Many organizations are building initiatives around activities, projects, and deliverables—instead of anchoring them in clear business outcomes. 

If you’ve ever sat in a steering committee where someone says, 
“We delivered everything we promised… but the metrics didn’t change,”  this episode is for you. 

 
Activity is not impact 

Most organizations don’t actually have a strategy execution problem. 
  

They have an outcomes discipline problem. 

They fund initiatives like: 

• launch a new platform 

• redesign a process 

• implement a tool 

• stand up a new team. 

All these things don’t clearly answer one basic question: 

What business outcome will be materially different if this succeeds? 

Not, what will be: 

• built 

• delivered 

• Launched. 

Instead, what will 

• improve 

• reduce 

• grow? 

When initiatives aren’t explicitly tied to outcomes, success becomes subjective—and accountability disappears. 

What “basing initiatives on business outcomes” means 

Basing initiatives on business outcomes does not mean adding a KPI slide at the end of a deck. 

It means flipping how initiatives are conceived from the start. 

Instead of asking. "What should we do next?” 

You ask, “What outcome must change for the business to succeed?” 

Real business outcomes are 

• reduce cost-to-serve by 15% 

• increase first-contact resolution by 10 points 

• shorten cycle time by 20% 

• improve regulatory compliance confidence 

• increase customer retention in a specific segment. 

Only after the outcome is clear do you ask, “What initiatives are most likely to drive that change?” 

This sounds obvious, but it is rare. 

 
Three failure modes  

When initiatives aren’t anchored in outcomes, three predictable things happen. 

Success becomes theater 
Teams celebrate go-lives, launches, and milestones—but no one can prove impact. The organization gets better at delivery, not results. 

Prioritization breaks 
When everything sounds important, leaders prioritize based on politics, volume, or urgency—not value. Outcome-based initiatives create a common currency for trade-offs. 

Continuous improvement dies 
If you don’t define the outcome, you can’t measure progress, learn, or adjust. Initiatives become “one and done” instead of continuously optimized. 

 
Outcomes create strategic alignment  

Business outcomes are the bridge between: 

• strategy and execution 

• leadership intent and frontline action 

• investment and accountability. 

When outcomes are explicit: 

• executives know why they’re funding something 

• teams know what success actually means 

• managers can align trade-offs 

• metrics stop being performative and start being operational. 

This is especially critical in large, complex organizations—where initiatives cut across silos and no single team owns the full value chain. 

Outcomes create shared ownership. 

 
The outcome clarity check  

Take any major initiative and ask three questions: 

1. What business metric will change if this succeeds? 

2. By how much must it change to justify the investment? 

3. Who is accountable for realizing that change—not just delivering the work? 

If those answers aren’t clear, you don’t have an outcome-based initiative. 

You have a well-funded experiment. 

Why this matters now  

In today’s environment—tight budgets, rising expectations, and increasing complexity—organizations cannot afford activity without impact. 

AI, digital transformation, service design, journey management—all of these are powerful. 

But none of them are strategies. They are means. Business outcomes are the end. 

The organizations that win aren’t the ones doing the most work. They’re the ones that can clearly answer, “What changed because we did this?” 

 
To wrap 

If you want better results, stop starting with initiatives. 

Start with outcomes. 
  

Fund outcomes. 
  

Govern outcomes. 
  

Hold leaders accountable for outcomes.