On Strategy: What to Read Before, During, and After Planning

Thirty-five essays and tools on strategic planning, differentiation, and the leadership it takes to make strategy stick — drawn from Still Day One, the newsletter from MehtaCognition. Written for heads of school, executive directors, trustees, and leadership teams. Start with the series for a structured walkthrough, or jump to whatever matches where you are right now.

Show posts relevant to
Showing 0 posts matching your search
1

The "On Strategy" Series

Twelve essays that build on each other — a structured reading journey through what strategy actually requires of mission-driven organizations.

Start Here
E1
What's Wrong with Strategic Planning?
Why most strategic plans look the same, change little, and cost a lot.
H
ED
T
LT
E2
We've Misunderstood Strategy
Most organizations confuse strategy with planning, vision statements, or lists of goals.
H
ED
T
LT
E3
Strategy Precedes Structure — And That's the Hard Part
Structure should serve strategy, not substitute for it.
H
ED
T
E4
Strategy When You're Winning: Choose, Don't Coast
Success creates its own strategic trap.
H
ED
T
E5
Before You Fix Anything, Ask These Two Questions
Whose problem are we solving, and do we have the capacity to solve it?
H
ED
LT
E6
How to Interview a Strategy Firm
The right questions reveal whether a firm will push your thinking.
H
ED
T
E7
The Strategy Loop: Find Where You're Stuck, Then Move
Strategy gets stuck at predictable points — the Loop helps identify which.
H
ED
LT
E8
You Don't Need Another Plan. You Need One Universal Strategy
Organizations accumulate plans. What they need is one strategy.
H
ED
T
LT
E9
Strategy = Subtraction
Subtraction with conviction is the discipline most organizations lack.
H
ED
T
LT
E10
Growth is Not a Strategy
Growth without strategic clarity just scales existing problems.
H
ED
T
E11
Differentiation is a Floor-to-Ceiling Problem
When what you claim doesn't match what families experience.
H
ED
T
LT
E12
Stop Solving the Wrong Problem
Proper diagnosis — the step most leaders skip.
H
ED
T
LT
2

Going Deeper

Longer explorations of recurring strategic traps, planning failures, and the courage gap between knowing and doing.

The Step Before Strategy
Is the issue strategic, cultural, or operational? Each requires a different intervention.
H
ED
LT
Comfort vs. Clarity: Why Strategic Planning Feels Productive but Isn't
Meetings and committees create the feeling of progress while avoiding actual choices.
H
ED
T
When Strategic Plans Sound Like Marketing Plans
A real strategic plan should make people uncomfortable.
H
ED
T
You Can't Strategize Your Way Out of Culture
Culture problems require culture interventions — not more strategy.
H
ED
LT
Strategy Isn't a Comprehension Problem — It's a Courage Problem
Acting on insight requires making people unhappy.
H
ED
Ten Ways to Guarantee Your Strategic Plan Changes Nothing
Satire that hits close to home.
H
ED
T
LT
Why Smart Leaders Know What to Do But Don't Do It
Consensus culture, board politics, and sunk-cost attachment.
H
ED
3

Differentiation & Positioning

What differentiation actually requires — from enrollment strategy to program design to the gap between brand promise and daily experience.

From Floor to Ceiling: Choosing an Enrollment Strategy
Schools in scarcity need different strategic moves than those in abundance.
H
ED
T
Differentiate with Culture, OS, Programs
Differentiation operates at three levels: culture, operating system, and programs.
H
ED
LT
When More Marketing Won't Save You
If families leave because of experience, more marketing accelerates the feedback loop.
H
ED
T
Tuition Discounting Won't Fix Doubt
Lowering the price doesn't address doubt — it confirms it.
H
ED
T
4

Leading Through It

What strategy demands of the humans doing the work — leadership presence, team dynamics, and the personal discipline behind organizational change.

Whose Job Am I Doing Right Now?
Leaders who work below their altitude create dependency and bottleneck execution.
H
ED
LT
Choices
Every deferred decision is itself a choice.
H
ED
T
What If Your Team Is Too Nice?
A team that can't argue well can't strategize well.
H
ED
LT
Leading Through Transition
The human experience of transition requires a different kind of leadership.
H
ED
Five Things I Kept Thinking About
Patterns across organizations: values vs. resources, deferred decisions, measurement.
H
ED
T
LT
Stop Guessing, Start Aligning
Alignment tools replace assumptions with shared understanding.
H
ED
LT
Managing Up
Framing information, surfacing decisions, and building trust.
H
ED
Fast, Not Loose
Clear decision-making protocols and short feedback loops.
H
ED
LT
What to Invest In Now: Agency Over Intelligence
Agency — the ability to decide and move — is the bottleneck.
H
ED
T
LT
5

Frameworks & Tools

Practical tools to use before, during, and after strategic planning.

Strategic Planning Diagnostic
Pre-planning assessment for leaders and boards
17 questions for leaders, 22 for board members
Download PDF
Strategic Planning Glossary
Quick-reference guide for strategic planning terminology
19 terms across 6 categories
Download PDF
ISCA Keynote: Strategy & Strategic Planning
Slide deck from the Independent Schools Chairpersons’ Association keynote — Feb 10, 2026
For board chairs and heads of school
Download PDF
Nishant Mehta
Nishant Mehta
Founder, MehtaCognition

Before founding MehtaCognition, Nishant served as a head of school and senior administrator at independent schools in Atlanta. He saw firsthand how strategy often became a shelf document — well-intentioned but disconnected from the culture and leadership dynamics that determine whether anything actually changes. MehtaCognition was built on a different premise: that strategy has to start with what's true about your organization, not what's aspirational. Nishant works with heads, boards, and leadership teams to build strategic plans that reflect organizational reality, clarify difficult trade-offs, and hold up under implementation pressure.

Email Website

Want to stay in the conversation?

Subscribe to Still Day One for new essays on strategy, leadership, and the work of building organizations that actually change.

About This Collection

Curated from Still Day One, a newsletter by Nishant Mehta on strategy, leadership, and organizational change — written for heads of school, executive directors, trustees, and leadership teams.

Get in Touch

MehtaCognition — Strategy & Leadership Advisory contact@mehtacognition.com Subscribe to Still Day One

© 2026 MehtaCognition · Nishant Mehta. All rights reserved.