled talent pool to outcompete neighbours like Barbados or Guyana.

But this isn’t a weekend project. The investment? Around US$80 million over five years. The potential return? A sustainable 5–10% annual GDP boost. Not bad for a “wicked” problem — one that looks impossible until it’s solved.

Facing the Facts

Other Caribbean nations have had growth spurts, thanks to fossil fuels. Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana both tapped into oil and gas to ignite rapid development. Jamaica, on the other hand, leans heavily on tourism — and not especially well.

For example, the average tourist visiting the Bahamas spends about 120% more than one visiting Jamaica. And the Bahamian economy is far better structured to support the tourism sector end-to-end.

This hard truth makes one thing clear: there’s no quick win for Jamaica or countries like it. There’s no magic bullet. No five-year plan will cut it. What’s needed is a Grand Industrial Strategy — a long-term, focused commitment to economic transformation.

A Vision Beyond 2030

You might recall Jamaica’s Vision 2030

— a national roadmap launched to transition the country to developed status. While it didn’t dive deep into industrial policy, it offered a framework for change. But now, it’s become fashionable to be cynical about such visions.

That’s a mistake.

If we take a longer view — what Apple CEO Tim Cook calls “the long arc of time” — we may be closer to breakthrough than it appears. This is not the moment to give up. It’s the moment to double down.

Let’s look at four unavoidable truths, informed by history and grounded in realism.

Truth #1: Transformations Take Decades

Major economic wins don’t happen overnight. Consider the Jamaican company GraceKennedy and its “GK 2020” plan. It took 25 years of disciplined execution to turn vision into results. Real change takes long-term thinking — and staying the course.

Truth #2: Politics Can Get in the Way

As another election cycle looms, many countries face the same problem: political battles overshadow growth strategies. Even when elections are peaceful, short-term thinking often trumps long-term policy. That’s a structural challenge.

Truth #3: We Can Achieve Great Things Together

History shows we can come together to achieve national milestones — from winning independence to dramatically reducing debt-to-GDP ratios. When we align across sectors and silos, we move mountains.

Truth #4: Some Goals Must Transcend Politics

Big ideas — like a regional BioPharma industry — can’t be reduced to partisan talking points. Political leaders may be tempted to take credit, but nation-building requires collective ownership. No single party or figure should be at the centre.

If these truths resonate, then support those who aim to build cross-sector alliances — across political parties, businesses, civil society, churches, and everyday citizens. This collaborative approach is how Vision 2030 was born: through six years of engagement with thousands of Jamaicans from all walks of life.

It wasn’t perfect, but it created lasting alignment. Now we must take what we learned, let go of our cynicism, and aim higher.

Time to Build Again

As elections approach, we have a unique opportunity. Why not use this moment to begin drafting the next grand vision — one that spans 2030 to 2040 and beyond? A plan bigger than any single government, industry, or company.

BioPharma is just one example. But it shows what’s possible when we focus on innovation and long-term investment instead of short-term survival.

You may never see your name etched in history books. But like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “You may not get there with them.” Still, the sacrifice of planting the seeds — of thinking long-term, of putting country above self — could be the difference between stagnation and transformation.

You may not be called a hero.

But your effort as a business leader may just help rewrite the future.

Interested in more ideas like this explored in more detail? Visit https://longtermstrategy.info for more content.

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From Vision to Victory: 8 Steps to Deliver Game-Changing Corporate Results

Imagine this: You’re the CEO of a growing company. You’ve gathered your executive team, ready to rally them around a bold, breakthrough ambition. But there’s a moment of hesitation—you know someone will ask, “What’s the next move?” and you’re not quite sure how to respond.

You’re not alone. Many leaders find themselves in this exact spot—excited about what could be, yet uncertain about how to turn ambition into action.

The good news? You’re right to believe something extraordinary is within reach. The bad news? Big ideas often fail—not because they’re unworthy, but because there’s no clear pathway to success.

Grand visions don’t collapse from lack of enthusiasm. They collapse from lack of structure.

So, what’s the fix? Is there a proven approach that balances vision and execution?

Let’s start with three critical foundations you need in place, followed by an eight-step formula used by transformative leaders across sectors and continents.

Three Conditions for Large-Scale Success

If your organization includes dozens—or even hundreds—of team members, these conditions are non-negotiable:

  1. It can’t depend on luck. You must actively lead the charge. Passivity and wishful thinking kill progress equally.
  2. You need full-team engagement. Your board, leadership, and staff must help shape—and implement—the goal.
  3. The outcomes must be measurable. Tie the aspiration to clear data points, deadlines, and accountability.

Take public health as an example. Japan, for instance, has one of the lowest obesity rates among developed nations—just 4.3%, compared to 38.2% in the United States and 27.8% in the United Kingdom. This achievement translates into longer life expectancy, reduced healthcare costs, and a more productive workforce.

Was this a cultural accident? A genetic advantage?

Not at all. Beginning in the 1960s, Japan implemented a national strategy focused on nutrition education. By 2005, they had passed legislation making food literacy a formal part of the curriculum, with licensed educators delivering it across schools.

This didn’t happen by chance. It was a deliberate, long-term plan backed by consistent investment and engagement.

Contrast that with wishful thinking: “All we need is the right cabinet member,” or “A good grant will solve this.” That’s magical thinking—not strategy.

So, what does work? Here’s an eight-step framework used by CEOs, policymakers, and change agents to turn bold goals into tangible success.

8 Steps to Making Your Vision Real

1. Set a bold, measurable aspiration.
Think big. Define what success looks like with real metrics—even if the roadmap isn’t clear yet.

2. Make it a shared journey.
Today’s complex challenges can’t be tackled alone. Engage your executive team, board, and frontline staff in the process, from vision to execution.

3. Commit to a long-term horizon.
You might prefer results that land before your contract ends—but transformational outcomes often take years. Invest anyway. Legacy is built over time.

4. Plan with precision.
Vague goals invite vague actions. Use methods like backcasting—starting from the end goal and working backward—to make trade-offs early and shape a viable path.

5. Have the hard conversations.
Not everything fits. To focus, you’ll need to let go of good ideas in favor of great ones. Leadership demands discernment.

6. Translate ideas into structured projects.
Break down the strategy into concrete initiatives. Then, create a Project Management Office (PMO) with the teeth to hold teams accountable.

7. Inspire through clarity.
If the goal doesn’t energize people, revisit it. Maybe it’s too cautious, too abstract, or too internally focused.

8. Embrace risk.
If your vision doesn’t make you a bit nervous, it probably isn’t bold enough. Great leadership involves pushing past comfort zones.

As Machiavelli warned, “There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.”

Leaders who use this eight-step playbook don’t depend on luck. They take calculated risks, stay grounded in measurable outcomes, and engage others deeply.

The payoff? Not just short-term wins, but long-lasting impact. Their names may fade, but their legacy endures. The secret isn’t genius—it’s structured, disciplined action guided by principle and purpose.

P.S. These results are not uncommon. Just check out the Made in China 2025 vision crafted in 2015. In part, this article was inspired by the approach used and its reported 86% success rate.

For more, see articles and discussions on my site – www.longtermstrategy.info