Enabling Management Systems
Box five of the Strategy Choice Cascade, the most neglected. The structures, processes, metrics, incentives and norms that build Must-Have Capabilities and translate choices into daily behaviour.
Martin's metaphor: if WTP/HTW is the heart and capabilities are the muscles, management systems are the nervous system. Without the signal, nothing moves in coordination.
Key ideas in this cluster:
- The Barnacle Problem, systems accumulate, never uninstall, and quietly motivate old behaviour under new strategies
- CEO as Chief System Designer, coherence across systems can't be delegated, because no one else spans them
- Honing vs Transformation, continuous small adjustment beats periodic dramatic overhaul
- Culture Change Is Retail Not Wholesale, culture is a management system, changed interpersonally
- Leader Behaviour Is the Signal, when systems conflict, people follow what leaders do
Practical consequence: OKRs, bonus plans, review cadences and promotion criteria are all EMS. If they contradict the strategy, the strategy loses, quietly, at scale, every day.
Seam with the OKR system: OKRs, the KPI Scorecard, OKR Check-ins and Retrospectives are exactly this box. The full mapping is in Where OKRs Meet Strategy.
Our synthesis of Roger Martin’s published work, sources credited. Read the originals: they’re excellent.
Reading about method is not the same as running it. We install this system and build the capability that stays.
Turn strategy into executed strategy →