The Seven Conditions of Execution: Cadence

This is the fourth article in my series on the Seven Conditions of Execution: Context, Clarity, Capacity, Cadence, Consequences, Courage and Culture.

Organisations do not fail because they lack a strategy. But they do fail because they lose touch with reality.

Markets change. Customers change. Competitors change. New information emerges. Assumptions that were true six months ago suddenly become false. Yet many organisations continue executing as if nothing has changed.

This is why cadence matters. Cadence is the mechanism through which context is continuously refreshed, understanding is shared and action is aligned.

Without cadence, organisations become disconnected from reality. With cadence, they adapt.

Why context is not enough

In the first article in this series, I described Context as the environment in which an organisation operates. The challenge is that context is never static. It changes continuously.

This creates a leadership problem. It is not enough for the CEO or leadership team to understand what is happening. That understanding must spread throughout the organisation quickly enough for people to make good decisions.

Context answers the question: “What is happening?”

Cadence answers the question: “How quickly does that understanding spread through the organisation?”

The faster the environment changes, the more important cadence becomes.

What Stan McChrystal learned in Iraq

One of the best examples of cadence comes from outside business.

When General Stan McChrystal took command of Joint Special Operations Command in Iraq, he faced a problem. His organisation was designed for a traditional battlefield. His enemy was not. Al Qaeda operated as a highly adaptive network. Information moved quickly, decisions were made rapidly and the environment changed daily. Traditional command and control structures could not keep pace.

McChrystal’s response was not to centralise decision-making. It was to improve the flow of information.

Every day, thousands of people joined a shared briefing that brought together intelligence, operations and lessons learned from across the theatre. The purpose was not to issue orders. It was to create what McChrystal later described as a “shared consciousness”: a common understanding of reality.

Once people understood the context, they could make decisions without waiting for permission. Execution accelerated because understanding accelerated.

Most businesses do not need a daily briefing involving thousands of people. But the principle is exactly the same.

The problem with monthly management meetings

Many organisations rely on monthly management meetings. The problem is that reality does not update monthly.

Imagine driving a car while only being allowed to look through the windscreen once every four weeks. You would spend most of your time correcting mistakes that could have been avoided.

Yet that is effectively how many organisations operate. A leadership team reviews performance at the end of the month. It identifies issues that emerged weeks earlier. Actions are agreed. Another month passes. The cycle repeats.

The organisation is constantly reacting rather than adapting, because the feedback loops are too slow.

As one PE chair put it to me: “Rod, a private equity journey is just 12 quarters. It is 12 board meetings to get the business from where it is to where it needs to be for exit.”

The power of a drumbeat

The Royal Marines have a Corps of Drums. Historically, drummers and buglers communicated instructions across the battlefield. In the noise and confusion of combat, they provided a consistent signal that enabled people to act together.

Modern organisations face a different form of chaos: competing priorities, information overload and constant distraction. The solution remains remarkably similar. People need a drumbeat: a regular rhythm that enables information to flow, assumptions to be challenged and priorities to be reinforced.

The purpose is not bureaucracy. It is alignment. When cadence is working well, everyone understands what has changed, what matters most and where attention should be focused.

What good cadence looks like

Most organisations would benefit enormously from increasing the frequency of communication. Not endless meetings. Not more reporting. Better information flow.

A short, disciplined meeting two or three times a week can be transformational. Its objective is simple:

• What has changed?
• What have we learned?
• What does it mean?
• What should we do differently?

Those four questions create organisational adaptability. They help teams identify problems earlier, respond faster and remain aligned. Most importantly, they prevent organisations from executing yesterday’s plan in today’s reality.

Cadence creates agility

When leaders think about execution, they often focus on accountability. Who owns this? Who is responsible? Who is delivering?

Those questions matter. But accountability alone is not enough. People cannot make good decisions if they are working from outdated information. Execution depends on the quality and speed of understanding.

The best organisations create a rhythm that allows context to flow rapidly through the business. They shorten feedback loops, surface issues early and adapt before competitors do.

In a stable environment, monthly reviews may be sufficient. In a fast-moving environment, they are almost certainly too slow. The faster context changes, the more frequently leaders need to communicate.

Execution is not simply about doing what was planned. It is about continually adjusting to reality, and cadence is the mechanism that makes that possible.

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How strong is this condition in your organisation?

Take the 60-second Execution Check to see which of the Seven Conditions may be limiting your organisation, and what to do about it.

Or book a call with Roderic.