One of my universities periodically updated the desktop displays of the campus monitors. I would go to the library, log in with my details, and the screen would read in big, bold letters whatever was topical at the moment – sometimes a survey, at other times some other reminder. I thought it an efficient way to keep students and faculty in the loop.
At one workplace, I inquired if we could do the same for our team’s laptops, “force” a strategy image on everyone’s starting screen. Apparently we couldn’t, but I’m not sure if that was a technical issue or if “people will be upset” weighed more heavily.
I find corporate strategy one of the most fascinating things about work life, and at the same time, one of the most elusive concepts. In this blog post, I examine how to keep strategy top of mind for the whole company.
Why, Though? Explain the strategy
‘Just because’ is not a good answer. It implies you don’t know why you’re doing something, or worse, asking others to. ‘Because I say so’ may work on some children, but in an adult workplace would sound ridiculous. Yet, corporate strategy is often presented with these two justification implied: I am an executive, I know. And even if I don’t (which I do), what I say, goes.
If you trust in your leaders, this may be enough for you. Even if you don’t, you might be in a situation where you just have to go with the flow. I personally believe that most people like to know what they’re doing and why. I believe it helps people find meaning in their work and to resolve issues more proactively.
So, when you announce a new strategy, explain all of it. It’s time well spent to take your teams off their duties to give them the chance to ask questions and to focus on nothing but the strategy. If you can’t close shop for a couple hours entirely, do the same strategy session in two groups. Go through each high-level goal, why this one is chosen, and how it’ll be tracked. At this stage, I think it would be good to already have a good-ish idea of how each function/team (depending on the size of your firm) is going to execute the shared goals. Shared is really a key word here. Most companies have one corporate strategy and a bunch of function, department, and team-level strategies that often do not link at all and do not lead to the same place – that is, the one corporate strategy. How to fix that, I do not have an answer for it. I don’t think anyone does, or else it wouldn’t be such a persistent issue. Hot tip: if you think you know, patent that asap. You’ll rake in more than you can possibly imagine.
Play It on Repeat – Remind people of the strategy
Out of Sight, Out of Mind – Make Strategy Visible
I would love to FORCE strategy as every employee’s start-up view. Whether that’s your desktop picture (delicate since many have their kids’ pic as their current theme) or the first thing when you open your browser, strategy needs to be visible. At the physical office, it’s easy to put up posters and use info screens. Is there a way to brand any useful items with your strategy? This is perhaps more of a values thing (which in itself is so important that I leave that topic for a future date; as the management consultant and writer Peter Drucker said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”), but if your company desperately needs new mouse pads and you budget to replace them once a year, why not print your strategy on them?
Seeing something every day doesn’t mean you pay close attention to it. But repetition helps: the more times you hear or read a word, the more likely you are to engage with it at one point – a well-known marketing and advertisement adage. Visual representation also ties to the next tip: tracking.
Let Me Know – Track Your Strategy
Most leaders are quite bad at keeping their teams in the loop. That’s a paradoxical statement, actually, since a leader should be someone who leads, and you cannot lead if you don’t show your team the way. But for this blog post, let’s use ‘leader’ as the catch-all term for any kind of a executive/manager/some-level-of-a-boss.
I think company strategy should be closely tracked, at regular and sufficiently frequent intervals. ‘D’uh,’ you think. But answer me this: when did you last see your company’s results in relation to its strategy and goals? I would issue an update on a monthly basis (again, adaptable to company size). Most companies have quarterly reports, and I believe this is often tied to investors and/or legal requirements when speaking of a listed company. But from an employee’s point of view, a status update every three months is very infrequent. If you want your employees to understand why they won’t get a bonus, or appreciate that they will, show them the journey. And again, explain: why did we not hit this target?
Multichannel Strategy – Communicate the Right Way
I hate digging for information. It is time-consuming and frustrating. Companies should have very clear guidelines on how information is stored, and very clear infrastructure for it. Most companies don’t.
If I got to choose, in an imaginary company, this is how I would disseminate strategy information:
- Strategy call 3-4 times per year. Mandatory attendance. Refreshments provided, also for the remote workers.
- ALWAYS a follow-up, written summary communication. Whether email, chat tool, or intranet, communicate the information.
- Monthly tracking update: are we on-target, over it, under it? Why do we think that is? What are our next steps? Making strategy actionable is hugely important. Wishing a hundred more customers is unlikely; focusing on sales training, reviewing marketing and advertisement, reviewing pricing – those will help you much more.
- Strategy and updates always easy to find: on the intranet front page
- Tie strategy to any important product launches, new hires, or investments. Show that they didn’t come out of thin air but that you believe they will support your strategy.
Caveat: I’ve not taken into consideration in this blog post the role of cyber security or accounting for leaks to competitors.
What do you make of this list? What’s missing?
Sidetracked 
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