Turning Strategy Into a Game Plan Your Managers Understand

Teams don’t fail because they lack ideas; they fail because they can’t convert strategy into a usable game plan that guides daily tradeoffs. In this article, Jef Menguin shares a practical way to move from “big direction” to weekly execution without adding complexity. Apply it and share it at work so your leaders align faster and deliver more consistently.

Let me start with two scenes that might feel familiar.

In the first, a leadership team is on day two of strategic planning. People are tired. The facilitator says, “We just need to complete the document.”

By late afternoon, the vision, mission, values, and strategic objectives are all on the screen. Everyone signs off. They take a group photo. Someone names the file Strategy 2026 and saves it in a folder.

The unspoken goal of the session: finish the document.

In the second scene, a few weeks later, managers are back at work. They hold their own planning meetings. They update OKRs. They adjust KPIs. They add projects to their usual lists.

Someone asks, “So how does this connect to the strategy?”

Another says, “It’s in the document. We’ll align later.”

Life goes on. Customers move. Competitors change. The strategy file stays in the folder.

If you’ve seen any version of these scenes, this article is for you.

Why Finishing the Document Isn’t Winning

In Strategy First, Plan Second, we drew a simple line:

Strategy decides the game. The plan organizes the work.

But in many organizations, the real “victory” of strategic planning is the document itself. Once there’s a file with nice formatting and complete sections, people feel the work is done.

After that, the organization slides back to what it knows:

OKRs and KPIs.
Department plans.
Old projects with new dates.

These tools are not bad. They’re useful. But if you plug them into the old way of working, they quietly pull you back to your old game.

If this pattern worked, your managers would be able to:

name your few key plays for the year,
see clearly how their teams contribute, and
adjust their OKRs and KPIs because of the strategy, not in spite of it.

Is that what you see?

If not, we need to question something deeper.

A New Way of Thinking About “Doing the Same Things”

You’ve heard this many times:

“If you keep on doing the same things, you’ll get the same results.”

It sounds logical. It pushes people to change when they want better outcomes.

But when it comes to strategy, this is no longer true.

In the real world, if you keep on doing the same things, it is very possible that you will not get the same results.

Why?

Because there are big variables you do not control.

Your customers change.

Their taste changes. Their ability to buy changes. Their expectations change. Their world changes.

If the customer’s agenda changes and you keep doing the same things, you will not get the same results. You might even see results go down while you “stay consistent.”

Your competitors change.

They don’t just do a little bit better at the same game. They can offer something completely different—products and services that your customers love much more than what you offer today.

So if you keep on doing the same things:

You will not get the same results.
You will be left behind.
You will lose.

That’s why a strategy cannot just be “business as usual plus a nicer document.” Your game plan cannot be “last year’s work with updated KPIs.”

The world outside is moving. Your strategy and your game plan must move too.

The Shift: A Strategy Only Works When Managers Can See Their Play

So what needs to change?

Here’s the shift I want you to hold:

A strategy only works when managers can see their play.

The strategy is the set of choices about how you will win in a changing world. The game plan is how those choices show up in the work of real teams.

If managers can’t see their play, they will:

go back to what they did last year,
protect their own projects, and
chase OKRs and KPIs that may no longer match the game.

If they can see their play, they can:

focus their team on a few key moves,
say no to work that doesn’t fit, and
use OKRs and KPIs to support the strategy, not replace it.

A game plan is not another thick file. It’s a clear picture of the few plays your organization will run—and who does what.

What a Game Plan Really Looks Like

Think of a coach before a season.

The coach doesn’t hand the team a binder of theory. He says, in simple language:

“This is the game we’re playing this year.”
“These are our main plays.”
“Here’s how each position will run them.”

That’s what your managers need from you.

In your context, a simple game plan answers three questions:

What are our top three to five plays this year?
Which teams lead and which teams support each play?
What will we stop or delay so these plays can succeed?

Everything else—OKRs, KPIs, projects—should hang under those plays.

Without this bridge, your strategy stays in the folder, and your managers keep driving by habit… while the world changes around them.

Example: From Strategy Statement to Plays

Let’s use a simple corporate example.

Suppose your strategy, shaped by 5 Strategy Questions for Leaders Who Play to Win, is:

“We will win by being the most trusted local partner for mid-sized manufacturers in Luzon, with faster and more flexible solutions than any competitor.”

That’s a solid strategic choice. But if you stop there, different teams will interpret it in different ways.

Sales might hear “more customers.” Operations might hear “more orders.” Finance might hear “more risk.”

Now watch what happens when you turn this into a game plan in plain language:

Play 1: Deepen trust with our top 50 existing clients.
Play 2: Respond to qualified new leads in 24 hours or less.
Play 3: Fix the top three recurring pain points in our service experience.

Suddenly, managers can see themselves.

