How do you activate a strategic plan? Many organizations spend months, sometimes years, designing an ambitious strategic, commercial, or digital transformation plan. And yet, once the design is complete, the big question remains: how do we ensure a strategic plan is implemented with enthusiasm, speed, and real commitment from everyone in the organization?
In the webinar “From PowerPoint to Collective Action,” Miguel Ángel Sanz, Partner at Madavi – The Yes Company, offered a clear and powerful answer: organizations don’t change because of what they are told, but because of the conversations they have. With this premise, he shared practical keys to move from the design of a strategic plan to collective action—even when teams were not part of creating the plan.
Activating a Strategic Plan: From Scarcity to Abundance
Miguel Ángel suggests a shift in mindset: stop focusing on what’s missing, and start focusing on what already works—what is present and delivering results.
It can be as simple as changing the questions we ask. For example, with our children’s school reports: instead of “Why did you fail this subject?”, we can ask “How did you achieve this excellent grade?”
The same logic applies in organizations: when we focus conversations on the positive and on what we want to see happen, that is what grows.
Making the Strategic Plan Real Through Conversations
The central idea is to apply social constructionism to the corporate environment: organizations move in the direction of their conversations. That’s why it’s not enough to simply communicate the strategy clearly. What matters is to create spaces where people can talk about it, connecting it to their strengths and perspectives.
Miguel Ángel proposes launching what we at Madavi call unconditionally positive questions (or, in simpler terms, “friendly questions”), designed to spark motivation, emotional connection, and the identification of real opportunities for action. Questions like: What excites you most about this plan, and how do you think it can help you grow in your role? How can this plan allow you to contribute your strengths and talents to the team and the organization?
These questions are designed to activate positive, meaningful conversations within teams, helping people make sense of the strategic plan—or any other action plan, whether commercial, digital, or otherwise.
They are unconditionally positive questions. This means they are framed in such a way that they cannot be answered from scarcity or negativity—only from abundance and possibility. These questions spark generative conversations about strategy, enabling people to take ownership of it and turn it into action.
Imagining the Future to Activate the Plan Today
Alongside exploring what already works, it’s essential to help teams visualize how the future will look once the plan becomes a reality. This kind of visualization mobilizes change and makes ownership of the plan much easier.
And what if someone complains? Resistance is natural. The key lies in directing attention toward constructive voices, and not falling into the trap of responding to criticism from a place of scarcity. As Miguel Ángel puts it: “We listen to the negative voices, but we don’t take the bait. We give attention only to the positive voices.” Instead of focusing on what someone doesn’t like, we ask: “And what part of this do you find useful or valuable?”