What is Pulse and how does it help teams execute strategy?

Pulse closes the gap between what leaders think they’ve communicated about strategy and what teams actually understand, believe, and can execute.

Most organizations have no instrument for this gap. Pulse is that instrument.

What Pulse is not

Not an engagement survey. Engagement surveys measure how people feel about their work environment. Pulse measures whether they can actually execute the strategy.

Not an OKR tracker. OKR tools track whether tasks are moving. Pulse asks a prior question: do the people doing the work have a clear enough model of the direction to make good judgment calls when reality diverges from the plan?

Not a performance management tool. Individual responses in Pulse are never visible to leadership. Data is aggregated at team and organizational levels to reveal patterns, not to monitor people.

What Pulse measures

Pulse gives strategic leaders reliable data on three things:

1. Understanding
2. Belief
3. Capacity

Who Pulse is for

The same structural problem shows up across sectors:

• Nonprofits – Executive directors carry a strategic plan that program directors, site managers, and frontline staff are supposed to execute. Pulse shows whether that clarity survives the handoff in a way annual surveys can’t.
• Schools – Principals own a school improvement plan; teachers are expected to translate it into classroom practice. Pulse surfaces whether teachers have a clear enough model of the instructional shift to actually implement it.
• Business teams – VPs of Strategy, Chiefs of Staff, and senior leaders set direction that hundreds of people must execute without the leader in every room. Research shows fewer than a third of employees can name three strategic priorities. Pulse makes that visible and measurable.

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Pulse is now accepting founding pilot organizations across nonprofits, schools, and business teams.

Related: What is Hunhu and how does it work? · What is Fulcrum’s track record? · View Pulse in the portfolio