In This Is Strategy: Make Better Plans, Seth Godin offers a refreshingly practical definition of strategy:
“A flexible plan that guides us as we seek to create a change.”
That framing aligns closely with what I’ve observed over decades of helping organisations build real innovation capability. Strategy isn’t a document or an initiative. It’s a set of choices that shape what an organisation becomes.
From Innovation Theatre to Real Change
Many organisations say innovation is critical to growth (85% of executives, according to McKinsey), yet remain stuck in innovation theatre. They invest in labs, run workshops and plaster slogans on walls, but avoid the hard trade-offs that real strategy demands.
Godin puts it simply: strategy requires saying no. Without clear choices, innovation becomes activity rather than impact. Real innovation shows up not in ideas, but in the systems, expectations and behaviours leaders design.
Strategy Is Cultivation, Not a Quick Win
Godin’s gardening metaphor captures this well:
“A gardener plants seeds but doesn’t expect an orchard in an hour or a week. Planting is simply a step in the unfolding of what is to come later. That’s strategy.”
Sustainable innovation isn’t about chasing quick wins or pursuing unrealistic moonshots. High-performing organisations deliberately cultivate a balanced portfolio – strengthening the core (70%) while steadily investing in adjacent (20%) and transformational (10%) ideas. This requires patience, discipline and long-term commitment, not constant reinvention.
My work on Differentiated Innovation sits squarely in this middle ground: it’s about planting seeds of capability across the organisation, nurturing them with psychological safety, and allowing innovation to grow organically.
Why Systems Matter More Than Skills
One of Godin’s sharpest insights is that we focus too much on individuals and not enough on systems. Performance metrics, budgeting rules, governance processes and leadership behaviours quietly shape what people feel able to do.
Innovation fails when systems punish risk, slow experimentation, or prioritise short-term efficiency over learning. If leaders don’t see the system, they will always struggle to change outcomes.
In practice, innovation leadership works best when living by my ODC framework (Own-Drive-Contribute):
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Executives own the conditions for innovation
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Middle managers translate strategy into action
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Front-line teams are enabled to contribute safely and consistently
Empathy Is a Strategic Capability
Godin reminds us that empathy is central to strategy. Innovation asks people to take risks – and humans are naturally loss-averse. When leaders demand experimentation without acknowledging this, fear quietly shuts innovation down. In fact, Gartner’s research reveals that 60% of employees have held back innovative ideas due to fear of negative consequences (2019).
Psychological safety isn’t a “nice to have”; it’s the foundation of innovation. Teams innovate when failure is treated as learning, not liability.
Elegance Beats Complexity
Godin talks about elegance in strategy: simplicity, clarity and working with systems rather than against them.
The strongest innovation cultures don’t rely on complex frameworks or dense methodologies. They use a small number of clear principles that help people make better decisions in real time, such as:
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Share early rather than perfecting in isolation
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Support promising ideas even when outcomes are uncertain
Simple rules outperform heavy planning by 30th (Research from MIT, 2015) because they fit human behaviour and fast-changing environments.
Strategy as a Philosophy of Becoming
Godin writes:
“Strategy is the philosophy of becoming.”
This perfectly captures what it means to build an innovation-led organisation. Innovation isn’t something organisations do. It’s something they are becoming, shaped by daily habits, choices and trade-offs. Organisations that embed innovation into their identity – not as a programme, but as a way of working – are the ones that sustain performance over time.
The most important strategic questions remain:
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Who are we becoming?
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Who do we serve?
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And what do we enable others to become?
A Practical Call to Action
For leaders serious about innovation, five actions matter most:
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Define your innovation philosophy – be explicit about the kind of innovator you aim to be
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Design enabling systems – align metrics, funding and governance with innovation goals
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Empower middle managers – they turn intent into reality
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Lead with empathy – reduce fear and acknowledge real human constraints
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Keep it elegant – simple principles beat complex frameworks
Building an innovation-led organisation isn’t easy. But as Godin reminds us, if innovation matters, it’s worth taking the time to articulate a strategy that actually makes it possible.
Previously published on crisbeswick.com.
How we can help
At Culture Consultancy, we help organisations drive growth and remain relevant by building aligning strategy, leadership, and culture so that innovation capability becomes embedded in organisational DNA. We offer tailored innovation capability & culture development programmes, working with leadership teams and people practitioners to identify what’s holding innovation back, and design the systems and behaviours that create the right culture for innovation. Built on diagnostic insights from our proprietary Assessment for Innovation Maturity and grounded in real-world transformation challenges, our interventions are always practical, evidence-based and directly aligned with your strategic priorities.
To find out more, book a call with one of our innovation culture experts.
About Cris
Cris is a global strategic advisor, keynote speaker, and bestselling author specialising in innovation strategy, leadership, and culture. With 25+ years of operational experience including a decade as an entrepreneur and former CEO, he brings ‘operational scars’ rather than just theoretical knowledge. He works with Fortune 500 clients such as Cisco, Novartis, and ING, as well as government organisations including GCHQ and the Dubai Government.
As co-author of the bestselling management book “Building a Culture of Innovation” and with multiple academic appointments, Cris has developed proprietary methodologies around measuring innovation maturity and building high-performing innovation systems. His work focuses on moving organisations beyond superficial innovation activities toward genuine cultural transformation where grassroots innovation enthusiasm aligns with senior-level organisational commitment.
