If you are about to lead an enterprise-wide strategic planning process: The composition of the room and the quality of the information in it will shape everything that follows. Get those two things right, and the rest of the process has a much better chance of producing strategy that holds together from the boardroom all the way to the frontline.

Good strategy is hard to build and harder to sustain. But it does not have to be complicated. It has to be honest, grounded, and clear enough that the people who need to live it can actually do so.