Picture this:
Six hours into strategic planning. The whiteboard is full. Every department has their initiatives. Every goal has been debated, refined, agreed upon. The leadership team sits back, exhausted but energized.
"This is it," someone says. "This is our year."
That's when I stand up, hand the CEO the eraser, and say:
"Great. Now erase 75% of it."
The room goes silent.
The Panic Is Immediate
"You're joking." "We need all of this." "We can't choose." "This IS the prioritized list."
I wait.
The CEO holds the eraser like it weighs fifty pounds.
This - right here - is where leadership actually happens. Not in the adding. In the cutting.
What Happens Next Separates Winners From Everyone Else
The mediocre leaders negotiate: "Maybe 50%?"
The good leaders suffer through it, erasing the "nice to haves."
The great leaders? They get it immediately. They start erasing with conviction.
Because they understand something the room doesn't yet:
The Brutal Math of Reality
While you're executing your pristine strategy, you're also:
- Fighting daily fires
- Managing people drama
- Handling client crises
- Running actual operations
Your strategic capacity isn't 100%. It's 25% on your best day.
So that beautiful board full of initiatives? It's a lie you're telling yourself.
The Eraser Test
Watch what they erase first. It's fascinating.
They always start with the easy cuts - the "if we have time" stuff.
Then comes the real pain. Choosing between two critical initiatives. Killing someone's pet project. Admitting that transformation idea they've been pitching for two years isn't happening.
By the time they're down to 25%, what's left?
The stuff they'd fight for in June when everything's on fire. The stuff that actually moves the needle. The stuff they'll commit to when commitment costs something.
The Magic That Happens After
Something shifts when that board gets cleared.
The 25% that survived? It has space to breathe. Resources to succeed. Attention to thrive.
The team stops pretending they can do everything. They start planning how to do something brilliantly.
And for the first time, a strategy has a chance of surviving past Q1.
Your December Test
You've got your 2026 strategy planned. It's probably 20+ initiatives. Everyone's excited.
Now hand someone the eraser.
What survives when you can only keep 25%? What dies when you have to choose? What matters when everything can't matter?
That's not your edited strategy.
That's your real strategy.
Everything else was just expensive dreaming.
The Question Nobody Asks
"What if we achieve the 25% and have capacity for more?"
In 18 years, I've never had a client have this problem.
Not once.
But if you do? Adding is easy. It's the cutting that takes courage.
P.S. - Try this: Print your current strategy. Black out 75% with a marker. Whatever's still visible - that's what you'll actually achieve. The question is: did you black out the right things? Or are you about to spend a year on the wrong 25%?
