The eight suggestions in the HBR article are simple and practical. Easily applied within Corporate, and with a few modifications suggested below can be applied to small-medium enterprises (SME) and family businesses too.
If you wish to remain relevant in your market then you need what we call a Living Strategy. A constantly self refining strategy. With this in mind, we suggest you engage all eight suggestions every 90 days. Why? Because, as long as you are constantly realigning with your market's needs, you will always be relevant.
1. Keep your message simple but deep in meaning.
Align goals;
- Customers
- Business
- Owners
- Employees
This is what we call a 'Collective Strategy'. Review it every 90-days and then we call it a 'Living Strategy'. If a strategy has been written using your business's vision as its 'why', allowing individuals to link their activities and rewards to the businesses success, then your strategy will become the DNA of your business. Everyone rowing in the same direction.
"Your business began with your vision. Itwill be achieved through your strategy and maintained by your culture."
This allows you to keep your message simple, yet go deep within your business model to ensure all is in harmony with your mission.
2. Customer insights
Google is a secondary research. It should only be used to just guide your thinking. There is only one place to gain customer insights, primary research. First-hand information from face to face conversations with current, potential and lost clients will serve you well.
Leaders should be speaking directly to front-line teams. Not only your own but also your customers. They will tell you what your competitors are doing, potential impacts on the market and changes required to your marketing, operations or service.
3. Use a framework.
Everyone has to 'get' your strategy or it will not work. The article suggests you create a campaign to ensure this happens.
You need to be having a strategy discussion every chance you get. The Inspire/Educate/Reinforce/Listen to refine framework ( 'Listen to refine' has been added) is a great suggestion. The article goes on to explain the framework as;
- Inspire - Show the team they have the ability to execute through past examples of success. Bring your vision, mission and success to-date together in one message.
- Educate - Explain why adjustments are required to the past strategy.
- Reinforce - The article suggests you reinforce your message. Our experience suggests giving your team the chance to summarise what they believe the new strategy is, why it is required and how they will contribute to its success. This links to the next point.
- Listen - Then you can give feedback and refine their understanding if needed. Too often, leadership teams think they are communicating by providing the same content in various ways. But communication, discussion, is a two-way activity.
4.Where to focus your message.In addition to those you constantly speak to when walking the floor. Consider John Kotter's 8 step change model. Specifically, look to deputise influencers (Kotter's guiding coalition) throughout the organisation who can catch the casual conversation and correct any misunderstandings and provide a faster feedback loop.
Kotter's 8 Steps, https://www.kotterinc.com/8-steps-process-for-leading-change/
5. Be real.
When you take the time to build a relationship with someone, it is much easier if you are always yourself. Not everyone communicates the same way. Just as you communicate differently with your partner, children and friends; change your communication style as required. By constantly walking the floor and investing time with your employees, it will be much easier to have any conversation and remain real.
6. Tell a story.
Facts and figures won't be remembered.Stories and experiences will.This may be the best take away from the article.
Tip
Consider a 'Start-Up Pitch Deck' as a guide to building a compelling business story.
One of the last slides in a pitch deck is the 'Investors ASK' slide. Here, swap investors for each team within your business.
The 'ask' is what you require each team to do for your business to achieve the strategy. Then, show the ROI (the what's in it for me) to the team (who are the investors in this example).
A pitch deck forces you to keep things simple while delivering a compelling story in just a few minutes. It fits very well with the Inspire/Educate/Reinforce/Listen framework mentioned earlier.
7. What medium to use.
The article suggests taking advantage of social media, suggesting you use what your audience uses regularly.The challenge here a lot of others trying to communicate with your employee. Perhaps your message will not get through. I can't see social media working for a small business.
Communicate how you have anyways been communicating. If you have not been communicating, get started now. Introducing a new medium to communicate through when it is a critical message is a huge gamble.
8. Invest.
Have you ever attended a corporate event with all the bells and whistles including a hat and new T-Shirt with the amazing slogan and came away asking...."how does this affect me?"
Invest in the right things.
As your team are your most valuable asset, I suggest you invest quality time communicating face to face regularly and in a regular way. If you have a BBQ every Friday, then you could use this. If you walk the floor every other day, use this time.
Conclusion
Your strategy should be a 'living strategy' which means you are continually rolling through the eight steps every ninety days. Your teams will learn to embrace change as the will understand you are aligning the business with the market and remain relevant.
Enjoy the HBR article. Link appears here;Eight Ways to Communicate Your Strategy More Effectively. Consider subscribing, to HBR as it is always a great read.
Tags: #strategy #businesscoaching #smallbusinessadvisor #Commercialisation
