Strategy Activation via Crossing the Chasm
Treat internal strategy rollout as an adoption curve — over-communicate the why and manage early adopters vs laggards
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 87%
A model for turning strategy into organization-wide execution. The best lever is communication — you can never spend too much time communicating the why, repeatedly. Beyond that, apply the 'crossing the chasm' adoption curve to your own team: ~5% are early adopters who grasp the strategy fast and are already asking about the next version, while others are just beginning to understand and some are laggards. Mapping who is where explains why a strategy feels muddy and tells you how to manage the change.
Origin
Ezinne Udezue's leadership lesson, crediting a LinkedIn post by Martin Eriksson for applying change-management/crossing-the-chasm thinking to strategy communication. Geoffrey Moore is the origin of 'Crossing the Chasm'; Lenny notes Moore was a prior podcast guest.
Core principles
- 01The best way to go from strategy to execution and activate the whole organization is communication
- 02You can never spend too much time communicating the why, over and over again
- 03Apply the crossing-the-chasm adoption curve to internal strategy rollout, not just to products
- 04About 5% of your population are early adopters who get it, buy in, and are already on the next version of the strategy
- 05Strategy feels muddy because people are simultaneously at different points on the adoption curve — early adopters, mainstream, and laggards
How to run it
- 1
Over-communicate the why, relentlessly
Repeatedly communicate the reason behind the strategy so everyone understands it and can speak to it. Treat repetition as the core mechanism of activation.
Pro tip Invoke the NASA 'send a man to the moon' standard — even the janitor knew the why.
Watch out Underestimating how much repetition it takes leaves people unable to recite or act on the strategy.
- 2
Map your team onto the adoption curve
Recognize that roughly 5% are early adopters who grasp and buy into the strategy immediately, a mainstream group is just beginning to get it, and some are laggards still asking 'why' and 'how come.'
Pro tip Early adopters will be on the next version of the strategy months later, asking what should change — feed that hunger.
Watch out Assuming everyone is at the same point is why strategy communication gets muddy and confusing.
- 3
Run change management for each segment
Manage the rollout like a product-adoption / change-management journey: use early adopters to carry the message, keep bringing the mainstream along, and expect to keep working the laggards.
Watch out Don't judge the strategy by whether a single deck 'worked for the CEO' — activation is a population-level change process.
In the wild
Ezinne recalls the story (from a film about sending someone to the moon) that everyone in NASA, even the janitor, knew they were working to put a man on the moon. She uses it to illustrate ensuring everyone on the team understands and can speak to the why behind the work.
→ A shared 'why' aligns an entire organization toward a single mission.
Ezinne realized that when you roll out a strategy, ~5% are early adopters who buy in and start moving; four months later they're already asking what the next version looks like, while others are only just beginning to understand and some remain laggards.
→ Mapping people to the adoption curve explained why strategy felt muddy and clarified how to manage each segment.
Common mistakes
Under-communicating the why
Leaders assume a strategy is understood after saying it once or twice, but activation requires communicating the why 'over and over and over again' until everyone can recite it.
Treating the whole org as one homogeneous audience
Ignoring that people sit at different points on the adoption curve makes strategy feel muddy — some can recite it while others still struggle with 'why,' and each segment needs different change management.
Is it for you?
Best for
Product and organizational leaders rolling out a strategy who need it to translate into execution across the whole team
Not ideal for
Tiny teams where everyone is already in the room and adoption-curve segmentation adds needless overhead
From the transcript
“the best way to go from strategy to execution in a way that activates the entire organization is communication”
“you will never never spend too much time communicating the why to your organization over and over and over again”
“everybody in NASA knew that we were working to send a man to the moon. Even the janitor did knew that.”
“the same way we talk about crossing the chasm and figuring out who it is that will adopt a product, we should think about the…”
“when you look at your entire population about 5% are going to be the early adopters. They get it. They buy into it and they're…”
From the episode
How AI is reshaping the product role
Oji and Ezinne Udezue