Is your strategy a duck?

Purpose – This article addresses the widespread failure of organizations to turn strategy talk into action. It suggests that underlying this failure is the creation of strategy “ducks” – a term borrowed from the world of architecture for buildings intentionally built as symbols. The author here argues that many corporations, in an effort to appear “strategic,” have inadvertently created strategy ducks – strategies that function as symbols, not roadmaps that remain an abstraction and a mystery to the people in the organization who must make them work. As with architecture's ducks, the connection between symbol and day‐to‐day practice is missing. In creating the appearance of a strategy where none exists, these ducks risk leaving the majority of the organization with little recourse other than to “fake it” – to act as though a meaningful strategy exists, when in fact it doesn't. What organizations need instead are strategies that feel real. The article suggests that, in order to close this gap between rhetoric and action, we need to construct strategy “sheds” instead. Design/methodology/approach – This paper reviews the literature to examine what makes something feel “real.” Feeling real is a subjective perception, a personal judgment that each individual makes. The article explores the concept of real – drawing on work in psychology and, again, in architecture to answer the question: what makes anything feel real? Findings – Four components are identified: firstly, presence – attracting attention, secondly, significance – making it matter, thirdly, materiality – offering substance, and finally, emptiness – inviting us in. Each component offers managers a useful lens into strategy making that enhances understanding of organizations' knowing‐doing gaps in a powerful way, and helps address the question “Is your strategy a duck?” Originality/value – This paper is oriented towards executives and aimed at helping them to understand what it takes to make strategies convincingly real to other members of the organizations, and more likely to be successfully implemented.