In this insightful episode, Aleya Harris Founder and Owner of The Evolution Collective Inc., shares how strategy drag quietly drains your momentum as a Level 5 CEO and how story-driven leadership turns team misalignment into forward motion. If you struggle with your executive team interpreting the same strategy five different ways, delayed decisions, duplicated work, or investments that somehow never move the business forward, you won’t want to miss it.
You will discover:
– How to use storytelling frameworks and belief archetypes to get true buy-in without changing who people are
– How to spot strategy drag as the hidden resistance that keeps your approved plan from actually happening
– Why answering “what does this mean for me” for every person is the real key to execution
Episode Transcript
Scott Ritzheimer
Hello, hello, and welcome, welcome once again to the Start, Scale, and Succeed podcast-the only podcast that grows with you through all seven levels of your journey as a founder. I’m your host Scott Ritzheimer, and today we’re tackling a problem that quietly drains founders, especially those in the level five CEO stage. And here’s the problem, and I don’t know that you would describe it that way, but I think you might recognize that it’s happening by the end of this episode, and have some ideas on how to fix it. And that is that if we were to really ask every person on your executive team what the strategy of the organization is, we’d very likely get however many stories there are people on your team, and it will exhaust you. It will totally deplete you if you don’t recognize why that’s happening and come up with a better strategy for getting there. Now you don’t have to take my word for it. With us here today is Alea Harris.
She’s an award-winning keynote speaker, former Google vendor partner and CEO of the Evolution Collective, she created the Story-Driven Leadership Framework, helping founders, CEOs, and leadership teams build trust, strengthen communication, and scale their business through authentic leadership. Blending executive experience with practical business strategy, Aleya equips entrepreneurs with actionable tools and to lead high-performing teams, create memorable brands, and thrive in an AI-driven marketplace. Her engaging, story-driven approach has inspired audiences across corporate, nonprofit, and entrepreneurial communities. She’s here with us today, Aleya. I told you this before we started, but I’m going to say it again here for everyone. As I was researching for this episode, I came across a concept that you talk about quite a lot, actually, and I’d never heard of it before. But it was like instant. Oh my goodness, we have to talk about this, and it was this idea of strategy drag, strategy drag. What a what a brilliant phrase. So let’s just start off. Let’s kind of define what is this, and and and most mostly from what does it feel like when you’re experiencing it?
Aleya Harris
I love that you’re starting with a feeling because it is intangible until you see it, and then you can’t unsee it. So think of it like driving your car with the parking brake on, you know where you’re gonna go. The car’s working. You’re just like, why am I stuck? What? What is that screeching? What is that burning smell? And you’re like, I don’t know. Every unclear priority, conflicting incentive, and old habit is adding resistance to the strategy. Your strategy is trying to move forward while all of that is pulling it backwards, right? And I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a rubber band being pulled in two different directions. And if you pull too hard on a rubber band in two different directions, what happens? It’s
Scott Ritzheimer
it’s not pretty.
Aleya Harris
Yeah. So what I try to do with clients is get them to like you’re saying see and feel what that strategy drag looks like specifically for their organization. So another way to say it is like you you approve a strategy on Friday. You and your team feeling super smart. Might even go out for drinks afterwards. Like oh, we crushed it. All five of us know exactly what’s happening, and then by Monday, the five departments or the five department heads have five different interpretations of what you just did in that room on Friday. Right? People need another meeting. Decisions get delayed. Work gets done twice or not at all. That strategy drag, and you’re paying for it. It’s expensive. Strategy drag means that thing that absolutely happened needs to happen to take your business to the next level is not happening.
The thing that you’ve invested 1000s of dollars in is not happening, and in fact, you may unintentionally be continuing to invest money into something while it’s falling out of the bottom, and you don’t know why. You’re you’re paying for this in time, money, and momentum. So, when you finally see your strategy drag, which is what we do as the first step, and when we work with people, is our strategy drag scan to get you to understand where that money, time, energy is going. You can reduce it, and when you reduce it, that means that you’re helping people understand why the strategy matters. And I think it’s cute that everyone thinks that that their employees love their company as much as they do. I that’s not true. Everyone is motivated differently. Everyone looks at through the world through different belief lenses, so it’s not just why the strategy matters for Acme Inc. It’s why the strategy matters for Joe Schmoe, for Jane Doe, for the people that actually work there as humans.
What it means for their role, what it means for them as humans, what it means for their family, what they need to. Do differently in their next meeting or customer interaction, so that their behavior actually changes. They’re not just nodding and smiling at you while doing the same thing that it said in their job description. Because you can’t get mad at them for that, right? I’m just doing my job. I’m just doing my job description. So it has to be enough and clear to and specific to act on, so that that strategy, when it touches the rest of the organization, moves the organization forward rather than creating internal conflict.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, there’s a there’s one question that I think really defines success in implementing strategy more than anything else, and and I rarely see it addressed by teams. And the question is not actually what the team is asking, but what of the each what each individual employee is asking. And I’d be interested to see if you agree with this. But the the number one so far so good. Yeah. So far, I’m in full agreement. The number one question I think is, what does this mean for me? Right, like folks aren’t out there thinking, “How do I?
