the path Archive - This Moment Counts

A special gift for you

Today is birthday time! The PATH to Strategic Impact was published one year ago. And I want to properly celebrate it with you.

It’s been an incredible journey.

The book got raving reviews and I’ve been invited to many keynotes, conferences, and fireside chats across industries, all wrestling with the same struggles: how to cut through the noise, make strategy tangible, and find words that actually move people.

People reached out with thank you notes, feedback, or simply to have a chat.

I especially loved how people found new uses for the PATH principles I hadn’t thought of myself.

But the most surprising feedback was how well the idea of the Core Credo resonated. Apparently, people are really fed up with traditional mission statements and this more pragmatic approach really struck a chord with many.

Which is why I’ve created something special for you.

To celebrate the anniversary, here’s a gift from me.
→ Finding Your Core Credo
(simply click to download the PDF, no email required)

A free guide packed with tons of fascinating examples, tools, and prompts (including AI prompts) to help you craft one that sticks. Ahmed, who already read a pre-release, wrote: “I found the new guide extremely helpful.”

Here’s to the next year of clarity and to many more conversations … on stage, in meeting rooms, and yes, in those hallways where real change begins.

Thanks!

And keep lighting the path,
Michael

When you need to make a choice

“The Core Credo has definitely changed my way of thinking whenever we create a new program.”

Of all the ideas I’ve written about in the book, the Core Credo is the one that gets quoted back to me the most.

Someone sent me a picture of a sticky note with their credo on it. Another one told me about how it shows up in their team’s daily conversations. Someone even called it the heartbeat of their meetings.

And that’s the whole point.

Because if you look at how most companies handle their mission statements, it’s almost the opposite. They fight over them. They polish them. They put them through twelve rounds of approval until every single objection is included.

Then they frame them for the lobby wall and put it on their website.

But.

They almost never get spoken aloud. Not in the hallway. Not in the meeting. Not when a tough decision is on the table.

Because a sentence that survived twelve rounds of approval usually is too careful to be powerful and too abstract to be useful.

It’s there, but no one cares.

Now, compare that to what I call a Core Credo.

A Core Credo is not designed to survive the boardroom.
It’s designed to survive the hallway.

It’s built for life.

It’s the phrase that can go through a hundred rounds of the telephone game and still come out intact.

It’s the sentence people shout across the floor when they need to make a call. The line that shows up in arguments because it actually makes the choice obvious. The words that get used when the pressure is on and there’s no time to check the manual.

And that’s precisely why people cite it. Not because it’s pretty, but because it’s useful. And present.

That’s the test.

Not whether it pleases twelve executives. But whether it guides a hundred employees when the leader isn’t in the room.

And when you see that happening, it’s magical. You hear the words echoed back, repeated in conversations you’re not part of, shaping choices you never touched.

That’s when you know you’ve hit on something alive.

The question is, do you want a statement that looks good in a frame?

Or a credo that moves through your people like fire,
spreading from one to the next,
impossible to contain?

Because only one of them will be there when it really matters.

Tomorrow, to celebrate the book’s anniversary, I’ll publish a new guide to help you find your Core Credo.

Stay tuned. It’s got tons of brilliant examples and tools to make yours actually useful.

Keep lighting the path,
Michael

How 3 words made a complex strategy work

Today, I want to share with you one of my favorite case studies that didn’t make it into the book.

It’s about 3 words that aligned thousands of people more effectively than any 73-slide presentation ever could. And surprisingly, it comes from a domain usually famous for vague and fuzzy statements: politics.

But this one apparently nailed it. It starts with a simple but powerful realization: Would your people rather see you announce the next big thing, or finally fix what’s been broken for years?

Well, the answer’s pretty obvious.
(And no, it’s not the shiny new thing. I feel you.)

But how does that turn into a brilliant strategy?
Well, most of the time it doesn’t.
It can fail in many ways.
And it usually does.

But it didn’t in Massachusetts.

I’d argue because they found a brilliant way to communicate the idea.

What happened?
And why did it work?

I’ve created a PDF that has the full story.

Have you seen other examples where a good idea was communicated brilliantly? Or poorly? Would love to hear about it … simply hit reply to this mail!

Keep lighting the path,
Michael

PS: The PATH to Strategic Impact turns one year old this week. If you’re enjoying these case studies, the book has many more and dives deep on why they work (and how to make them work for you).

A moment for reflection

You’re invited! The 2nd edition of “The Leaders Light the Path Session” is happening on Feb 11th.

