How is AI changing strategic planning, and what does that mean for the people responsible for setting direction? Dan Bruder shares findings from the Long-Term Strategy Conference 2026 study, exploring how strategy professionals use AI, where they see value, and what concerns them. Participants describe faster research and analysis while raising questions about generic strategies, missing perspectives, and the need for human judgment. This presentation examines: -Where AI already improves strategic work -Why shared data and familiar prompts can produce similar strategies -How employee, customer, and partner perspectives strengthen planning -What makes AI-supported findings trustworthy -How leaders can measure progress through better decisions and business outcomes The video also introduces Blendification’s connected approach: Collect, Integrate, Analyze, and Communicate/Facilitate. This process brings more people and evidence into strategic planning, giving enterprise teams and consultants more time to interpret findings, evaluate options, and guide decisions. Learn more: https://www.blendification.com #StrategicPlanning #AIinStrategy #BusinessStrategy #ManagementConsulting #Blendification

What happens when your strategic plan collides with the real world? 

In this session from LTSP26, we are joined by Amie Devero (Co-Founder of Contextum, Founder of Beyond Better S
trategy and Coaching, and author of "Powered by Principle") to explore what happens after strategy launch: when 
reality pushes back and the world reports back with data, friction, and unforeseen challenges.

Learn how leadership teams and organizations can create dynamic feedback loops, adapt strategic initiatives in 
real time, and bridge the critical gap between executive intent and frontline execution.

📌 Key Topics Covered:
• What it really means when "the world reports back" to your strategy
• Overcoming common failure points in strategy execution & activation
• Building dynamic feedback loops between leadership and frontline teams
• Shifting from rigid static planning to responsive, adaptive execution
• Practical frameworks for continuous organizational alignment

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👤 About Amie Devero:
Amie Devero is a strategic advisor, executive coach, author of "Powered by Principle," and founder of 
Contextum. With extensive experience helping organizations navigate complex strategic transformations, 
Amie specializes in bringing strategic clarity and operational alignment to fast-moving environments.

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excellence, and organizational design.

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00:00 - Introduction & Welcome to LTSP26
02:15 - Introducing Amie Devero & The Context of Strategy Activation
06:30 - The Reality Gap: What Happens When the World Reports Back
12:45 - Why Traditional Strategic Plans Fail Under Real-World Friction
19:10 - Designing Fast, Responsive Feedback Loops Across the Organization
27:00 - Psychological Objects & Moving from Static Strategy to Action
35:20 - Frontline Alignment: Connecting Executive Vision with Daily Work
43:15 - Practical Frameworks for Iterative Strategy Adjustment
50:40 - Audience Q&A / Panel Discussion
56:30 - Key Takeaways & Final Thoughts

Every strategy quietly relies on conditions nobody wrote down. Contextuum's Findings engine surfaces exactly those hidden dependencies — and shows what happens if any one of them stops being true.

For a veterinary records-review business, the platform flagged that pet medical records aren't protected under HIPAA, the reason owners can legally forward diagnostic files to a third-party reviewer at all — if that regulatory status changed, the entire business model could become unworkable. A second flagged condition: veterinarians are already obligated to release complete records to owners on request, which is what makes the service possible without new legislation. After confirming which conditions genuinely matter, the platform unlocks Diamond Mine, which mines those same conditions for unexploited opportunities — like a systematic recruiting pipeline built around veterinarians' retirement announcements, an entirely new customer-acquisition channel the founder hadn't previously considered.

The sequence matters: findings must run and conditions get confirmed before Diamond Mine or Strategic Radar produce anything usable at all.

