Potholes and Icebergs: Why Bottom-Up and Top-Down Strategy Matters

As annual planning kicks off, leadership teams are getting ready to define next year’s big bets, where to focus, what to fund, and which opportunities are worth the push. The default approach? Top-down. Executives lock themselves in a room, look at the market, sketch a few north stars, and push direction down the line.

In most organizations, this starts as a top-down vs bottom-up strategy challenge - who sets direction, and who gets heard.

But if you stop there, you’re missing half the picture.

Because strategy built in isolation breaks on contact with reality, customers don’t sit in the boardroom. Systems don’t break on the whiteboard. And execution doesn’t happen in slides.

Why Bubble-Up Matters

Ground teams are closest to where things actually happen, customer pain, emerging needs, process gaps, and internal blockers. Their insights are not “nice to have,” they’re essential to spot what’s coming and to learn fast.

This kind of employee-driven insight is critical to avoid blind spots and uncover real opportunities.

At the same time, leadership has a perspective that the teams don’t. They can see the long-term shifts, market headwinds, regulatory change, and structural constraints. Where the team sees potholes, leadership sees the iceberg.

You need both views. And that means building a strategy process that works in both directions.

Not just input gathering. Not just executives “aligning” teams to decisions that have already been made. But a real two-way flow. Top-down for direction. Bottom-up for insight. Strategy becomes something built together, not something handed down and pushed through.

Why It Doesn’t Happen (Even When Everyone Agrees It Should)

This all makes sense on paper, but gets uncomfortable in practice.

For leaders, it means putting ego aside, actually listening, not just saying the right words, but holding space for real feedback and not overruling it the moment it conflicts with your plan.

Psychological safety plays a major role here. Without it, bottom-up feedback becomes a box-ticking exercise, not a source of strategy.

For teams, it means stepping up, speaking plainly, having the confidence to say what’s broken, what’s working, and where time is wasted. It means trusting that what you say will be taken seriously, and being ready to back it up.

It takes effort. And vulnerability. But the payoff is huge:

• You get smarter decisions with less friction.
• You use internal knowledge instead of expensive external research.
• You build accountability; people own what they helped shape.
• And you see the impact throughout the year, not just in Q4.

When you combine top-down direction with bottom-up strategic input, you don’t just improve engagement, you build a more adaptive, aligned, and resilient strategy.

How to Make It Real (Even This Quarter)

If you're heading into annual planning right now, here’s how to start:

• Don’t lock the doors. Invite mid-level leaders and frontline teams into early strategy shaping, not just to comment, but to contribute.
• Ask real questions, not “what do you think of this plan?” but “what’s the most valuable opportunity we’re not seeing?”
• Listen with intent. If you’re in leadership, don’t filter everything through your existing plan. Let some of it change you.
• Create the space. Use facilitation intentionally to create an environment where people feel safe to speak and confident they'll be heard. Whether it's a retrospective, a workshop, or a structured session, use simple techniques to surface insight from the team.
• Close the loop. Show what made it in and what didn’t, and why. This builds trust faster than any offsite ever will.

TL;DR: Build Strategy in Both Directions

Top-down gives you the big picture.

Bottom-up tells you where to step.

Together, they make strategy real.