Why your strategy keeps stalling — even when everyone is working hard.
When I was younger, my family took a road trip through Boston and we were trying to get to Cambridge from Boston. My mom had the map. She kept looking at it, driving longer, getting further off course. It took an embarrassingly long time to realize she had the map upside down (I take responsibility as my sister and I were arguing in the back seat, so she was distracted).
We weren't lost because we weren't trying. We were lost because where we wanted to go was different than what the map said.
This is what we see happening inside many ag businesses with good strategies.
The destination is clear
Most of the businesses we work with in agriculture have made a deliberate choice: they are not going to win on price. Their strategy is built on value, service, and partnership. Ask any leader to describe it and they'll tell you, with conviction, "we want to be a trusted partner, we want to add value."
That's the destination. Then we look at how the business runs, and something doesn't line up. The salesperson closest to the customer can't make a decision without three approvals. The reward system pays based on volume and margin, so that's what people do, even when it means pushing product a customer doesn't need. None of this comes from bad people or lack of effort. Everyone is driving hard and taking turns that feel right. But the map is oriented the wrong way.
You're driving with someone else's map
The part that's easy to miss is that the misaligned map wasn't drawn on purpose. It was inherited. The default map in agriculture is built for low cost and volume — that's how many businesses in this industry are structured, make decisions, and pay their people, because for a long time that's what the industry rewarded. So when a company picks up the standard-issue map without checking its orientation, it drives toward low cost and sales even when its real strategy is high value. A default map always takes you to the default destination, not your own.
The part that's easy to miss is that the misaligned map usually wasn't drawn on purpose. It was inherited. We reach for what worked before. We implement a structure from a past role, a proven playbook, or an industry best practice, without pausing to notice that those situations were different from the one we're in right now.
The map that got someone else where they were going, or got us where we used to be, isn't necessarily going to get us where we need to go today. A map drawn for a different destination will always take you there, not to where you want to go.
That was our exact problem on the way to Cambridge. Where we wanted to go was clear. But we were following a map that pointed somewhere else.
Structure and processes speak louder than slide decks
This is an example of misalignment. We set our strategy, but our structure, processes, and rewards are not aligned and pulling our teams in different directions.
Your people aren't confused about your strategy because they didn't hear it. They're confused because your systems are telling them something different — and when what you say and what you reward disagree, people follow the rewards.
The real question isn't whether you've communicated your strategy well enough. It's whether your map is turned the right way. When you know where you want to go, stop and check the orientation of the map. Review your structure, processes, rewards, and people to make sure they are aligned toward your strategy rather than the route everyone else takes.
A few honest questions for the leadership table: Does what we actually reward match what our strategy says matters most, or does it quietly reward something else? When someone does the right thing for our strategy but it costs us on a short-term metric, do our systems recognize it or penalize it? If a stranger watched only what we measure, reward, and celebrate, what would they guess our strategy? And would they be right?
If those answers make you wince, that's the moment my family finally looked down and realized the map was upside down. It isn't a failure. It's the turn that gets you back on course. Reorienting the map doesn't require a new strategy — it’s making sure the one you already have point the way you're driving.