One of the things I’ve seen time and again: strategy often lives with the executive, teams heads down in the day to day, with no clear link from their work to the bigger picture.
But when that connection is made, when teams get the why, not just the what, something shifts. It creates a kind of multiplier effect. Teams have more focus, more energy, and are able to deliver more impact.
Marty Cagan says:
“When teams understand the company’s objectives and strategy, they can align their work accordingly. They are no longer just implementing features—they are solving real problems.”
And that’s the magic. When the work feels connected to something that matters, people are more engaged, they are more likely to share ideas, they care more.
Some of the simple things that help:
Ensure each feature or story visibly links to a strategic goal in your tool of choice
Talking regularly about the why behind the work
Showing how team priorities connect to real outcomes - share the measures
Making room to challenge things that don’t line up - I love using Radhika Dutt's vision rubric to visualise whether the work being done aligns with the vision, or is building vision debt
Using OKRs, Outcomes or North Star metrics as guides
One of the most famous examples of someone understanding the bigger picture comes from NASA in the early 1960s.
The story goes that when President John F. Kennedy was touring the NASA space centre in 1962, he stopped to chat with a janitor who was sweeping the floor. JFK asked him what he was doing. The janitor looked up and said:
“I’m helping put a man on the moon.”
It’s a simple line, but it says everything. He understood that his work mattered. He saw how his part, however small it might have seemed, fit into the larger mission.
Knowing how your work contributes to something bigger unlocks commitment, care, and passion at every level of an organisation.