It’s perhaps a strange question to ask but I am curious.

A doctor diagnoses a condition, explains what is happening, recommends a course of treatment, and sends us on our way. We may follow the advice diligently. We may follow some of it. We may ignore it entirely. Yet if our condition fails to improve because we never took the medication, changed our diet, exercised, or returned for follow-up care, most of us would not think to ask for our money back.

The consultation still had value. The diagnosis still had value. The expertise still had value. Yet in business, we often apply a different standard.

An advisor, strategist, consultant, coach, facilitator, or agency is engaged to assess a situation, identify constraints, and recommend a path forward. Sometimes those recommendations are implemented fully. Sometimes partially. Sometimes not at all. Yet when the desired results fail to appear, the practitioner is often held responsible for the outcome regardless of what happened after the recommendations were made.

I find this fascinating.

• Perhaps it is because business outcomes feel more controllable than biological ones.
• Perhaps it is because advice is easier to evaluate in hindsight than execution.
• Or perhaps it is because execution itself is rarely examined with the same rigor as the strategy.

Whatever the reason, it raises an important question.

What exactly are we evaluating?

1. The quality of the diagnosis?
2. The quality of the recommendations?
3. The quality of the implementation?
4. Or simply the outcome?

These are not the same thing.

There is another distinction worth considering.

We readily accept that doctors do not always get the diagnosis right the first time. New symptoms emerge. Additional tests reveal new information. A patient remembers something they forgot to mention. A treatment produces an unexpected response that points to an entirely different cause.

Diagnosis is often an iterative process of discovery rather than a single moment of certainty.

Organizations are no different.

Information is incomplete. Assumptions prove false. What appears to be a marketing problem turns out to be a sales problem. What appears to be a sales problem turns out to be an operations problem. What appears to be an operations problem turns out to be a leadership problem. Sometimes the first intervention doesn’t solve the problem. Instead, it reveals something that could not be seen before.

The process of diagnosis is not separate from the process of learning. Often, it is the learning.

In many of the organizations I encounter, execution is treated as an assumption rather than a variable. Teams spend weeks discussing solutions, debating options, and selecting approaches. Once a decision is made, everyone behaves as though implementation is guaranteed.

It rarely is.

People become distracted. Priorities shift. Resistance emerges. Assumptions go untested. Competing agendas surface. The recommendation remains on paper while expectations remain attached to outcomes that depend on actions nobody actually took.

A well-considered recommendation can fail when poorly executed. A mediocre recommendation can sometimes succeed through disciplined execution. Looking only at the result can hide the role that implementation played in producing it.

Before deciding that a strategy failed, it may be worth examining something else first.

• Was the advice ineffective?
• Was the diagnosis incomplete?
• Did new information emerge?
• Or was the advice never fully implemented in the first place?

The answer may reveal more than the outcome itself.

Strategic Reflection Prompt

Before concluding that a strategy, initiative, or intervention failed, what evidence do you have that the recommendations were implemented as intended, and what did you learn along the way that changed your understanding of the problem?

About Giselle

Most costly decisions begin with an inaccurate understanding of the situation.

I’m increasingly interested in how leaders make sense of uncertainty, complexity, and important decisions. If you could better understand one thing about your business right now, what would it be?

Giselle Hudson is a Pre-Decision Diagnostic Advisor who helps leaders gain clarity before major decisions are made or resources are committed to the wrong solution.