Before the plan, the apology.

technique — attributed to Don Welsh

Handed a broken institution, Welsh skipped the strategy deck and went to two hundred members with three questions: what do you want, what do you need, and what will you support. His staff called it the Apology Tour. The third question is the one most leaders never ask, because it is the only one that turns applause into commitment. A plan written after the tour lands differently than one written before it.

For any new CEO, executive director, or department head in the first ninety days. The discipline is to publish nothing until the third question has been asked of every constituency whose support the plan will need.

listening-tour, stakeholder-engagement, strategy-launch, commitment