So, you’ve spent plenty of time, money and energy coming up with a great strategy to transform your business – but how do you now get your teams to pick it up and bring it to life?
Do your teams understand your strategy? Do they even know what it is…?
In our work, we often find that many organisations are good at creating fabulous strategies. Senior teams can get together, articulate where they’re going and what difference taking a certain direction will make. They really ‘get it’ and they feel connected to it.
But equally, our experience shows that difficulty can come in translating it into something meaningful and tangible that others within the organisation will understand and connect with – a strategic narrative. If people don’t know what the strategy is, and don’t know their part in delivering it, how can it ever become a real, living way of life for your business?
The key is taking everyone on the same journey, from awareness to understanding to implementation. It’s not that other people don’t have the ability to “get it”, they perhaps don’t have the same enthusiasm – usually because the strategy isn’t clearly and concisely communicated.
It may not even answer the most important question of all: ‘What’s in it for me?’
Translating your strategy at task level is fundamental to its success. What does that mean for Debbie in Finance? What does she need to do differently to play her part? Why would this strategy make a difference to Nick in Customer Service, and what does he need to change?
Don’t miss the opportunity to translate your strategy into an implementation plan – one that all employees can understand and be enrolled in delivering. One that helps Debbie in Finance or, Nick in Customer Service, understand the critical part they play.
There’s a real strength in having a thread that runs through a business that allows people to see where they’re going, understand the part they play and how this affects what they do on a daily and weekly basis.
Our Ignite Change – Take Action Handbook is the answer.
It’s a structured way of connecting your strategy all the way through your business, right to the objectives of individual team members. Everyone can be empowered if they know what they each personally can do to make a difference. Our Take Action Handbook shows this in a visual way, so that from a one-page strategic narrative, everyone can see the thread that links what they do all the way through the business to the divisional objectives and finally up to organisational goals.
Knowledge is power, and empowerment creates change.