The last 16 episodes of The North Star examined strategy execution from a variety of perspectives, looking at a diverse set of topics that included innovation, risk management, net income maximization, artificial intelligence, program execution, organizational design, the circular economy, information issues and technology challenges. Across this wide range of topics, seven self-inflicted troubling patterns or sins emerged. These include: the Strategy Execution Chain is Broken; Culture, Politics, and Siloes Form an Evil Triad; Good Ideas Arise Outside the C-Suite; Program Delivery Blues Undermine Strategy; Organizations Lack Holistic Perspective; Data is the Weak Link in the Chain; and Strategy is Captive to Technological Immaturity. In this episode of The North Star, William Ulrich will break down each of the problematic patterns that undercut strategy execution, citing interviews he held with various experts over the past several months. While many of these strategy execution issues were identified in episode 1, the fact that experts from a wide variety of fields surfaced these same issues through widely divergent conversations was highly revealing. Correcting a problem requires identifying that problem. What organizations are doing today to execute strategy is not working because they continue to repeat the mistakes of the past. These issues are not isolated to a given industry or geography, but are rather built into how organizations think and act as a whole. Ignore these seven patterns at your peril. Or face the facts, take a realistic look into what multiple experts have repeatedly reinforced, and change course on strategy execution now.