The Missed Step in Annual Planning: Communicating the Strategy

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One of the biggest headscratchers we observe every year? Companies don’t communicate their annual strategic plan. Executive teams, often with the help of consultants, spend countless hours formulating a plan to be the foundation for success in the coming year. Worked and reworked, tuned and fine-tuned, amended and changed until the final strategic plan is powerful and actionable. Generally, these are solid plans that could deliver the desired results.

So why do some plans fail to fully execute? Why do some plans fail to deliver the desired results? One of the most common reasons for strategic plan disappointment is the under-communication of the plan itself.

Many years ago, I heard the wise adage “You don’t have a strategy unless every employee in the organization can articulate it.” While reaching a 100% “all in” goal for understanding the strategy may be aspirational, we believe it’s a directional imperative. 

Annual strategies and plans of record generally challenge the status quo, bringing new ideas, approaches, and requirements. To work, the strategy requires action deep and wide within an organization. Research of employee engagement and effectiveness clearly concludes that employees want to hear the strategy, understand the strategy, and follow clear signals of leadership’s commitment to executing the plan.

The mistake we have seen over and over again across 35+ years is a simple one. Managers do not communicate frequently enough. While some companies don’t communicate the strategy at all, many communicate the strategy  at the company’s annual kick-off meeting, possibly followed up briefly at quarterly all-hands calls.

We know there’s a better way.

How to Communicate Goals, Objectives and Annual Strategies

  • Build a formal communication model and timeline for both internal and external audiences. Consider how you’ll communicate the plan from the most senior leaders down to line supervisions. Reinforce the strategic plan everywhere you can — in QBRs, reviews, one-on-one meetings, employee appraisals, etc.. Repetition, repetition, repetition should be the simple tactic of getting the message through.

  • Make it fun. Find creative ways to share the plan. If you’re in the office, you could try posters, desk tents, and signage to cementing the leadership's commitment to the plan and to drive home downstream execution. If you’re remote or working with a hybrid team, find ways to drive home the message through your digital meetings.

  • Do it again. When you think you have effectively communicated the strategy, do it again…and again, and again until your employees can finish your sentences.  

  • Pulse check your results. Try reaching out to employees with a friendly “tell me your thoughts on our strategy.” We’ve found that this kind of outreach by executives is highly effective. Executive teams that are asking these questions get real-time feedback, are highly thought of, and drive their company’s strategy deep into the organization. A side benefit is that news of these outreaches will spread like wildfire throughout the organization and get even the most stubborn team members to learn the strategy.

Net net, a company where the employees don't know or understand the company’s strategies don’t really have a strategy. Companies who effectively communicate their strategies wide and deep generally meet or exceed their objectives.