Aligning Strategy and Culture – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1252

Aligning Strategy and Culture – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1252

Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1252 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to pharmaveterans2017@gmail.com  for publishing your contributions here.

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Preamble

This post is based on an INSEAD article by Charles Galunic. Link at the end.

Aligning Strategy and Culture: Why the Real Magic Lies in the Middle

For decades, leaders have wrestled with a persistent organizational challenge. Why do well-crafted strategies fail? The answer is often summarized in a familiar phrase: 

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

But this statement, while powerful, is incomplete. The real issue is not that culture defeats strategy. It is that strategy and culture are rarely aligned in the place where execution actually happens.

According to insights from INSEAD research, the “magic” of alignment does not lie at the top (where strategy is designed) or at the bottom (where behaviors are observed). It lies in the middle, the systems, structures, and routines that translate ideas into action.

The Illusion of Alignment

Most organizations believe they are working on culture alignment. They define values, communicate vision, and launch transformation programs. At the macro level, everything appears coherent. Leaders ask the right questions:

What is our strategy?

 What kind of culture do we need?

 What values should guide us?

But despite this clarity, execution falters. Why? Because alignment is treated as a top-down messaging exercise, rather than a system design challenge.

As the INSEAD article emphasizes, culture is not something that can be “preached into place.”

The Three Levels of Alignment

To understand where alignment breaks down, we need to look at the three levels described in the research:

1. The Macro Level: Strategy and Vision. This is where leaders define strategic direction, organizational purpose, and cultural aspirations. It answers the question: “What do we want to become?” Most organizations perform reasonably well at this level.

2. The Micro Level: Individual Behavior: This is where culture becomes visible: How people act? How teams collaborate? How are decisions made? It answers: “What are people actually doing?” Organizations often measure this through performance metrics, engagement surveys, and behavioral assessments.

3. The Meso Level: The “Magic Middle”. This is the most overlooked, and most critical level. It includes organizational structures, decision-making processes, incentives and rewards, management systems, and physical and social environments. This level answers: “What conditions shape how people behave?” And this is where alignment either succeeds or fails.

Why the Middle Matters Most

The “middle” is where strategy becomes reality. It is the space where policies become practices, values become behaviors, and intent becomes action. If this middle layer is misaligned, no amount of vision or communication can fix the problem.

For example, an organization may promote collaboration as a core value. But if teams are physically separated, incentives reward individual performance, and decision-making is hierarchical, then collaboration will not happen. Because the system does not support it.

As the INSEAD insight makes clear: Structural elements shape how work gets done and determine whether strategy translates into behavior.

The Problem with Culture Change Programs

Many organizations approach culture change as a large-scale initiative. They launch workshops, define new values, and communicate extensively. Yet, results are often disappointing.

Why? Because they focus on what people should believe, instead of how people are enabled to behave. This creates a disconnect.

Employees hear “We value innovation.” But experience risk aversion, punishment for failure, and slow decision-making. Over time, trust erodes.

And culture becomes what we actually do, not what we say.

Culture Is Built Through Systems, Not Slogans

One of the most powerful insights from the INSEAD perspective is this: Culture is shaped by the consistent alignment of structural elements with strategy.

In other words, culture is not a message, culture is a system. It is embedded in how performance is evaluated, how leaders behave, how resources are allocated, and how decisions are made. These elements form the context in which people operate daily. And context drives behavior.

The Role of Habits and Repetition

Another critical insight: Culture change is not about doing many things once, it is about doing a few things repeatedly. This shifts the focus from transformation programs to behavioral reinforcement. 

For example, holding consistent weekly reviews, enforcing accountability standards, and recognizing desired behaviors. These repeated actions create new habits, new norms, and new culture.

Diagnosing Misalignment

How do you know if your strategy and culture are misaligned? Look for these signals:

1. Strategy Sounds Good, but Execution Lags. Plans are clear, but Results are inconsistent

2. Employees Express Skepticism. “This won’t work here. “We’ve tried this before”

3. Behavior Contradicts Messaging. Values emphasize collaboration, but systems reward competition.

4. Leadership Is Disconnected from Reality. Decisions made without ground-level insight. Overreliance on reports instead of observation.

These are signs that the problem lies in the middle layer, not the strategy itself.

What Leaders Must Do Differently

To align strategy and culture effectively, leaders must shift their focus.

Move Beyond Messaging – Stop assuming that communication drives change. Instead, ask: What in our system reinforces current behavior? What must change to support new behavior?

Redesign the Context – Focus on decision rights, incentive structures, and organizational design. These are the levers that shape culture.

Surface Hidden Assumptions – Every organization operates on unspoken beliefs, historical practices, and embedded norms. These must be identified, challenged, and replaced where necessary.

Align Leaders First – Leadership behavior sets the tone. If leaders do not model the desired culture and do not reinforce it consistently, no system redesign will succeed.

Focus on Consistency, Not Complexity – Avoid launching multiple initiatives. Instead, identify 2–3 critical behaviors and reinforce them relentlessly. Over time, these behaviors reshape culture.

The Strategic Advantage of Alignment

Organizations that successfully align strategy and culture gain a powerful advantage. They experience faster execution, higher engagement, greater adaptability, and sustained performance. Because in such organizations, strategy is not just understood; it is lived.

A Deeper Truth

The idea that “culture eats strategy” is only partially correct.

A more accurate statement would be, “Culture enables or disables strategy, and the middle determines which.”

Sum Up

The INSEAD insight is both simple and profound: The magic of alignment lies in the middle. Not in vision statements and leadership speeches, but in systems, structures, and daily practices.

This is where strategy becomes behavior, behavior becomes culture, and culture drives results.

If you want to transform an organization, don’t start with more plans or more communication. Start with how decisions are made, how people are rewarded, and how work actually happens. Because in the end, strategy defines direction, culture defines behavior, but the middle defines whether either succeeds

Concluded.

Disclaimers: Pictures in these blogs are taken from free resources at Pexels, Pixabay, Unsplash, and Google. Credit is given where available. If a copyright claim is lodged, we shall remove the picture with appropriate regrets.

For most blogs, I research from several sources which are open to public. Their links are mentioned under references. There is no intent to infringe upon anyone’s copyrights. If, any claim is lodged, it will be acknowledged and duly recognized immediately.

Reference:

https://knowledge.insead.edu/strategy/aligning-strategy-and-culture-magic-middle