February 23, 2026
By Gregory J. Cowan, Director of Strategic Planning, Justice Administrative Commission
When strategy is not connected to our daily activities, it can feel theoretical. In Sterling’s language, this translates to a strategy that may have an approach but fails to be deployed or to generate organizational learning.
The good news is that there is a countermeasure to the “strategy feels theoretical” problem. Specifically, strategy should be treated as a repeatable process with defined action steps, assigned responsibilities, and measurable results. In Sterling language, the strategic process should be designed to achieve a full ADLI (Approach, Deployment, Learning, Integration) with associated results, thereby achieving a full LeTCI (Levels, Trends, Comparisons, Integration).
Achieving this level of maturity in your strategic planning process is not easy. It requires a long-term, leadership-driven, staff-engaged commitment. However, the benefits, including transforming vision into results, are worth it.
If you want to learn more about the commitment required to move strategy from the theoretical to the actionable and the benefits this change can bring to your organization, a good place to start is the 2026 Sterling Leadership Conference, May 26–29, 2026, in Orlando. I hope to see you there!