Pete Wilkinson is known for his intense, no-nonsense approach to strategy execution. He's obsessed with helping ambitious leaders reach their full potential in business through clarity, alignment, and accountability. As the Founder and CEO of Reclaro, simple strategy execution software, Pete has spent over two decades transforming how organizations bridge the critical gap between strategic planning and real-world results.

He developed the award-winning 1-3-5® framework while studying for his MBA and was frustrated by large organisations' vast emphasis on strategy formulation without following through on their promises! This frustration led him to create a deceptively simple yet powerful methodology that has since helped thousands of CEOs and business leaders achieve strategic clarity and laser-focus as they structure and cascade their priorities throughout their organizations.

Pete's professional career started 29 years ago with senior management roles in retail, where he managed a large team of 300 people. Today, he combines his extensive business experience with his passion for helping professional people achieve their potential, working with businesses ranging from small micro-enterprises to £350 million software companies. He has won 10 awards for speaking, content and delivery within the Vistage community and has coached thousands of highly successful CEOs and business leaders to reach their full potential and grow their organisations.

The 1-3-5® framework represents more than just another goal-setting methodology—it's a complete system for turning vision into action. Similar to the popular goal-setting framework of OKRs, objectives and Key Results, the 1-3-5® methodology allows business leaders to craft their objectives and key results with clarity and precision, and here's the difference: the 1-3-5® ensures these objectives and key results are perfectly aligned with a crystal-clear vision of what success looks like for that organisation.

In this conversation, Pete shares his insights on why so many well-designed strategies fail during execution, how to create genuine alignment across entire organizations, and why focusing on fewer priorities often leads to dramatically better results.

1. You've observed that organizations often excel at strategy formulation but struggle with execution. What are the most common reasons why well-designed strategies fail to deliver results? How does your 1-3-5® framework address the disconnect between boardroom vision and day-to-day operational reality?

For part one of this question my reply would be:

1. Taking on too much

   1. If there’s one thing you need to watch out for is taking on too much. Remember that in order to achieve more you need to focus on less

   2. Make sure that you identify that most important things that will move the dial in your business, not just the easy stuff you can tick off

   3. It’s best to nail 1-3 things than having a business with far too many half built bridges

2. Trying to move too fast

   1. One of the big frustrations I see in senior teams is when they try and rush everyone and create panic

   2. If your strategy execution priorities are requiring significant change then realise that it’s going to take time. Set ambitious timelines for sure but not deadlines that cause your people to be overwhelmed all the time

   3. Set good stretch check ins at 30 days or 90 days time so the finish line isn’t too far off

3. Measuring forwards only

   1. When you begin measuring your strategy execution progress avoid only measuring and comparing where you are to where you want to be

   2. Spend a little time looking back and letting everyone know how far you’ve all come. Give regular recognition for the progress people are making.  

   3. If you don’t recognise the progress you’re making chances are you’re missing the progress others are making

For part two of this I would say:

My 1-3-5® framework addresses this by helping the business focus on 1 crystal Vision which becomes their ‘where’. Then they have 3 main objectives not 33, these become their ‘what’.  Finally they have 5 Key Results or Goals per objective and these become the ‘how’.  

So the business has a simple way to clarify their ‘where’, their ‘what’ and their ‘how.’

Then once the central exec 1-3-5® is built the company can then begin the role out to the rest of the senior leadership team, then the management team and then the rest of the team members.  Eventually everyone is following the simple 1-3-5® framework and the CEO and exec team can be certain people are not just working hard but working hard on the right things.

2. Many leaders struggle with getting their entire organization aligned around shared objectives, especially in larger or distributed teams. What practical steps do you recommend for cascading strategic priorities from the C-suite down to individual contributors? How do you ensure everyone understands not just what they need to do, but why it matters?

There is certainly a real struggle in getting the whole company aligned around shared objectives.  One of the first things to do is to set the main company objectives and have them communicated with everyone.  From experience when we work with teams in Reclaro we see a common pattern of the 3 main objectives. These often centre around ’Strategy’, ‘Operations’ and ‘People’.  In fact Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan wrote an excellent book on the topic called ‘Execution.’ In the book they make the argument that these are the 3 most important processes to get right in a company to ensure you have consistent strategy execution.  

Once the company has set its main 3 strategic priorities the next step is to get all the managers together and share what they are.  Then task the managers with the help of the SLT to come up with their own 3 main objectives that will contribute to these priorities.  We did this recently with a UK business called ‘Housing Software.’  I led a session with the main managers and shared what the company wants to achieve and what the main strategic priorities are.  I then set the managers away with the task of thinking what are the main 3 objectives that you could set for your team that would directly contribute to the main company priorities.  

I didn’t really need to steer them as we had already shared the main company 5 year Vision and they knew where we were heading.  

As for the Why, that was easy.  We simply asked and recorded ‘why does it matter to you that we reach these strategic priorities and company goals?’  It was evident that because the company has an established purpose and now had a clear 5 year Vision people were motivated to make it happen.  

Again there were common themes to the ‘Why’ such as making an impact in the community, building a sustainable business, creating and launching great products and delivering great service to customers.  Another area that was mentioned in the ‘Why Conversation’ was the ability to grow in the company and take on more responsibility as the 5 year Vision is realised.  

Similarly I led a number of sessions with Cosmo, a Japanese exporter of products to business customers.  Howard Lister company director said in relation to 1-3-5® “I’ve seen a definite improvement in goal achievement, alignment and engagement which has created a new way of planning, thinking and getting things done!”

3. You emphasize the importance of focusing on productive outcomes rather than just being busy. How do you help leaders distinguish between meaningful key results and vanity metrics? What advice do you give executives who are overwhelmed by data but struggling to identify the few critical measures that actually drive business performance?

This is a great question. Far too many people are coming into work and just focusing on the day and being busy.  Through no fault of their own they just focus internally and in some cases do enough to keep their job.  It’s not their fault, controversially I believe that as we leaders we need to do more to communicate what the priorities are, what success looks like, how we’re doing on the journey and most importantly how the thing that someone is working on is connected to the big picture.  Sure this takes time but when you digest any Gallop / industry data on team engagement and alignment 95% of people will say ’they don’t understand the company strategy.’  

Well if 95% don’t understand what the company is trying o achieve with its strategy how on earth can we blame them for NOT connecting their actions?

So the first thing we need to do is make sure they understand what the company is trying to achieve and what success looks like.  

Then we need to come up a suitable ‘management of performance process.’  This is very different to ‘performance management.’  A management of performance process involves team members actually being set meaningful goals.  It then involves a robust 121 process, often monthly, to ensure that team members are making progress and if not explore the cause to that.  

Lastly in terms of dealing with the overwhelm of data and measures, ensure everyone has a single number that they can be managed on.  I like to help teams come up with a number that is a lead measure and not just a lag measure.  Remember that your lag measure is always lagging behind and your lead measure makes your lag measure more ‘predictable.’ This does take work but when someone has a single lead measure that they’re responsible for and has regular time with their line manager where progress is assessed and supported it’s amazing how much more the person is engaged.  When they’re engaged they bring another level of performance.  When you’ve got a bunch of people working this way you can double your turnover in 3 years and then everyone benefits.