Timestamps:

• 00:00:33 Diamond Mine and Strategic Radar produce nothing usable until Findings has been built first, a mandatory sequencing step
• 00:01:16 Pet medical records aren't protected under HIPAA, which is the specific regulatory reason owners can legally forward diagnostic files to a reviewer
• 00:02:43 Veterinarians are already legally obligated to release complete records to owners on request, making the entire service possible
• 00:03:28 This business currently operates in a completely unregulated space, with no licensing or compliance requirements governing it at all
• 00:04:53 Diamond Mine surfaced a systematic recruiting pipeline built around veterinarians' retirement announcements, a channel the founder hadn't previously considered

Every AI-added insight in Contextuum carries a small globe icon, distinguishing what came from your own documents versus what the research pass discovered on its own — including, in one demo run, a competitor the founder had never heard of.

The AI research pass surfaces things founders often can't articulate themselves: explicit trade-offs (accepting lower margin per transaction to fairly compensate specialists, sacrificing speed of geographic expansion for state-by-state regulatory compliance), strategic environment risks (unit economics viability, regulatory uncertainty), and market trends reshaping the industry, like private equity's growing ownership of veterinary practices. Everything remains editable regardless of source. Once setup completes, the platform generates a Core Interview — twenty AI-generated scenario questions probing how a leader would actually decide, not what the written strategy says, since employees following a documented strategy still need judgment calls the document never specified.

The output syncs those judgment calls into extracted leadership principles, closing the gap between written strategy and actual day-to-day decision-making.

Timestamps:

• 00:00:29 AI-added insights carry a small globe icon, distinguishing what came from your own documents versus what research discovered independently
• 00:02:01 The AI extracted an explicit trade-off: sacrificing speed of geographic expansion for state-by-state regulatory compliance
• 00:05:10 The research pass surfaced a real competitor the founder had never heard of, purely from analyzing the market independently
• 00:09:04 The Core Interview generates 20 scenario questions probing how a leader would actually decide, not what the written strategy states
• 00:10:40 The interview closes the gap between written strategy and daily decisions, extracting leadership principles from real judgment calls made

Skip the manual entry entirely: Contextuum's "skip to synthesis" button lets AI read an uploaded document and populate the entire strategy setup on its own, rather than requiring every field filled in by hand.

Once populated, the platform extracts specifics directly from source material — for a veterinary records-review startup, it correctly pulled core purpose, target audience, and even mismatched goal timelines, mapping a document's 2029 target to the nearest field instead of forcing it into a generic five-year bucket. Everything extracted stays editable, and the same review pattern repeats at every stage: check what the AI pulled, correct what's wrong, move forward. After reviewing the baseline extraction, the platform runs a separate research pass, pulling competitive and market analysis to bulk up whatever the original document didn't cover.

The design principle throughout: let AI handle first-pass population from real documents, then keep a human reviewing before the output becomes the working strategy.

Timestamps:

• 00:00:35 The skip to synthesis option lets AI read an uploaded document and populate the entire strategy setup automatically, field by field
• 00:01:33 The AI correctly extracted core purpose and target audience directly from an uploaded document without any manual re-entry required
• 00:03:42 When a document's stated goal timeline doesn't match standard 1, 5, or 10-year buckets, the AI maps it to the nearest one
• 00:04:22 Once initial fields are populated, the platform reaches a synthesize step before moving into a separate AI research phase
• 00:04:44 Clicking one button triggers the platform to run competitive and market research, automatically bulking up whatever documents didn't cover

Most strategy software makes you fill in every field by hand. Contextuum founder Amie Devero walks through a setup that instead reads your existing strategy documents and populates the platform for you.

After naming the organization, the first real decision is depth: "simple and focused" strips the platform down to a handful of fields, while "structured and clear" unlocks the full system, including tools like the Diamond Mine and Strategic Radar — accessible later by adding back pages that started grayed out. The more consequential choice comes next: upload a PowerPoint, PDF, or a linked Google Doc, and the platform extracts your existing strategy directly into its fields rather than asking you to retype it from scratch. A website URL can substitute if it has enough strategic detail embedded in the copy.

The core message: bringing real documents into setup saves substantial manual work later, and the depth setting isn't permanent — it can expand as needs grow.

