The costly consequences of an unclear strategy

Imagine asking various employees within your organization about the company's direction and receiving four different answers. This happens when the strategy is unclear and not easily communicated. Confusion, doubt, and a lack of a shared goal are just a few of the consequences of a non-communicable strategy.

I’ve personally experienced how a lack of a communicable strategy can impact an organization. Until 2019, I used to organize an annual kickoff meeting where I would spend one to two hours presenting. We reviewed the previous year, celebrated successes, and set goals for the coming year. However, these sessions often left the strategy unclear. Did everyone know what the strategy for the coming year was? No. Did everyone understand how they could contribute? No. The result was that we simply continued doing what we had always done, and the strategy wasn’t implemented.

During a Masterclass in 2018, I encountered Oratium Europe and had an eye-opening moment. Many messages about propositions, companies, or strategies contain too much information, are too complex, and are too sender-oriented. Combined with the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve, which tells us that listeners forget 55% of content after one hour and 90% after one week, it became clear that a complex strategy cannot be effectively communicated if it is not simple, contains too much information, and is too speaker-centric. From that moment, creating a communicable strategy became my new focus.

At the 2019 kickoff, I changed the approach. Together with Oratium and my marketing and sales lead, we developed a communicable strategy message. During the kickoff, which lasted only half an hour, we spent ten minutes on the problem or challenge we faced and twenty minutes on the solution, approach, and strategy. Recognizing employees and sharing successes were important, but not during the strategy activation. Repetition became key. Only by regularly repeating, repeating, repeating, did everyone start telling the same story. Moreover, everyone knew what was expected of them.

Having a communicable strategy is essential for achieving success in your organization. It prevents confusion, encourages engagement, and creates a shared goal. If you're interested in examples of communicable strategy messages and how to implement them, leave a comment with the code 'RETELLABLE.'