Share Your Strategy, Wow Your Staff – Lisa Goller Marketing

To remain agile and competitive, your company must continuously adapt to keep pace with today’s increasingly fast-moving business world. How do you keep your staff “in the loop,” aligned and enthusiastic in the face of rapid-fire strategic challenges?

Leadership guru and Harvard business professor John Kotter suggests the following tips to share your strategy with staff in an effective, compelling and results-oriented manner.

Kotter recommends keeping your messaging:

Short. Write it on less than a page, often just a quarter of a page. Short length makes it easier to share with others and to create a sense of urgency among large groups of people.
Rational. Makes sense in light of real happenings inside and outside an organization. Concisely address the issues of what, why, why us, why now, and why bother.
Compelling. It is not all head. There is heart in it. And it speaks to the emotions of all relevant audiences — not just to select people and groups, excluding others.
Positive. Because it is about an opportunity, it has a positive tone. It is less like a statement about a “burning platform,” which seeks to scare us out of our complacency, and more like a statement of a “burning desire.”
Authentic. It feels real. It is not just “good messaging” to motivate the troops. The senior leadership team must genuinely believe in it and feel excited about it.
Clear. A great message makes people rush off in the same direction — not different directions.
Aligned. The messaging aligns with any important existing vision statements. Or at the least, it is aware of any non-alignment, and the stresses and strains that will create, so leaders are prepared for it.

In Kotter’s experience, using these tips helped 75% of a large employee population to understand, believe in, and be energized by senior management strategic direction.

How – and how effectively – does your organization share its strategy with employees?

Lisa Goller helps businesses tell their story. As a Toronto-based Strategic Freelance Writer & Editor, she helps executives and entrepreneurs stand out, look good and save time. Learn more at lisagoller.com