Momentum Map: Why Good Strategies Quietly Lose Momentum

Organizations rarely struggle because people stop caring.

More often, priorities shift, people move on, new work arrives, and over time the initiatives that carry our strategies begin losing momentum.

The challenge is that momentum loss is often difficult to see while it is happening.

On the surface, things can still appear healthy. Meetings continue, updates are shared, and work remains active. Underneath, however, the conditions that originally supported an initiative may have changed.

Form is not always the same as intent.

Leadership changes. Structures evolve. Work gets reshaped. Yet the need an initiative was meant to address often remains.

The Momentum Map emerged from a simple question:

"Why do some initiatives continue moving through change while others slowly drift?"

Drawing from leadership, systems thinking, organizational behaviour, and change management, the Momentum Map looks beyond activity and asks us to consider whether the conditions supporting an initiative still exist.

The question is not:

"Are we doing the work?"

It's:

"What is helping the work continue to move?"

If you'll be attending LGMA in Penticton on June 11, I will be exploring the Momentum Map and practical ways of recognizing and responding to momentum loss during change.