Lead the Learning Before You Lead the Work

Why strategy stalls when we skip the step that matters most

Some breakthroughs don’t happen all at once. They build, quietly, across meetings that feel the same—until suddenly, they don’t.

A client I’m working with was preparing for yet another leadership meeting. This would be the third in a row focused on the same strategic priority. The last two had ended the same way: a to-do list, a few talking points, and not much else.

No momentum. No clarity. Just the nagging sense that something essential was missing.

So I asked:

 “What is the current knowledge and skill level of your leadership team to do this work?” 

Silence.

Then: 

“And what do you still need to learn to lead this well?”

That’s when everything shifted.

“I don’t actually know what it looks like in practice,” they admitted. “I just know the outcomes we want to see.”

There it was—the missing piece. They were planning from outcomes, not understanding. Focused on doing, without making space for learning.

So we reframed the goal.

What if this next meeting wasn’t about marching orders—but about shared learning? What if the team experienced the work they were being asked to lead?

That shift changed everything.

They planned the session with a learning lens, embedding inquiry, modeling, and collective sense-making. When the team gathered, they didn’t just receive information—they explored it. They got inside the “why” and “how,” not just the “what.”

The result? A meeting that was alive. Voices emerged that had previously stayed quiet. Questions got sharper. Ideas got more grounded. Confidence grew—not from a pep talk, but from practice.

By the end, when the team was asked how they saw themselves implementing the learning, the room lit up. The same team that once offered vague bullet points was now naming specific moves, potential barriers, and supports they’d need to carry the work forward.

Here’s the truth:

 You can’t lead what you don’t understand. You can’t build what you haven’t conceptualized. You can’t manage what you haven’t made space to learn.

This is where so many leaders get stuck during times of change. We mistake motion for progress. We rush to do when what’s required is to learn.

But doing checks a box. 

Learning builds capacity. 

Doing leads to completion. 

Learning leads to transformation.

So the next time you’re planning a strategy session or leading your team through a new initiative, ask yourself:

• What knowledge and skills are needed to truly do this well?

• Have I made space to learn before I expect others to act?

• Am I designing meetings that build capacity, not just compliance?

  
  

Because when you lead with learning, you don’t just get things done—you build people who can keep doing it long after the meeting ends.