When Kaplan and Norton introduced Strategy Maps, they gave leaders a way to make strategy visible. For the first time, organisations could see their value‑creation logic laid out in a clear, causal chain: how people, processes, customers, and financial outcomes connect.

It was a breakthrough. And it still is.

But in the years since, something has become painfully obvious:

Most organisations don’t fail because they lack a strategy. They fail because they lack the readiness to execute it.

This article explores why Strategy Maps remain essential — but also why they are incomplete without a robust, systemic approach to change readiness.

1. Strategy Maps: A Quick Refresher

A Strategy Map is a visual model that links strategic objectives across four perspectives:

• Financial

• Customer

• Internal Processes

• Learning & Growth

The genius of the model is its simplicity. It shows that value creation is not random — it is a system. If you strengthen the right internal processes, supported by the right capabilities, you create customer value. And if you create customer value, financial results follow.

This is the logic of strategy.

But logic alone doesn’t change behaviour.

2. The Strategy–Execution Gap

Every leader knows the frustration:

• The strategy is clear.

• The plan is sound.

• The priorities are documented.

• The communication is done.

• The posters are printed.

And yet… nothing changes.

Teams continue doing what they’ve always done. Leaders struggle to get traction. Projects stall. Resistance grows. Momentum fades.

This is not a failure of strategy. It is a failure of readiness.

A Strategy Map tells you what needs to happen. Readiness tells you whether people are capable of making it happen.

Without readiness, strategy becomes theatre.

3. Why Strategy Maps Don’t Address Readiness

Kaplan and Norton focused on value creation — not human capability. Their model assumes that if the strategy is clear and well‑communicated, people will align and execute.

But clarity is not capability. And communication is not commitment.

Strategy Maps don’t measure:

• whether people understand the change

• whether they feel safe engaging with it

• whether they have the skills to perform differently

• whether the environment supports new behaviours

• whether leaders reinforce expectations

• whether the organisation has the adaptive capacity to absorb disruption

These are not “soft” issues. They are the determinants of execution.

And they sit squarely in the domain of change readiness.

4. What Change Readiness Actually Means

At The Change Gym®, readiness is not a feeling. It is not motivation. It is not enthusiasm.

Readiness is a systemic capability — the organisation’s ability to engage with, adapt to, and sustain change.

It is made up of six interdependent domains:

1. Clarity

Do people understand what is changing, why it matters, and what is expected of them?

2. Openness

Are people psychologically willing to engage with the change, or are they protecting themselves from perceived threat?

3. Capability

Do they have the skills, thinking patterns, and adaptive intelligence required to perform in the new environment?

4. Alignment

Do systems, structures, workflows, and incentives support the change — or undermine it?

5. Support

Do people feel backed by leadership, peers, and the organisation? Is there psychological safety?

6. Accountability

Are expectations clear, reinforced, and consistently upheld?

When these six domains are strong, change becomes possible. When they are weak, change becomes painful, slow, or impossible.

This is the layer Strategy Maps don’t address — but desperately need.

5. Strategy Maps + Readiness Maps: A Complete System

A Strategy Map shows how the organisation creates value. A Readiness Map™ shows whether the organisation can change how it creates value.

Together, they form a complete execution system: