Five Ways to Approach Communicating Your Company’s Strategy

For too long, communicating strategy has been an afterthought. Organizations find it difficult to communicate effectively, as it requires engaging with various stakeholders in different situations. They find it easier and less risky to issue lofty purpose statements, describe big goals and publish fixed plans, yet withhold critical information. It hasn’t worked. Organizational openness will require a change of approach. Unclear communication results in wasted effort from lack of alignment and confusion, while communicating strategy clearly increases the chances of an organization helping people decide where to focus their attention, energy, resources and capabilities. 

Improving the clarity and quality of communication will enable stakeholders to make a more substantive and meaningful contribution to the strategy. If you will be communicating your organization’s strategy, here are five ways to do it clearly: Communicate comprehensively rather than focusing on only one aspect of the strategy; make the communications personal, conveying what’s expected of your employees and how it benefits them; match the message to the moment, with an emphasis on brevity and clarity; empower people through transparency by sharing as much of the strategy as possible and creating open channels; ensure that your communication is systematic and flexible to align with a strategy that will evolve over time.