Aleya Harris
What’s in it for me?
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, I don’t think they’re out there thinking, “How can I implement the next change from the executive team? Like nobody wakes up thinking that, but when they hear a change, there’s the the visceral, emotional, instinctual, and even intellectual reaction of like, “Well, what does this actually mean for me? And when we when we think of our people as these kind of robotic automatons that just execute whatever it is that we decide, I think we totally overlook that question and then wonder why nothing changes. How do you how do you see story as being at least part of the solution to that question.
Aleya Harris
Okay, first of all, I’m gonna preface this, and I’m gonna try to keep this short. But you know, I’m in the middle of writing my second book, which is literally about this, and so you know, my brain is full of all of the ideas. But I’m gonna keep it short, and I will say I want to go back to that Automaton concept-that is what you wish people are or were when you’re in leadership. And I mean, if we’re all honest, we kind of wish at a certain level-not all the time-but when we’re sitting there with our spreadsheets that they were more like people were more like chess pieces than humans because it would be so much easier, be so much easier to run a business that way and then like activate their personality later, right? I want you to recognize that, know that you’re fine, and we all think that you’re not a bad, you’re not a horrible human, but that is not reality. That is not the way the world works. Speaking of the world, I got really curious about how other cultures, other time periods, dealt with issues like this.
There’s a big change. We all need to move in one direction. I mean, this is yes inside companies, but this isn’t inside wars. This is inside villages. This is inside the way that humans work. That’s like a life experience as a change. So we got to do something, right? And everybody’s got to get on board. And I am a storytelling geek, full blown nerd, full blown. Like if there were like a pocket protector specifically for storytelling geeks, I would have it and love it. So I was originally indoctrinated into story via StoryBrand, which is a wonderful concept, and then that is built on the hero’s journey, which was codified by Joseph Campbell, and kind of he squished a bunch of storytelling frameworks together and created this like what is this mono myth of how a lot of people and cultures tell stories? I became interested in what if we unsquish them? What if we pulled them apart? Because squishing all these people together is the same concept as wanting them to be automatons.
We want it to be easy. We want it to be simple. So let’s create this one archetype that most people can sort of kind of follow, and it works in most situations, sorta kinda. As we’ve already covered, when you simplify and you oversimplify humans like that, you’re actually shooting yourself in the foot because that’s not how the real world works. So I went back and I looked at all of the original storytelling frameworks, and recognize that they’re actually blueprints for human behavior. When you think of a story and the way that stories are told in different cultures, different time periods, they reflect value systems. They reflect what people want, how they want to live their lives, what their ideals are, and they give you clues on how they have historically encouraged people to get there. Each storytelling framework kind of has a different goal. Some are about uncovering deeper truths. Some are about encouraging innovation. Some are about building on a legacy while adding your.
And finding what that new era looks like. Some are about coming together of two cultures, two peoples, and how do we form a greater, better third? I don’t know if you heard it and what I said, but what I what what I said was, how do you drive AI and then market? What I said was, how do you develop in mergers and acquisitions. What I said was, how do you deal with it when you have a 3040-year-old, company that you just purchased that you want to maintain the legacy and move forward? That’s what these storytelling farmers are teaching us how to do. So you pick the storytelling framework that matches your aim, your goal. You you develop the the the kind of beats from it. The what are the key messages? But then you’re like, oh, pooped a dupes. Now I got to actually talk to people about this, right? And this is what we’re talking about. This is where the problem is. I then looked, and this is, this is me in a tarot card spread. This is how this literally all came to to pass, Scott.
Aleya Harris
I’m pulling tarot cards for myself, and then I started looking at the tarot cards, and I realized I was like, these are truly archetypes for different personalities. And then I started going down a rabbit hole of younging archetypes, archetypes, and and thinking of like the disc model, the Myers Briggs model, all of those type of ways of personality typing, and I realize that there’s really only really seven ways people look at the world, and I develop them into seven belief archetypes. An example of that would be the sculptor. I am a sculptor. I used to I used to call this one the destroyer, and then I realized that that was a bit aggressive, so we’re gonna we’ve we’ve we’ve morphed into the sculpture where I look at a big hunk of thing, and I chisel away at it until it represents what I think is beautiful until I get the statue of David out of it.
Right, that’s how how I’m in a chisel, so when you have an organization, let’s say you have sculptors, which I assume that every organization has all seven. I’m not trying to go around typing people. That’s exhausting, and nobody got time for that. Say you’re trying to use a you have a merger and acquisition. We work with clients that have this a lot, and you have two very different cultures, two very different belief points you’re trying to bring together. So you would use a storytelling framework that does that. But then, when you’re in your communications and you’re trying to talk to someone with a specific belief system, for example, the sculptor, you highlight different things to get them on board to work with what they believe, not change what they believe. Right? This is not like a toxic relationship where you’re like, I could change him.
