Lighting the PATH to Impact

My colleague Michael Gerharz PhD has written this article for us as I thought you all would find his insights and framework useful in your strategic work.

Lighting the PATH to Strategic Impact: How Great Leaders Get Strategy Communication Right

By Dr. Michael Gerharz

There’s a dangerous myth out there: that the best strategy is the one that’s the most clever, the most nuanced, the most complex.

But here’s the truth about strategy: it’s not a measure of intelligence. It’s a measure of action. You don’t judge a strategy on how brilliant it looks on paper. You judge it on how well it guides people’s actions.

Imagine walking into your organization tomorrow and asking each team member what the essence of your company’s strategy is. How many of them could give you a clear and compelling answer? How many would know, without hesitation, what it means for the choices they need to make today?

Forgive me for being direct here, but great strategies don’t make an impact through what they were supposed to do when they were presented in glossy PowerPoints. They live through the actions people actually take.

The problem is often not the strategy itself. They are indeed brilliant, smart, and intelligently created.

The problem is communication. They aren’t communicated effectively.

Which means that all the hard work that went into creating the strategy is wasted. Because – let’s face it – a strategy that isn’t understood, embraced, and acted upon, might just as well not exist.

Now, imagine your strategy was so plain and simple that everyone immediately gets it – and the time and resources this would free up for the actual work.

Imagine it was so actionable that everyone on your team immediately knew what it meant for their everyday actions – and the rate of progress that makes possible.

What if your words were truly transformative so that instead of merely playing by the rules you’d encourage your team to make bold leaps – and what this would mean both for your patients and your bottom line.

And what if your words were deeply heartfelt so that your team’s personal goals align with the organization’s business goals – and the commitment that would bring to your mission.

This is the power of effective strategy communication. It turns the strategies you dream up in the meeting room into actions – and results – you see on the ground.

Get those four basic communication principles right

→ Plain and simple,

→ Actionable,

→ Transformative, and

→ Heartfelt

and your strategy will become a powerful decision-making tool that everyone in your organization, from the intern to the CEO, can use to make a difference.

In the following, we’ll dive into what each of these four principles means for your strategic impact. Many more examples and tips on how to implement them in your organization can be found in my book “The PATH to Strategic Impact ”.

P is for Plain and Simple: If They Don’t Get It, They Don’t Get It.

Unfortunately, in many organizations, strategy feels much like a riddle wrapped in jargon. It’s a string of fancy words that sound impressive but don’t mean much when you’re knee-deep in daily operations. But here’s the thing: if people don’t get it, they don’t get it. It’s that simple.

Effective communication is not about sounding smart. It’s about being clear. If you find plain and simple words to explain it, then that almost always beats the fancy mission statements your agency comes up with.

Much like Southwest Airlines did with their early strategy of getting planes back in the air as fast as possible. They realized that planes only make money in the air. The usual way of framing that strategy would be to “become the market leader in efficient airlines operations”.

But what does that mean for the ground crew? Or the flight attendants? How do they know which actions help their employer become the “leader in efficiency”?

That’s why Southwest chose a different way of saying the same thing, using only two words: “Wheels Up!”

Now, that’s clear! Everyone knows what it means: Does my action contribute to the plane’s wheels going up sooner? Absolutely do it! Otherwise, absolutely don’t!

Does your strategy have that level of clarity? If not, it’s not a strategy. It’s a guessing game.

A is for Actionable: Make the Right Choices Obvious.

Let’s put it another way: If the purpose of your strategy is to guide action, your communication needs to make these actions obvious. Otherwise, it’s not actionable. It’s abstract.

Consider FedEx’s legendary motto: “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.” That wasn’t just a catchy slogan; it was a clear, actionable strategy. It told every employee exactly what the priority was. Whenever they faced a decision, they knew exactly how to act. The right choice was always the one that ensured the packet was there the next day. For example, wait for tomorrow’s flight or charter a new one? The answer was obvious. The package has to be there overnight. Do what it takes.