It’s a free, hands-on gathering for leaders who want to communicate with clarity and impact.

Participants of the first session have called it a relaxed format and a great moment for reflection.

Don’t expect a lengthy presentation and over-complicated frameworks. We’re more interested in conversations and real, actionable ways to help you find better words.

This time, we’re applying lessons from my latest book “The PATH to Strategic Impact”:

→ Simple strategies to turn ambition into progress
→ How to encourage people to challenge the norm
→ Why heartfelt words are underestimated in business

Feb 11th | 11am Eastern · 5pm CET | Zoom

Whether you’re building something new, scaling a big idea, or simply looking to maximize the impact of your communication, this session will help you do it with focus and clarity.

It’s highly interactive, in a small group setting with like-minded peers.

Would love to see you there.

Seats are limited, though! Reserve your spot by simply replying to this email (I prefer the process as plain and simple as possible).

Keep lighting the path!

3 out of 10

Since launching “The PATH to Strategic Impact,” I’ve been collecting results from the (anonymous) online self-assessment included in the book.

One of the questions is this:

“Can team members (at all levels) articulate the strategy in their own words without losing its essence?”

Less than 3 out of 10 participants answered “yes” to that question (28.6% to be precise).

Think about that. In the vast majority of companies, the team doesn’t know what the strategy really is.

It gets worse. Another question asks:

“Are team members able to independently translate the strategy into actions without having to consult leadership?”

21.4% answered “yes” to that one.

In 4 out of 5 companies, the team doesn’t understand what the strategy means for the everyday choices they need to make.

I bet that’s hardly a surprise for you.

But then again, if the gap is so obvious, why does it persist?

It’s certainly not because leaders don’t care.
Or because teams are incapable.

It’s because communicating a strategy to make it actionable actually takes more effort than most of us realize.

As leaders, we know the strategy inside out. It’s obvious to us. It’s tempting to assume that communicating it will be just as straightforward.

But it’s not. To the team, it isn’t obvious.
The language of the boardroom just doesn’t cut it.

We need to speak their language, make it actionable, and find heartfelt words that transcend the dry & corporate language of most strategy documents.

Here’s the good news: this is solvable.

It’s why I wrote “The PATH to Strategic Impact” … to give you the tools to bridge the gap and turn your team into a strategic force.

If you want 2025 to be the year your strategy finally makes an impact, the holidays might be the perfect time to give it a read. (It’s a short read and very actionable with plenty of case studies and extensive online resources to get you started.)

You’ve already done the hard part—building the strategy. Now it’s time to make it work.

PS: Want to quickly assess how your communication stacks up? Here’s the 2-minute self-assessment.

Cleaning up the mess

Let’s say it straight: The world of strategy can be messy.
But your communication should not reflect that mess.

I mean, organizations of more than a handful of people are inherently complex.

With many balls to juggle, difficult decisions to make, and diverging interests to balance.

On top of that, the world is changing fast, which turns business success into a moving target.

Decisions need to be made swiftly despite incomplete information, competing interests, and uncertain outcomes, considering an arsenal of factors in ever-changing conditions.

Here are four ways to clean up the mess:

Plain and Simple Communication
Strip away the jargon and complexity. Make the message easy to grasp and impossible to misunderstand. If it’s not simple, it won’t spread.

Actionable Focus
A strategy is meaningless without making clear which actions follow from it. Focus on what people can do to move forward, not just the bold vision they should aspire to.

Transformative Resonance
Encourage bold moves. You’re not going to make a difference with baby steps. Your words need to inspire the leaps.

Heartfelt Connection
When your strategy aligns business goals with the personal their goals of the team, it unlocks their full potential.

Or, in short: light the PATH!

How 2 Transformative Words Skyrocketed a Business

Who doesn’t love bold success stories?

The leader who inspired a movement.
The team that turned a company around.
The strategy that changed everything.

It seldom works.

But Alcoa’s story is truly remarkable.

It’s the story of how two words turned a struggling company completely around – leading to staggering results.

And it’s absolutely the stuff Hollywood movies are made of: They were laughed at, only to prove everyone wrong.

It’s a bit longer than usual so I put it into a short PDF. Download Alcoa’s story here as a free download. It’s totally worth your time.

PS: This is the final of a series of four case studies, one for each of the four PATH principles. Download all of them here.

A costly myth

There’s a costly myth out there: That the best strategies are intellectually dense and complex.

But here’s the truth about strategy:
→ It’s not a measure of intelligence.
→ It’s a measure of action.

