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Key Takeaways Local optimization can create global dysfunction. Teams may hit their own targets while the company drifts because goals were never aligned.
Teams may hit their own targets while the company drifts because goals were never aligned. Strategy must flow top-down. Company priorities should be set first, then executive KPIs derived from those priorities.
Company priorities should be set first, then executive KPIs derived from those priorities. Coherence beats activity. When departments pursue conflicting objectives, more collaboration won’t fix the problem — clear leadership and priorities will.
There’s a failure mode I see all the time inside companies, and it doesn’t look like failure at first. It looks like two smart executives doing their jobs. Everyone has a reasonable plan. Everyone has a clean set of metrics. Everyone is “moving.” And then you zoom out and realize the company is doing two contradictory things at once.
That’s a failure of local but not global optimization. People can be individually optimizing, and the overall system still doesn’t converge to something coherent. If you’re leading a team of leaders, this is one of the easiest ways to burn energy without creating outcomes.
The root cause is almost always the same: the goals were never set top-down.
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