Many organizations kick off the year by sharing their strategy with employees. This helps set the tone and vision for staff as well as to focus resources on what will be accomplished. But articulating your strategy doesn’t just happen at the beginning of the year when you send out a formal communication, create a video or stand up in front of your employees. Although these efforts are valuable, execution of your strategy should be interwoven to the fabric of your organization and be integrated into daily operations.
How do you do this? Through recognition of two main principles:
- Strategy happens every single day
- Sharing repeatedly and openly helps others catch the vision you have developed
Speaking up during a call or meeting, pitching a client, and engaging your colleagues are all effective ways to articulate your strategy on a regular basis. Whether you are on a panel, at a conference, on a call, on a stage or walking the halls, incorporating your strategy as part of your operations is a deliberate effort and not one that happens seamlessly.
Employees often view organizational strategy as vague and long term, something that may not impact or affect them directly. Employees are critical to strategy execution because it is their daily efforts that formulate the cumulative advancements that culminate in accomplishing a broader vision. So while strategic planning is something that deliberately occurs on a rhythmic cycle, strategy execution and articulation should be viewed as part of daily operations, and something that everyone can learn and participate in. And the more broadly it is discussed, the wider the net will be cast on focusing on those things that really matter for your organization over the long haul.
Challenge your colleagues to come to meetings prepared to highlight how current tasks relate to the broader picture. If each person shares one point or task each day that contributes to the strategy, then over time it will have an impact whether or not it is part of an executive’s formal agenda.
Transition Designs helps executives develop and execute an effective strategy.