You don’t judge a strategy on how brilliant it looks on paper. You judge it on how well it guides people’s actions.

Which is why communication plays such a crucial role.
But one that’s often treated as an afterthought.
(If at all.)

As Alex M H Smith writes in the foreword to my book:

‘A well-communicated bad strategy is a hell of a lot better than a poorly communicated good one.’

He’s absolutely right.

Forgive me for being direct here, but great strategies don’t make an impact through what they were supposed to do when they were presented in glossy PowerPoints. They live through the actions people actually take.

The problem is often not the strategy itself.
They are indeed brilliant, smart, intelligently created.

It’s that they’re not communicated clearly enough.

Which means that all the hard work that went into creating the strategy is wasted.

Because – let’s face it – a strategy that isn’t understood, embraced, and acted upon, might just as well not exist.

The best strategies are the ones that light the PATH for everyone involved to take action.

PS: In my new book “The PATH to Strategic Impact”, you’ll learn how some of the world’s most successful businesses communicated their strategies for maximum impact – and how you can do the same.

How to find the one line that makes your strategy unforgettable

The most impactful teams are often aligned around a single, powerful idea – what I like to call a Core Credo.

Here’s how you can find yours.

Step 1: One Thing, Not Everything – What’s the Non-Negotiable?

Most leaders try to capture everything in their strategy – every detail, every priority – but that’s how you end up with abstract language that no one remembers or follows.

Your Core Credo’s job isn’t to capture everything. It’s the anchor for your idea in your mind. It expresses the spirit of the strategy, the true core. What’s that one thing that, if you get it right, will make the biggest difference?”

Example: For a company who thinks they can win by being the most efficient operator in their industry, the essence might be to ‘move fast.’ Not ‘be innovative,’ not ‘explore every option’—just ‘move fast.’

Ask yourself, ‘If I could only communicate one thing to everyone on the team, what would it be?’ That’s your starting point.

Step 2: If They Can’t See It, It’s Not There

A Core Credo isn’t meant to be clever or cryptic. It’s got to be so clear that anyone, anywhere on the team, gets it immediately.

Example: When Southwest created their Core Credo, they didn’t choose a fancy statement about efficiency. They weren’t satisfied by a fuzzy statement like “move fast”. They chose two clear and powerful words: ‘Wheels Up!’

These two words capture the strategy in a way everyone can visualize. When the wheels of a plane go up, it’s visual proof that the job is done. It’s a line that’s impossible to miss.

Try saying your Core Credo out loud. If it takes you longer than a few seconds, or you feel the need to explain it, it’s too complicated. Simplify it until it clicks. Think of it like the refrain of a song everyone loves – a few words that are simple, strong, and easy to pass along.

Step 3: Does It Make Decisions Easier—Or Just Sound Good?

A Core Credo’s job is to guide choices, not to sound good. Think of it like this: When a team member faces a tough call, your Core Credo should give them an intuition for what’s right.

Example: Southwest’s Core Credo, ‘Wheels Up,’ wasn’t just catchy. It made decisions easier at every level, from how fast crews worked at the gate to how leaders planned routes. Every choice aligned with getting those wheels up in the air.

To test yours, imagine situations your team faces every day. Would your Core Credo make the choice clear? If it doesn’t, refine it until it does.

—

Crafting a Core Credo isn’t easy, but get it right, and you’ll have something more powerful than any strategy document. You’ll have a guiding light, clear and memorable like a refrain that  everyone knows by heart and that  becomes part of your company’s DNA.

There’s more on the Core Credo in my book ‘The PATH to Strategic Impact’.

Why some teams make a bigger impact

This might be the single biggest reason why some teams make a bigger impact than others:

They align on the one thing that truly matters.

They have a Core Credo that works much like the refrain of a beloved song,
→ often shared,
→ everyone likes to sing it, and
→ captures the essence of the strategy in just a few words.

Not a replacement of the strategy, but its anchor.

Present in everyday situations.

Acting like a trigger that, when faced with a choice, helps individuals recall and align with the organizational principles.

And, most importantly, reminding everyone of the path they’re on.

I’d even go so far as to say …
→ If the essence of a strategy can’t be captured in a Core Credo, it’s quite likely not a strategy, but a mess.

PS: In the book “The PATH to Strategic Impact“ I explain how to find one.

Posts in Tag: the path

Step 1: One Thing, Not Everything – What’s the Non-Negotiable?

Step 2: If They Can’t See It, It’s Not There

Step 3: Does It Make Decisions Easier—Or Just Sound Good?