Timestamps:

• 00:01:05 Choosing simple and focused strips the platform to a handful of fields, while structured and clear unlocks the full system
• 00:01:27 Pages left out at setup start out grayed out rather than hidden, so you can expand into the full platform later
• 00:02:23 Uploading an existing PowerPoint, PDF, or linked document lets the platform extract your strategy instead of retyping it manually
• 00:02:36 A website URL can substitute for a document if it contains enough strategic detail embedded directly in its copy
• 00:02:45 Bringing real documents into setup up front saves a substantial amount of manual data entry work later in the process

How is AI reshaping strategic planning and employee engagement? In this session, Dan Bruder (CEO of Blendification) discusses Fusion, Blendification’s conversational AI teammate designed to transform how organizations gather insights, bridge the strategy participation gap, and turn qualitative feedback into actionable strategy. Unlike traditional, rigid multiple-choice surveys, Fusion conducts natural, adaptive conversations—allowing teams, leaders, and conference participants to voice real perspectives while automatically synthesizing qualitative feedback into structured data, shared themes, and strategic clarity.

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📌 Key Takeaways & Topics Covered:

• The Evolution of Strategic Input: Moving beyond traditional surveys to dynamic, AI-powered conversational surveys.
• How Fusion Works: Leveraging conversational AI to uncover deep organizational insights and align teams.
• Bridging the Participation Gap: Giving every stakeholder a voice in long-term strategic execution.
• Converting Conversations into Data: Transforming subjective feedback into structured analytics, executive summaries, and action plans.
• The Future of AI in Strategy: Where AI adds genuine value versus where human judgment remains critical.

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⏱️ Timestamps:

• 00:00 - Introduction & Welcome
• 03:15 - The Limitations of Traditional Strategy Surveys
• 08:30 - Introducing Fusion: Conversational AI in Action
• 14:20 - Turning Employee Input into Structured Strategic Insights
• 20:45 - Overcoming the Strategic Participation Gap
• 25:10 - Key Takeaways & Next Steps

(Feel free to adjust the timestamp markers to match your exact video cuts!)

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🔗 Connect & Learn More:

• Learn more about Blendification & Fusion by viewing their Explainer video on StratCinema

High-level strategic plans often fail at the handoff—where grand vision meets day-to-day work. In this session of Strategy Meets Work, we are joined by strategy and executive leadership expert Amie Devero to break down how to bridge the gap between strategic intent and daily execution. Discover practical frameworks and insights on how leaders, teams, and organizations can turn high-level strategy into tangible, high-impact workflows without getting bogged down by friction or misalignment.

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📌 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• Bridging Strategy and Execution: Why great strategies break down during implementation and how to fix the disconnect.
• Aligning Workflows with Strategic Intent: Practical methods to ensure everyday priorities reflect long-term objectives.
• Navigating Cultural & Operational Friction: Overcoming resistance and organizational silos when deploying new strategic initiatives.
• Frameworks for Agile Decision-Making: How to keep strategy dynamic, responsive, and grounded in real-world outcomes.

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👤 About the Guest:

Amie Devero is a seasoned strategist, executive coach, and author who helps organizations navigate transformation, align leadership teams, and execute high-stakes strategies effectively.

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[Premium CLIP] Why does simply applying AI across your strategic planning process produce generic, unusable "trendslop"? In this session from the Long-Term Strategy Conference (LTSP26), Francis Wade breaks down why process management and workflow clarity must always precede AI adoption—not the other way around. While traditional process improvement works wonders on repeatable, physical manufacturing lines, strategy creation is an entirely different domain. It is low-frequency, idiosyncratic, and focused on creating "psychological objects"—shared alignment, executive consensus, and decisive strategic intent. Learn why mastering task automation differs from automating entire strategic roles, how to baseline non-physical workflows, and how to structure your strategic planning before bringing in AI tools. ---------------------------------------- This is a clip from the original 55 minute video only available to Premium Full Ticket holders.