Flight Path Synchronization Talks
My department was performing at its best. Every metric was trending the right direction. Revenue up. Culture improving. A $60 million MSK center of excellence was in the pipeline, with consultants hired, architectural plans drafted, board briefings completed. Everything looked like it was on track.
Then things quietly stalled.
The building stopped making the board agenda. Executive meetings got shorter. My updates received polite nods and no follow-through. No yellow flags. No explanation.
What I did next changed how I lead.
I set up what I called flight path synchronization talks with the CEO. Low-risk, 30-minute conversations designed to align my priorities with his. I presented our one-, three-, and five-year timelines and asked where they sat against his top institutional priorities. And then I listened more than I talked.
It took nearly a year of these sessions before the real picture emerged.
The CEO had privately decided — without discussing it with anyone, including the executive team — that the $60 million MSK center was too small. His vision had expanded to a $200 million multi-building capital plan. And the MSK center wasn't even first in his queue.
Even flawless metrics are no match for understanding where the real decisions are being made.
The flight path talks didn't give me the answer immediately. But they eventually surfaced an institutional reality I couldn't have found any other way.
Have you built a formal mechanism to stay synchronized with how your executive team is actually thinking?