When a strategy is actionable, it gives people a filter through which to view their decisions. It cuts down on debate and second-guessing because it makes the right choice stand out as if it’s the only one.

Does your strategy tell people exactly how to act? If not, you haven’t finished the job.

T is for Transformative: Inspire Bold Choices.

Plain and simple is crucial, actionable is necessary, but true impact requires that your strategy is transformative. The point of a strategy isn’t to maintain the status quo; it’s to change the game in your favor. That requires bold choices.

The problem is, most strategies don’t inspire boldness. They ask people to follow the rules rather than challenge them. But the most successful companies – those that really move the needle – act differently. They motivate their teams to make courageous leaps, not just cautious steps.

Think about when Paul O’Neill became CEO of Alcoa. He led a remarkable turnout of a struggling company to a thriving textbook role model using transformative words.

In a dangerous industry, he made worker safety his number one priority. But unlike others who would have framed that strategy using jargon words such as “We’re prioritizing worker safety!”, O’Neill was bolder. He claimed the strategy was to get to “zero injuries” – an ambition that many would say was impossible in aluminum production.

It wasn’t. Not with O’Neill’s choice of words. “Prioritize worker safety” would have easily been satisfied with a few more warning signs. But “zero injuries” didn’t allow for that. It encouraged (in fact: demanded) bold, transformative moves.

The result? Not only was the goal achieved, but also did Alcoa’s financial performance skyrocket thanks to a ripple effect.

Is your strategy inspiring your team to make bold choices? Or is it just playing it safe?

H is for Heartfelt: Make It Matter.

Here’s another inconvenient truth: Strategy isn’t about logic and reason. It’s just as much about belief. It’s about getting people to buy into a vision so passionately that they’re willing to go the extra mile.

When a strategy is heartfelt, it creates emotional buy-in. It makes people care.

Take the story of Buurtzorg, a Dutch healthcare organization that operates without managers. Their entire strategy is built on a heartfelt belief: nurses know what’s best for their patients.

It’s a powerful idea, based on a simple realization: Nurses don’t choose their jobs for the money. They choose it because caring for patients matters to them. That’s what de Blok’s strategy embraced.

Pay attention to what a difference the wording makes. Buurtzorg’s strategy wasn’t to “provide effective healthcare at a reasonable price,” it was to “always start from the patient’s perspective and prioritize their best interests.”

The former is what businesses might care for; the latter is what nurses care for. At Buurtzorg, nurses engage in a mission they deeply believe in.

And it works. Buurtzorg consistently delivers the highest patient satisfaction scores in the industry while operating with much higher efficiency, all because their strategy isn’t just understood—it’s heartfelt.

Does your strategy connect with your team on an emotional level? If it doesn’t, don’t expect them to give it their all.

The right words make all the difference

You can no longer afford to have a strategy that isn’t clearly communicated, that doesn’t guide everyday decisions, that doesn’t inspire bold moves, or that doesn’t make people care.

Because in today’s world, the strategy that gathers dust is worse than no strategy at all—it’s a distraction. It lulls you into thinking you’ve got a plan when all you’ve really got is a piece of paper.

You need to make sure that your strategy lights the PATH forward. Plain and simple, actionable, transformative, and heartfelt. That’s how you turn strategy into action. That’s how you create real impact.

Take this 2-minute self-assessment now to understand how effective your communication currently is at delivering that: https://michaelgerharz.com/quick-test

And then, the next time you walk into your organization, ask yourself: Does everyone know the strategy? Do they know how to act on it? Are they excited about it? If the answer is no, you know what to do.

It’s time to light the PATH!

PS: For more examples and tips on how to implement them in your organization, check out my book “The PATH to Strategic Impact ”.

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Kathy Letendre , President and Founder of Letendre & Associates , advises organizations and leaders to create their excellence advantage.

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