Leadership can trap you inside the very machine you are trying to improve.
I remember that feeling clearly. When you are close to the engine, deep in the detail, it becomes harder to see what is really happening around you. The days are full, the diary is packed, activity is high and yet progress feels stubbornly low.
That is what organisational “fog” looks like in practice. It does not announce itself as fog. It presents as normal. As busyness. As a reasonable set of explanations for why outcomes are slower than they should be.
When momentum stalls, many organisations default to a familiar move: appoint a consultancy.
Consultants often arrive with well-structured operating models, frameworks built around spans and layers, and dashboards that appear reassuringly precise. The outputs are frequently polished and the narrative is compelling. However, too often the work remains at the level of description rather than traction. The organisation can be left with a defensible report and a strong rationale for why the investment will pay back, “in time”.
Then Monday arrives and the lived experience is unchanged.
Because in most cases the drag is not structure. Many leadership teams have already reorganised several times. Roles have been redrawn, reporting lines adjusted, headcount plans revised. The chart may be different, but the friction remains.
The fog is usually rooted elsewhere:
Clarity: a lack of shared understanding of priorities, outcomes and trade-offs
Decision speed: slow, deferred or revisited decisions that drain momentum
Accountability: unclear ownership, blurred responsibilities and diffuse handoffs
Trust: low confidence in commitments, delivery and follow-through, internally and sometimes externally with customers
In foggy environments, there are a handful of questions that tend to trigger a swift change of subject in leadership meetings:
Who owns this end-to-end?
Where are we going, and what does “good” look like?
What are we not doing?
What needs to be done, by when, and by whom?
If your business feels heavier and slower than it should, it is worth considering whether the issue is less about effort and more about visibility. Fog keeps leadership teams inside their own heads and inside the mechanics of the system, without the altitude to see what is truly causing the drag.
What is needed is not another description of fog density or a debate about root causes. It is practical, battle-tested leadership support that can create visibility quickly, accelerate decisions, rebuild trust in commitments, and restore momentum.
In short: turn the headlights on, establish clear ownership, and move forward.