We see many business strategies in our work – we are asked to articulate them, communicate them, make them relevant to multiple stakeholders, craft them in a language that resonates and helps frontline staff link their role to them.

Business leaders seek to inspire their workforce with the purpose and direction of the organisation – the goal is to get individual and group buy in, by having people clearly understand their role in delivering business objectives and make it happen.

A sound strategy quickly loses its potency if it is not communicated well. There are several measures all business leaders can take to ensure the hard work they’ve put into their strategy is known, understood and implemented at all organisational levels.

Plan communication and activation of your strategy

Never fall into the trap of launching your strategy and consider it communicated.  Effective communication is planned, consistent and ongoing. Think of communicating your strategy in terms of launching, embedding and reinforcing phases. Breaking the strategy and its communication into bite sized pieces will make it more accessible for your workforce.

Visually portray the strategy

Integrating visual elements into the communication of strategy is a powerful way to engage employees, with younger teams particularly familiar with images and other visuals to convey complex concepts, and link initiatives and operational activities to overarching strategy.

Ensure relevance to frontline employees

Business objectives and initiatives are often delivered in ‘corporate speak’ that may not be meaningful to all employees or doesn’t address ‘What’s in it for me?’ at an operational level.

Craft case studies and tell stories that will communicate your progress as well as the challenges and opportunities ahead, along with key milestones that all employees can relate to.

Use your brand to deliver strategy

Does your brand represent where the business wants to be in 5 years’ time? Most organisation’s brand efforts languish behind or are out of sync with their strategy.

Conduct a quick brand audit to check alignment: When you visit your website, does it reflect the organisation you aspire to be? Are you talking about the business and its offering in the right way? Does your visual identity reflect this?

When strategy doesn’t go to plan

It is important to acknowledge when strategic initiatives can’t be achieved or a change of direction is required. If you don’t hit home runs on all strategy elements then identify and address why this was the case, while still recognising the efforts involved. We always tell our clients: “transparency builds trust” and it improves employee engagement.

Effective communication and activation of your business strategy requires a thoughtful and considered approach. When it works well, it can be very powerful in building deeper connections with employees and driving sustained success.