The Growth Accelerator’s Dilemma: Why Waiting for Stability Will Kill Your 2026 Plans

Here’s the thing about dynamic times—we think they’ll settle.

We sit in leadership meetings making the assumption that there’s going to be a settling. Which is not necessarily the case. And so, we’re better to face in and figure out what are the elements in the environment that we’ve really got to understand and see how they might evolve.

The Counter-Intuitive Trap

When things are very dynamic, there’s almost a counter-intuitive reaction where we think we’ll wait until it settles. This is dangerous thinking. If you’re wanting to accelerate growth in 2026, the work starts now. It’s so critical to evaluate your strategic plan now and align your execution.

But here’s what I mean by that. It needs to be contextualized on the assumptive base that you have a clear understanding of what your competitive strategy is—so you do have a rudder for your business. Your North Star is your vision, but the competitive strategy is your rudder. It’s the underpinning, because it’s more about a how than a where you’re going.

The External Environment Reality Check

On a rolling basis, we should always be checking in to see what’s going on in the environment. In particularly dynamic times, we need to do that with more deliberateness, more determination, and more courage to be honest. What are the most significant factors at play that are pertinent to our business? What are the forces we’ve unleashed that are serving our execution well? And what might be actually slowing us down in terms of how we are working—our ways of working, our habits?

Ostensibly, it’s all the things that relate to culture, behavior, patterns.

The Rhythm That Works

Ideally, you become an organization that doesn’t wait until the annual plan to do these things. I would be anchoring it in your quarterly rhythm—ideally, you have a weekly or bi-weekly check-in. It should never be monthly. Then you have a monthly step back, a quarterly review, and an annual, more substantial step back where you’re truly taking account of learning, where you really are, looking out again over that three-year horizon.

The growth for 2026 should be informing your budget, because you don’t want your budget to dictate. You don’t want tail-wagging-the-dog stuff.

The Alignment Question

You really do need to be checking in on your level of alignment. You might be really aligned and going well, and then there’s a dramatic shift. This is an ongoing learning process where you are checking in. The more that you can stay connected with your external environment, the less likely you are to become disconnected. Therefore, the less likely you will need to drive a massive transformation in your business to realign.

The Bottom Line

To stay informed, you’ve got to be coming back to the initiatives: Where have we seen results? What have we learned? What patterns are at play where we’ve got really great strength?

The question isn’t whether change is coming. The question is whether you’ll be ready for it. At Ignition Institute we empower leaders and their teams to own and be accountable for execution!

What forces in your external environment are you underestimating right now?