How crucial is effective communication for your strategic plan?
Nine out of 10 organizations fail to execute strategy.[1] That’s a lot of effort taking place on the planning side, with 90 percent failure on the implementation side.
Often, poor strategic planning communication is to blame.
Furthermore, consider current research revealing that 60 percent of adults want to work from home post-pandemic.
With more people working from home, organizations face a new challenge: Creating an engaging employee experience that connects employees to the strategic direction and fosters collaboration.[2]
So how can we use our strategic plans to create a more personalized, engaging employee experience?
By incorporating these three “Vs” of effective strategic planning communication.
1. Vital communication planning: A flexible, creative plan for communication can be built into your strategic planning program from the very start. That is, tapping your communication executive and communication team from the get-to, helping you bring to life and effectively share your strategic plan using the two additional “Vs” noted next.
2. Visual communication: Bring your strategic plan to life with visuals. Engage and delight your audiences through animated infographics, videos, CEO speeches, influencers and leaders who become strategic planning ambassadors, connectors and storytellers.
3. Visible communication: Don’t bury the lead! For example, don’t bury your strategic plan key messages in the “investor” pages of your website! Consider creating a prominent place on your website for sharing key elements and messaging about your strategic plan.
Visible is not the same as visual. What’s the difference, you ask?
An organization could have the coolest visual infographic with animated moving parts, but if no one can find it online, or in a place where it’s accessible, then the visual strategic plan is not visible!
Speaking of visible, help your leaders embody the plan by sharing it in speeches and during staff meetings. This could include compelling soundbites about your organization’s future.
I’ll share more strategic plan communication examples in future articles – stay tuned!
Carol A. Poore, Ph.D., MBA, is President of Poore and Associates Strategic Planning and author of Strategic Impact: A Leader’s Three-Step Framework for the Customized Vital Strategic Plan, published by Fast Company Press in January 2021. See her blog at CarolPoore.com.
[1] The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action by Robert A. Kaplan and David P. Norton, 1996.
[2] Prosper Insights & Analyics, 2021.
