Article: Democratizing strategy

Democratizing strategy

… and 'autocracy' in the boardroom.

Picture this: a small group disappears into a meeting room with terrible coffee, a whiteboard full of post-its, and the kind of confidence only a closed door can produce. A few hours later, out comes The Strategy™ - and the rest of the organisation is expected to execute it, quietly and gratefully.

Sound familiar?

For decades, strategy has been treated like an autocratic regime: the CEO speaks, the C‑suite nods, everyone else receives the verdict. The problem is not that leaders are villains. The problem is the system: it rewards short-term certainty, even when reality is messy, human, and moving too fast for a quarterly spreadsheet.

And yes: this approach doesn’t work anymore. If we’re honest, it never really did.

Why the boardroom can feel like an ivory tower

Let’s be blunt: senior leadership has a high-resolution view of numbers, dashboards, and forecasts. What it has less of is lived experience.

Meanwhile, the shop floor contains a different kind of data: the customer service rep who’s been watching complaints change for months, the nurse who can tell you where the process fails, the engineer who knows which “efficiency” initiative quietly breaks the system. These aren’t opinions. They’re early warning signals.

When strategy is made by a small group at the top, those signals arrive late - if they arrive at all.

Add to that the pressure to optimise shareholder value and short-term results, and you get what researchers sometimes politely call a “poly-crisis”: climate stress, social inequality, burnout, distrust. Not exactly the stuff you put on the slide called “Our proud achievements”.

Again: not because leaders are bad people. Because the system they sit in rewards the wrong horizon.

What the shop floor already knows (and leadership keeps missing)

Here’s the awkward truth: the people doing the work know a lot. Often more than anyone upstream is ready to admit.

Branddoctors’ research among 300 Dutch directors and managers points to a growing role for middle management in strategy - and rightly so, because they translate ambition into daily reality.[1] But if you stop at middle management, you’re still leaving insight on the table.

If you want better strategy, you don’t only need better slides. You need more eyes, more lived experience, and more sensemaking in the room. The employee in daily customer contact will notice shifts long before any consultancy report does.

And there’s a second effect that matters just as much: people support what they helped shape. Ownership is not a “soft” outcome. It’s the difference between strategy as theatre and strategy as behaviour.

Human-centred strategy: different questions, better answers

Democratising strategy is not about collecting more input for the sake of it. It’s about upgrading the questions.

Instead of:

• “How do we maximise profit this quarter?”

Try:

• “How do we stay profitable and become better for people and planet over time?”

That might sound idealistic if you’ve been trained to worship the quarterly result. But it’s also simply long-term intelligence.

A people-centred strategy doesn’t treat employees, society, and the environment as a footnote. It treats them as conditions for staying in business.

From dictate to dialogue: how participatory strategy creates ownership

A democratic strategy isn’t a document that drops from the top. It’s a conversation - across levels, functions, and lived realities.

When people co-create direction, something practical happens: clarity increases, and friction decreases. People understand the “why”, not just the “what”. They recognise their own observations in the chosen priorities. They stop waiting for permission and start moving.

That’s what ownership feels like: not compliance, but commitment.

Why storytelling beats the 47-page strategy document

One more thing organisations consistently underestimate: communication isn’t the “roll-out”. Communication is the strategy.

A 47-page document packed with jargon and abstract objectives isn’t guidance. It’s a sedative.

A strategy that actually travels through an organisation is built like a story:

• clear enough to repeat,
• human enough to remember,
• honest enough to trust.

When strategy becomes shared language, it becomes easier to make decisions consistently - and much harder to hide behind vague terms.

Moving from top-down planning to open co-creation

The conclusion is simple, and slightly inconvenient: stop treating strategy as a closed club.

Keep leadership’s role: set ambition, protect the long term, hold the moral and strategic line. But open the process so the organisation can do what it does best: sense, learn, adapt, and act.

Make space for real dialogue. Build shared language. Create rituals that keep direction alive after the workshop is over. And choose a horizon that serves more than just the shareholders.

Strategy that works is strategy that lives.

And strategy only truly lives when people are part of it.

Client stories

See how these organisations democratised their strategy and involved everyone:

• Tilburg: a new story, breathed to life together with all employees
• Santeon: renewing healthcare together as one national brand
• Publyon: three companies, one story of growth
• TNO: one resonant story for 3,500 brilliant minds
• Quinso: the soul of a solution — built from the inside out

Frequently asked questions about democratizing strategy

What does democratizing strategy mean?

Democratizing strategy means opening up the strategic process to more people across the organisation. Rather than having only the C-suite define direction, employees at all levels contribute to sensemaking, priority-setting, and shaping the course. The goal isn't for everyone to decide everything, but for more people to bring their insights and help build a strategy they genuinely own.

What is the difference between top-down and participatory strategy?

Top-down strategy is defined by a small leadership team and then communicated downward. Participatory strategy involves people from different layers and functions in shaping direction. Research consistently shows that participatory approaches lead to stronger ownership, faster adaptation, and a more adaptive organisational culture.

How does participatory strategy strengthen organisational culture?

Strategy and culture are inseparable. Culture grows from shared experience and lived behaviour, not from posters or slogans. When people help shape strategy, they develop ownership and psychological safety. Shared language, rituals, and collective sensemaking anchor strategic direction in daily work, strengthening culture from the inside out.

How do you start democratizing strategy in your organisation?

Start small: involve teams in strategic reflection moments, run cross-functional workshops, and create rituals for shared sensemaking. Track progress through participation rates, trust surveys, shared language consistency, and decision-making speed. The most important principle: take input seriously. If people feel their voice doesn't matter, trust erodes quickly.

Is democratic strategy suitable for every organisation?

The principles of participatory strategy apply across sizes and sectors. The form and degree of participation can vary, from self-managing teams like Buurtzorg to large-scale participatory sessions at organisations like TNO. The key is finding the right balance between leadership direction and shared ownership for your specific context.

Written by: Alexander Koene