Thing 1: A Reason to Care
The first thing you need to do to ensure that your strategy presentation gets the desired results is to give your team a reason to care. You have to sell the itch before you provide the scratch. And it’s not just about giving them a reason to care about having a new strategy – it must be a reason to care about this specific strategy. For example, if one of the pillars of your strategy is to enter new markets, it’s important to make them believe that the business is lacking in this area and that it’s something that needs to be fixed. By the time you reveal the elements of the strategy, it should feel like something that they would have suggested. This way, it becomes their strategy.
Thing 2: Speak The Language of The Citizens
The second thing you need to do is to speak in the language of the citizens, not the language of the government. What’s big in your world isn’t necessarily big in their world. For example, a company doing $500 million in revenue may not be exciting to the people in the business for two reasons: one, it’s not their money, and two, they suffer from psychophysical numbing – this is when a number loses impact once it gets to a certain size. A great way to close the distance is to use the words “to put that in perspective…” and then find a way to make it real at a human scale.
One Other (Very) Contentious Thing
Finally, and this is where things get contentious, you shouldn’t communicate your strategy at all. Wait, what? Calm down, let’s dig deeper shall we? You need to deliver all the details of your strategy in the conference room. What you need to deliver is your strategic destination or victory condition. The strategy of a business is like the GPS directions, the victory condition is the GPS coordinates. By communicating this, “we need to be there by then,” you allow for two key attributes to emerge: autonomy and agility. The idea is simple – you need to communicate where the organization needs to be strategically in the next 12 months. You get that right, and then every single person can help you get there.
A well-communicated strategy is key to driving a team to action. Make sure to give them a reason to care, speak in their language, give them a reason to believe, and focus on the strategic destination, not the details of the strategy. By following these tips, you’ll be well on your way to driving your team to success, but, of course if you need any help, check out our StorySeller program.
