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No Silver Bullet: Reconnecting Strategy, Change, and Leadership with Steve Hearsum
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What if the real barrier to change isn’t resistance—but the stories leaders tell themselves to avoid doing the work?
In this episode of Strategy Meets Reality, Mike Jones is joined by Steve Hearsum—consultant, coach, and author of No Silver Bullet—to unpack the deep disconnect between strategy, leadership, and organisational change.
This isn’t about frameworks or toolkits. It’s about the mess, the uncertainty, and the anxiety that real change creates—and what happens when leaders fall back on control, comms theatre, and performative fixes.
Steve brings sharp insight into why so many change efforts fail to stick, the myths that keep organisations stuck, and the work needed to build capability, coherence and culture from the inside out.
🔍 In this episode:
- Why leadership development often misses the point
- The gap between strategy and actual change
- How anxiety and fragility show up in executive behaviour
- Why clarity is useful—but coherence is critical
- The danger of “burning platform” narratives
- What it really means to build organisational capability
- Why communication isn’t the problem—it’s the shortcut
🎧 Keywords: organisational change, leadership, capability, strategy execution, culture, complexity, communication, change management, OD, Steve Hearsum
📘 Read No Silver Bullet: Bursting the Bubble of the Organisational Quick Fix: https://amzn.eu/d/bUXQWSn
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🔗 Full episodes, show notes, and resources: https://www.lbiconsulting.com/strategymeetsreality-podcast
📺 Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@StrategyMeetsReality
🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Buzzsprout
💬 Connect with host Mike Jones → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-h-jones/
Chapters
1. Introduction to Change and Leadership (00:00:00)
2. Blind Spots in Organisational Change (00:01:32)
3. The Role of Capability in Change Management (00:05:11)
4. The Disconnect Between Strategy and Execution (00:08:07)
5. Navigating Uncertainty in Change Initiatives (00:11:15)
6. The Influence of Leadership on Change (00:15:12)
7. Balancing Coherence and Autonomy (00:17:33)
8. The Role of Anxiety in Change (00:21:06)
9. Challenging the Burning Platform (00:26:11)
10. Leadership, Communication, and Culture (00:28:50)
11. Fragility and False Certainty in Leadership (00:33:14)
12. Strategy Without Change is a Dead End (00:37:34)
13. Why We Need More Honest Conversations (00:42:46)
14. Final Reflections (00:50:23)
13 episodes
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