I know I could change him. Just give me some time. He’s not that bad. No, we’re gonna call a spade a spade. It is what it is. But we still need this person to move. So if you’re a sculptor, the things that you’re going to tell me are what you’ve done to already think about and poke holes at your strategy. What still needs to be refined, and you’re going to try to get me on board to help you, right? As you move forward through that, and you develop communication plans based on storytelling frameworks, the blueprint blueprints for human behavior that exist for 1000s of years, you deal with belief systems. You actually get people on board and able to move forward through any type of change.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, that’s so good. There’s a principle or pattern that I like that I think you’re sharing it very articulately, and that is to speak the language of your audience, right? Rather than expect them to understand your language, and so I love that. Again, bringing the framework and the actual individual person in the belief system, I love that. I love that combination. I could probably nerd out on it with you for a very long time, but to track the
Aleya Harris
storytelling dark side, Scott. There you go.
Scott Ritzheimer
To to keep this within at least some reason, there’s a question that I want to get to because I ask all my guests, and I’m very interested to see what you’d have to say. But the story, the question is this: What is the biggest secret that you wish wasn’t a secret at all? What’s that one thing you wish every founder, CEO, and executive listening or watching today knew?
Aleya Harris
It is not as hard to build your business as you think, it is. To which everyone listening went, “How dare you! You don’t know the blood, sweat, and tears I put in this. This is a lesson that I’m learning right right now, in the in my scaling journey. It is really about being in the room with the right people, and having a clear idea of your purpose in the world, how it interacts with somebody else’s problem, and how it brings you profit. However, if you’re like me, that means that instead of doing the thing I’m scared to do, which might on a. Given day, be something different. Show up, talk to the person, call the person. You know, whatever.
I’m like, oh, I’ll just create another offer in my little hole in my computer by myself. I’ll just have another all hands meeting. I’ll just have another right, and I complicate it because of my own hangups. This goes back to the kind of overarching theme of this episode of looking at how individual beliefs, motivations, and behaviors impact the organization as a whole, including your own. How are your limiting beliefs impacting you and your effort and the things you know you’re supposed to do, know you’re not supposed to do, or from finding out what truly will get you to that next level. the The biggest secret here is the secrets that we often keep from ourselves, our own fallibility. Because when you are at the top of a company, people are depending on you. You’re someone’s mortgage is getting paid because you’re keeping this business together. It’s a lot of responsibility, and so we often put on a facade of infallibility. And then the problem is we start to believe it too. So then we end up failing, despite our best efforts.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, yeah. So true. So true, Aleya. You know, again, I could go in for this conversation for a little while, but I’m not alone in that. I’m sure there are folks listening that would love to hear more. They’d love to know more about you and the work that you and your team do. How can folks reach out to you? How can they connect to find out more?
Aleya Harris
I’d love to for you to visit our website evolutioncollective.com evolutioncollective.com and there just schedule a call. We want to chat with you. I want to hear where your strategy is dragging. I want to hear how you individually are like, oh my god, I just had to come to Jesus moment. Can we talk about it? I am not a typical business consultant. I will meet you where you’re at, but I am not going to stay surface level with you. I am not the person to come to if you want someone to coddle you and tell you how cool you are. I’m the person who you come to when with the most love, because my purpose in life is to love people into their highest versions of themselves. I will be the person that, with the most love, helps you touch the squishy part, touch the the part within you, within your brain, within your heart, within your whatever that is holding you back. Examine it, heal it, move forward, and do the same for your organization.
Scott Ritzheimer
So good, so good. Well, thank you so much for being on with us today. Fascinating conversation, really, really cool stuff. I thoroughly enjoyed it. And for those of you watching and listening, you know that your time and attention mean the world to us. I hope you got as much out of this conversation as I know I did, and I cannot wait to see you next time. Take care.
Scott Ritzheimer
Hey everyone, Scott Ritzheimer here. Thank you so much for listening to the Start Scale and Succeed podcast. I hope this episode gave you exactly what you need for the level you’re in right now. If you want to discover what level you’re in, take our 10 question Founders Evolution Quiz for free at foundersquiz.com. That’s foundersquiz.com. It’ll pinpoint exactly where you are and give you tailored tips to move forward and reach that next level in your journey as a founder. If you got something out of today’s episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate, or review. It helps us reach more founders like you, and let’s be honest, it means a ton to me, my team, and all our incredible guests. So keep starting, scaling, and succeeding, and I’ll see you in the next episode.
Contact Aleya Harris
Aleya Harris is an award-winning keynote speaker, former Google executive, and CEO of The Evolution Collective. She created the Story-Driven Leadership™ Framework, helping founders, CEOs, and leadership teams build trust, strengthen communication, and scale their businesses through authentic leadership. Blending executive experience with practical business strategy, Aleya equips entrepreneurs with actionable tools to lead high-performing teams, create memorable brands, and thrive in an AI-driven marketplace. Her engaging, story-driven approach has inspired audiences across corporate, nonprofit, and entrepreneurial communities.
Want to learn more about Aleya Harris’ work at The Evolution Collective Inc.? Check out her website at https://www.evolutioncollective.com/
Connect with Aleya Harris through her LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleyaharris/
Check Aleya Hariss’ personal website at https://www.aleyaharris.com/speaking