Sales managers can say, “In Play 1 and Play 2, here’s what my team owns.” Operations can say, “In Play 2 and Play 3, here’s what we must change.” Customer support can say, “In Play 1 and Play 3, here’s our part.”

The strategy did not change. But turning it into clear plays made it usable—and adaptable as customers and competitors shift.

Example: An LGU That Wants to Stay Ahead

Now imagine an LGU.

On paper, the strategy sounds like many others:

“We will be the premier hub for business, tourism, and innovation in the region.”

It looks good on a tarpaulin. But it doesn’t help a department head decide what to do differently next month—especially when nearby cities are also moving.

Now imagine the mayor and team turn it into three plays:

Play 1: Cut average business permit processing time from 20 days to 5 days.
Play 2: Launch and support 50 small local businesses in priority barangays in 12 months.
Play 3: Clean up and maintain three high-visibility public spaces that signal we are serious about business and tourism.

Suddenly:

BPLO knows their play.
Trade and local business partners know theirs.
Engineering, public works, and tourism know theirs.

As investors and visitors compare cities, this LGU is not “doing the same things” as before. It is running clear plays that respond to a changing environment.

OKRs and KPIs now have something real to serve. They measure progress on the plays, not random activity.

This is what a game plan does: it accelerates movement and amplifies results by choosing the few moves that matter most, given how the outside world is changing.

Why Managers Drift Back to Old OKRs and KPIs

In Why Your Team Has Many Plans but Little Focus, we saw that adding more plans doesn’t create focus. Tradeoffs do.

Managers drift back to old OKRs and KPIs because:

the strategy is not translated into clear plays,
no one has told them what to stop doing, and
the safest move is to keep doing what “worked” before, even if the world is no longer the same.

The problem is not their attitude. The problem is the absence of a game plan they can see and believe in.

A good game plan gives managers the confidence to change their OKRs and KPIs on purpose, not by guesswork.

How to Build a Game Plan After Playing to Win

So, what do you actually do after your Playing to Win session?

You’ve already answered the five big questions:

what winning really means,
where you will play,
how you will win,
what you must be very good at, and
what systems and habits must support you.

Now you add one more step:

List all the possible moves that came out of your strategy work.
Group them into themes that support your chosen way of winning.
Choose three to five plays for the next 12 months—no more.
For each play, decide:
- Who leads.
- Who supports.
- What “success” looks like in simple terms.

This is the work of Game Plan.

You can and should involve managers here. Ask:

“Looking at our strategy and the changes outside, what do you think our top three plays should be?”
“If we can only execute three plays really well this year, which ones will move the needle most for our customers or citizens?”

Compare. Debate. Then simplify.

The goal is not to please every project owner. The goal is to choose a few plays that make you harder to catch as customers and competitors shift.

A Small Experiment With Your Own Team

You don’t need a three-day workshop to start this.

At your next leadership meeting:

Ask everyone to write, in one or two sentences:“What are the top three plays of our organization this year?”
Then ask them to write:“This is the play my team contributes to the most.”
Let them read their answers.

Listen carefully.

Do your leaders describe the same plays—or a long list of unrelated projects? Can they clearly say how their teams contribute—or are they describing everything they do?

Then ask one more question:

“If we had to choose only three plays that best express how we plan to win this year, in a changing market, what would they be?”

That conversation is already step one in building your game plan.

If you want your team to come in with the right lens, ask them to reread:

Strategy First, Plan Second, and
5 Strategy Questions for Leaders Who Play to Win

before that meeting.

Simple Tools to Make the Game Plan Visible

To support this shift, you can create a few simple tools:

A One-Page Game Plan.
- Top: a short line that says how you will win.
- Middle: three to five plays with lead and support teams.
- Bottom: simple success markers for each play.
A Team Game Card.
- Each department writes which plays they support, what they own, and what they will stop or delay so those plays can succeed.
A Strategy Rhythm Meeting Sheet.
- Every quarter, you ask:
  - “What happened with each play?”
  - “What changed outside—customers, competitors, context?”
  - “What will we adjust so we still play to win?”

These tools keep your strategy out of the folder and inside your monthly and quarterly habits.

When You’re Ready to Go Deeper

You can begin this shift with one honest conversation and one page.

But if you want a full bridge—from Playing to Win, to Game Plan, to Strategy Rhythm—this is where my work as a strategy consultant comes in.

I help CEOs, mayors, and leadership teams in the Philippines:

decide how they will win using the five Playing to Win questions,
turn those choices into a simple, shared game plan with a few clear plays, and
build a quarterly rhythm that keeps those plays alive as customers and competitors change.

The goal is not to have a prettier strategy document. The goal is to have managers who can point and say:

“This is the game we’re playing now—and this is our play.”

So before you launch another planning cycle or update another set of OKRs, you might want to ask:

Are we planning to keep doing the same things and hope for the same results—or are we finally ready to build a game plan our managers can understand, adapt, and run with?