A deeply rooted strategy

A PowerPoint presentation at an info briefing has little effect in the effort to get an organization’s employees to think and operate in alignment with a newly launched strategy. But clear communications and an inspiring and consistent manager can be very effective in getting employees to embrace that strategy.

Corporate management invests a lot of time and effort into designing and fine-tuning a strategy. Strategy retreats, consultations, and polished PowerPoint presentations. All that is fine and good; after all, thorough background work, and analyses of the goals and strategy are critical processes for a company.

All too often, however, people are left wondering why things didn’t go as planned after the strategy was launched. Strategy briefings are arranged for personnel, articles are written on the intranet, and personnel and customer magazines focus on the strategy. So why didn’t the strategy implementation take root as planned?

Unfortunately, the roots of the strategy often do not take hold. Despite all the good intentions and enthusiasm, the organization isn’t always given the time or the opportunity to adequately internalize the new strategy, i.e. to embrace what the strategy means and how it affects them in their daily work.

Strategies in plain language

Strategies are often drafted by an organization’s top and middle management, often assisted by consultants. This can lead to a strategy document that is difficult for employees to understand. The text is long and the terminology obscure. No wonder people say that 'consultese' and 'management speak' are becoming increasingly common. Using unfamiliar, pretentious language doesn’t help when you want to get your message across.

Ideally, the strategy is perceived as an integral part of the daily activities when it is written as a natural overview of the operations: Where we are, where we are headed, and how we can get there. The simpler and more illustratively the issue is presented, the better.

The strategy must have a modular structure so that the general-level plans can easily be broken down at the unit level and even the individual level. In addition to consistency, it is critically important that everyone in the organization understands the direction the company is headed and how it is getting there, as well as the role they play in the process, how their work contributes to the whole package. For that reason, one of the most important goals in strategy communications is to give a clear answer to the question ’WHY’: Why established practices have to change.

Moreover, the strategy becomes clearer and communicating it becomes easier when the organization has an open dialogue during the drafting of the strategy, the personnel offer honest feedback about their ability to understand the strategy, and that feedback is then used to clarify the content.

The paradox of the manager’s role

As paradoxical as it seems, the company’s management is often to blame for the slow or inadequate rooting of the strategy.

The paradox can be explained by the fact that even though management has given its all in creating the strategy and successfully implementing it is the most important goal, human weaknesses cause inadvertent problems during the rooting phase.

Management has spent a big chunk of its time and energy formulating the strategy, and when it comes time to launch it, they genuinely believe that the concept will be immediately embraced by all personnel.

Strategic planning is management’s most important task, and often times months have been spent working on the strategy. The other employees, meanwhile, are not already familiar with the issue; it isn’t something that can be internalized in an hour – nor can attitudes and ways of operating be changed in an instant.

By the time the new strategy is communicated to the personnel, management’s focus has already turned to the implementation phase, or even beyond that to future challenges. This further widens the gap of understanding between management and employees. As the employees are just digesting what they have heard, management is already looking at the distant horizon. It’s human nature – even for professionals.

Management also plays a critically important role in modeling the change. Their own commitment, enthusiasm, expressions, actions or non-actions set the tone for the importance of embracing and implementing the new strategy.

If management doesn’t live, breath and walk the change, there is no reason to expect much from the change. This is, in fact, one of the biggest misunderstandings in communications. Communications is typically considered as something that is produced in the communications department – press releases, speeches, magazines, intranet content etc. As important as all these are, even more important is the way the company’s management and supervisors personally communicate – both in words and actions.

Involving middle management and the communications department right from the start

Employees are seldom included in the strategy creation phase to the extent that would be desirable. Surprisingly, even middle management and supervisors are frequently overlooked.

Middle management must be involved in the strategy work at the earliest phase possible. As the work progresses, supervisors must be kept up to date about the progress and they must be informed at important milestones. Supervisors must also have a good grasp of the strategy before they communicate it to their own departments and employees. All studies indicate that employees consider supervisors as the most important and most trusted source of information. It is their task to convey the strategy from the top level to the practical level: What does this mean for our department? What will change, what won’t? What does this mean for each employee individually?

Often times, also the company’s communications personnel or communications consultant is brought into the strategy process too late. The communications department must be involved immediately, starting with the first strategy meeting. It is their duty to not only communicate the strategy when it’s time, they also add the communication perspective when the strategic decisions are being made.

When the communications personnel have internalized the strategy, they are able to communicate it fluently and effectively, using the most efficient combination of communications channels available.

However, the most important task of communications personnel is to keep management on track to being the most important ambassadors of communication. In the strategy rooting phase, it is dangerous if management and the rest of the personnel are not on the same wavelength.

Maija Piiroinen, Compositor Oy

(Originally published in Excellence Finland’s eXBa magazine at www.laatukeskus.fi)