Hello friends,

Welcome to Theory of Change. This is episode four of the Anti-Pattern Editions, a 12-part series pulling apart tired frameworks, habits, and management rituals, and rebuilding them into tools that actually work in complex, purpose-led settings.

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This week: the strategic refresh.

Supposed to be: a bold rethink.

Too often: a year-long pause, a consultant contract, some new “strategic pillars”, and a fresh mission statement that could have been written by ChatGPT with a thesaurus.

Let's get into it.

🪄 STRATEGIC REFRESH 🪄

What it’s supposed to be

The strategic refresh is an institution. Done well, it can bring renewed energy, clear priorities, and a sharper story that everyone (from staff to partners to funders) can align around.

Boards tend to love it because it signals diligence: a sign they’re doing the serious governance work, not just rubber-stamping budgets. Consultants love it because it can guarantee a year or more of steady work, focus groups, and rebranding exercises. Leaders often find it appealing because it looks like decisive action while giving breathing space from the messy reality of delivering results under constraints.

At its best, a refresh is a chance to pause the noise, ask hard questions, and recommit to the work in a way that makes sense for today. But then reality bites…

Where it falls apart

Look, I’ve sat through and – mea culpa! – led enough strategic refreshes to know the choreography by heart. First comes the away day, walls plastered with neon post-its of 20 synonyms for the word equity. Staff are herded into sessions where everyone knows the real decisions are already stitched up in a private meeting. Consultants arrive promising clarity (moi?) and leave behind 50 pages of fog.

Then comes the grand reveal: a deck, a video, maybe even mood lighting if someone in comms gets overexcited. The rhetoric promises transformation, but the substance is a rejigged org chart, a slogan that could apply to the next charity over, and a budget exactly where it was last year.

And the crowning glory? The shiny “innovation pillar” that turns out to just be the old programme line in a new hat. Everyone notices of course, but no one says a word.

A better way to think about it

Why does this keep happening? Well, because it is safer to redesign sentences than to reallocate money, and easier to simulate consultation than to confront power. 

The sentiment is correct: think, then act.

But too often, a strategic refresh flatters boards and shields leaders, without making the trade-offs that would actually change things.

A genuine strategy refresh isn’t a pause, a deck, or a new set of adjectives. It’s a moment of visible prioritisation: what gets more energy, what gets less, and why. As adrienne maree brown’s Emergent Strategy reminds us, “what we practice at the small scale sets the patterns for the whole system.” 

Try it this week

If you’re either considering or - gods help you! - in the middle of a strategy change right now, bear these in mind:

• If the money doesn’t move, the strategy doesn’t either. A credible refresh starts with reallocations (yes, even small ones) that show what’s being stopped, shrunk, or protected. The trade-offs are the strategy.

• Don’t dress up fixed decisions as “consultation.” If people’s input is shaping language but not allocations, say so. If you are redistributing decision-making, show how. Strategy is only legitimate when people know how their voice actually counts.

• If you bring someone in, cap their remit at facilitation or analysis, not authorship. I’m serious; don’t outsource this. Own your own strategy.

• Communicate in real time. Skip the glossy reveal. Carefully publish release notes. Share decisions as they’re made, explain the criteria, and show how resources follow. Transparency doesn’t confuse people, secrecy does.

A successful refresh is less about writing the perfect values statement and more about building trust through visible practice: decisions that show trade-offs, budgets that show priorities, and communication that shows power as it truly is, not as we wish it to be.

🌊 WAVE GOODBYE 🌊

Strategy is just priorities made visible. Despite telling people this for a living, I still have to constantly remind myself of that fact when it comes to my own projects. Priorities made visible, or nothing at all.

So, here goes. Much of my energy is going into YouTube at the moment. I’ve a new video out called “Why we glimmerscroll.”

It looks at the compulsive habit of chasing tiny signals of approval, and why we stay overwhelmed even when life looks balanced on the surface. Turns out, it’s not about not having enough time, but something far deeper.

This week, I also published Future Perfect, a simple method for rewriting mission and vision statements so they’re clear, human and fit for purpose. This free 15-page playbook helps you apply it to any project.

Thanks for reading. If you find this newsletter valuable, you can tip me here. Every bit of support gives me more space to write, film, and create playbooks - and to keep sharing it all freely.

Adam

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