Leadership & Culture

Over the past three years, since taking on the Corporate Service responsibilities at the Ottawa Community Foundation, I’ve been at the helm of an ongoing cycle of major projects. These initiatives are part of a broader effort to evaluate and refine our systems and processes, ensuring we are best prepared to support the community in addressing some of the most complex challenges we collectively face. In this journey, I’ve found myself repeatedly returning to the first principles of project management – revisiting, relearning, and reaffirming the fundamentals that drive successful outcomes.

The sharpest strategy in the world isn’t worth much if it doesn’t resonate. An elegant plan – complete with goals, frameworks, and metrics – often falls flat, not because it lacks brilliance, but because it fails to find its voice within the team that must bring it to life. Strategy isn’t static; it’s a conversation, a shared understanding, and ultimately, a story.

And yet, so often, the narrative goes awry. Leaders get swept up in the allure of complexity, using jargon as a crutch rather than a tool. Teams are handed lofty visions but not the threads that tie those visions to their everyday reality. What results is a collective nod of agreement followed by a failure to act, not out of unwillingness, but out of uncertainty.