A working afternoon · Gothenburg
Why Strategy Dies in the Middle
Executives: Are you frustrated that decisions still land on your desk, even though the strategy is clear?
There are six reasons this happens inside growing organizations.
Usual symptoms: decisions, issues, and crises that should end one layer below still land on your desk.
Discover how much of that is wiring, how much is people, and which of the six gaps is costing you the most time.
Exclusive: The first public teaching of the principles from the book Why Strategy Dies in the Middle (Practical Inspiration, 2027).
Your seat is held. One step left: confirm it below so I know to expect you on 4 November.
Who this is for
What lands on your desk
It feels like constant firefighting.
If you are like most executives in Gothenburg, certain things keep landing on your desk. As soon as something breaks, you get pulled in.
Decisions
The team was supposed to handle this. Instead, the questions are in your inbox, all-hands invites in your calendar, and the morning you planned is gone.
Issues
Customer complaints, project issues, and stakeholder conflicts that should have stopped one layer down land on your desk. Now they’re yours to solve.
Crises
They tend to climb past everyone between you and the problem. The strategy meeting gets cancelled, and you are back in the engine room.
Those landings are the symptom and the six gaps are why they keep arriving.
If that was your week, the afternoon is for you.
What it looks like from the executive seat
It probably looks like a people problem.
From the executive seat, it often looks that way. The managers don’t get it. They don’t own it. If you step back, quality slips.
That may be true to some extent. But it is rarely only about people. In most organizations, it is a mix of the people and the way the organization is wired around them. The afternoon helps you see how much of each is at play in yours, and what to do about it.
What you leave with
By 16:00 you have the picture.
You know which of the six gaps is costing you the most and how much of your inbox is due to wiring rather than people. You’ll have a plan for the next quarter. If you work on closing that gap, hours on your calendar start moving from firefighting to designing the future.
It’s not going to be a quiet inbox by Friday. That takes longer than an afternoon to fix. But you take home one page per gap and a way to run the score with the layer below.
What we actually do
12:30 to 16:00, in the room.
There is no pre-work and no screening call. The score and the list both happen in the room.
| 12:30 | Light lunch, coffee and arrivals. |
| 13:00 | The desk and the score. You write down what landed on your desk in the last two days and take a short score on your own role. Then we put the two side by side. |
| 14:15 | The work. You work your biggest gap at your table and the top gaps of the room together. |
| 16:00 | Close. You get your personalised gap results and you leave with one page per gap. If you still only have ‘it’s a people problem’, stay 20 minutes and we’ll work through it together. |
We open on Clarity, Alignment and Accountability because that is what the desk shows first.
Nothing to prepare beforehand. Bring yourself and a pen.
Who this is for
Executives: CXOs, MDs, VPs, Directors, Heads of, General Managers, Country Managers, Sales Leads, Senior Managers, and anyone who owns the strategy for 70+ people
This is for you if
- You lead 70+ people and the strategy that should move through your layer keeps stalling.
- You have tried restructuring, new hires, or coaching and the same issues return.
- You want a structured way to see which gaps are costing you the most – and what to do next quarter.
This is not for you if
- You would send a deputy to listen and report back.
- You are a project manager or middle manager. The afternoon is for the person who sets your strategy.
- You want a keynote, a book sample or a culture workshop.
The terms
Free to attend, only 48 seats and one guarantee.
The afternoon costs nothing but your time and there are 48 seats in the room. That’s it.
You leave with the picture, or we build it together.
If you brought Monday and Tuesday with you and at 16:00 you still only have ‘it’s a people problem’ – stay 20 minutes and we’ll work through it together or we’ll book a 25-minute 1:1 within 14 days.
Nothing is sold in this room.
Your host
Florin Lungu
Florin spent 12 years inside Renault and Volvo, in the layer where strategy either moves or dies. He has spent the last ten years working with leadership teams and the executives above it. He is publishing a book, Why Strategy Dies in the Middle, with Practical Inspiration Publishing in 2027.
Florin is Maxwell Leadership certified and Cialdini Institute accredited. His session on the gaps in projects at Passion for Projects 2026 in Stockholm was rated 3.8 out of 4 by 111 participants.
‘Several times throughout the session I smiled as I recognised the situations he described, combined with the simple, but powerful twists.’
Katarina Strömberg
President, PMI Sweden Chapter
‘I took a new position to lead a group formed by merging two teams with different backgrounds and low morale. Within a few months of working with Florin, we gained a comprehensive understanding of our team’s strengths and areas for improvement.’
Gabriel Sas
Professor and Chair of Structural Engineering, Luleå University of Technology
‘What sets Florin apart is his ability to translate complex leadership challenges into simple, structured frameworks that are easy to apply. His chain reaction from clarity to influence, combined with concrete 1% shifts, made the content both practical and relevant.’
Barbara Klein
VP, Passion for Projects
Questions
Is this a sales pitch?
No, and I understand why you’re asking. Nothing is sold in this room and there is nothing to buy at the end.
Do I need to prepare?
No, and please don’t. Bring yourself and a pen. The score happens in the room.
Can I send someone from my team?
If they own the strategy, yes, and they can request their own seat at florinlungu.com/wsd-gbg. If they would report back to you, no. See who this is for.
English or Swedish?
The session runs in English. Table conversations go wherever your table takes them.
Why is it free?
Because I know this is valuable and I want to put it in your hands before anyone else. I want to earn your trust and invest in our relationship.
Confirm
Confirm your seat
Fill in your details below and click Confirm. Once confirmed, you will get the calendar invite and practical details.
The form is loading. If it does not appear, please email florin@florinlungu.com to confirm your seat.
Plans changed? Let me know.
See you on 4 November.