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Karl Christensen, Mexico
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Should the Strategy be Communicated? How Much? To Whom?
Communicating strategy involves much more than talk. There are numerous pitfalls or issues which must be resolved for the strategy to be effectively communicated. For example, in some instances executives argue with good reason that to fully communicate the organization´s strategy is to court (Editor: ~attract) disaster. Thus, one CEO has a five year strategy which, when it is fully implemented, will mean severe disruption to a major subsidiary. He does not want to rock the boat prematurely. An energy company thought it wiser not to publicize its strategy because it would become a sitting duck for regulatory agencies.
 Such reservations have merit. Discretion may indeed be the better part of valor. Fully communicating strategy may not always be in the best interest of the organization, especially where that strategy is sensitive. Each situation has its own constraints, There is no one formula guiding how much strategy to communicate. However, where limitations are put on communications, those limitations must be carefully considered. They may not only handicap a manager´s ability to keep decisions consistent with the overall strategy, but they may erode commitment to the organization.
Regardless of where you are on the strategy-communications continuum, from significant discretion to full disclosure, critical issues about communication must be allowed to surface and be resolved. What should be communicated about the strategy and where and when should it be said? How much should be said and to whom? Stockholders? Middle Managers? Supervisors? Employees? Union Leaders? Customers? Government? What forms should the communication take? Who should do the communicating? These questions seem relatively straightforward, but recall the situation mentioned earlier in which a corporate strategy meant severe disruption to a major subsidiary.
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Erika Bellander
Management Consultant, Sweden
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Strategy Communication I do not agree. I think the first issue is to HAVE a proper strategy. It should preferably consist of approx. 12 sentences talking about how to achieve your vision.
Then there is the work of breaking this down into business drivers, and plan for it. Do not mix the strategy with the breakdown and the subsequent following up with business plans etc.
The breakdown should be not that visible, only to those on the actual business level concerned and those who inherit the drivers. I do not mean that the strategy should be just open, but to the employees and stakeholders.
And, it should be ethically correct as well for various reasons. Also with a short strategy like this it might help you and your competitors to diversify from each other better.
Many people do the strategy too detailed, and this I think is not only a problem for openness but also for decentralization and entitlement and many other things.
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Roman Walley
Management Consultant, United States
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The Strategy Should Be Communicated. The 4Ps of William Bridges I disagree that you shouldn't communicate the strategy. I think that too many CEOs would use that as an excuse not to have to do that "messy stuff" of getting people involved and involving the affected stakeholders.
Here's an older book that is still relevant: Managing Transitions by William Bridges offers a great outline for communicating strategy.
These are Bridges' 4 Ps that leaders need to communicate for success:
1. PURPOSE. Describe why you are making the change. Explain the basic purpose behind the outcome you seek. People have to understand the logic of it before they turn their minds to work on it.
2. PICTURE. Describe what the future will look like. Paint a picture of how the outcome will look and feel. People need to experience it imaginatively before they can give their hearts to it.
3. PLAN. Describe the steps you need to take to get there. Lay out a step-by-step plan for phasing in the outcome. People need a clear idea of how they can get where they need to go.
4. PARTS. Describe the part you need the specific employee to play; specify your requests. Give each person a part to play in both the plan and the outcome itself. People need a tangible way to contribute and participate.
It is an excellent framework that I still use.
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Patrick Mulvey
Management Consultant, United States
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Prudence is Appropriate in Communicating Strategy Karl, your premise is correct, in that prudence is always appropriate. Even if not disruptive, there is no need to telegraph proprietary plans to competitors.
Nevertheless, a strategy that is never communicated, can not be implemented. Some elements can be encoded to specific audiences. For example a new innovation may be codenamed and all those involved in the project see the details, while others simple know it is a novel product development. No presentation needs to contain all the details of every strategic intent.
Simplicity of message is key, to be clear, concise, and compelling for the intended audience. Workers need different information than board members.
I have actually heard some companies joke that they wish their competitors had their strategy so that it could confuse them as much as it confuses themselves. After I helped them, they had a much different attitude.
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Ted Garrison, United States
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Communicate the Strategy. No need for Secrecy @Patrick Mulvey: I agree, if you don't communicate the strategy how do expect to execute it? In fact, the best way to develop a strategy is with input from everyone on the team.
Vince Lombardi understood it - I don't care if the other teams knows what play we are going to run - we will run it better than they defend it so it will not matter. If your strategy is so weak you need to keep it a secret - then forget the strategy in the first place because it's not going to work.
As to what your competition is doing - if they have their head in the sand it doesn't matter. However, if they are sharp then it will not take them long to figure out what you are doing and begin to respond. Good strategies aren't implemented like a surprise attack - they must be implemented over time. If you attempt to change everything at once - you will probably fail.
The number one reason for failure is poor communication! So communicate the plan!
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Patrick Mulvey
Management Consultant, United States
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Communicating the Strategy yes. But Prudently! Let's be clear: prudence means prudence. I don't believe anyone is recommending a lack of prudence.
When Apple was developing the Macintosh, it kept its strategy secret from employees not working the...
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Alan Kennedy, Canada
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The Focus of Communicating Strategy Maybe the point Mr Christensen is making is that agreeing on a strategy and communicating it are two very distinct issues. Communicating strategy requires an intimate understanding of the target audie...
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Tom Wilson
HR Consultant, United States
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Strategy Should be Generally Broadcasted @Patrick Mulvey: As Lance Armstrong said: "our training is our strategy": we deal with contingencies as they arise on the road. So, I would say that the strategy should be generally broadcasted.
Now,...
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Makini
Business Consultant
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Communication of Strategy in an Organisation is not Necessarily a CEO Job Following the discussion above, one feels that the initiator has grounded his argument using Mintzberg's Design School. I would like to challenge ourselves to also look at the upper echelon theory and...
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Y Srinivas rao
Manager, India
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When to Communicate Strategy (Timing) In my opinion TIMING is the determining factor for all these questions.
Experience teaches us how to time communication, how much and with whom.
The strategy is solely dependent on the need base. ...
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Albin Xavier, India
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Generic and Specific Strategy Communication - Generic, basic tennets of the organization's strategy should be communicated to the entire organization.
- Specific aspects should be communicated based on the role of the individual, taking accoun...
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Dennis van der Spoel
Management Consultant, Netherlands
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Communicating Strategic Positioning (Sinek's Golden Circle) You should discuss strategy with your own people. How else do you expect them to act accordingly? People are unable to make trade-offs if they are unaware of the intent of their leaders (whom they spe...
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GLADYS TIBALEKA, Uganda
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Communicating Strategy @Y Srinivas rao: I agree with you that communicating strategy is all about timing. When and to what extent should the middle manager know about the upcoming changes? And when and to what extent should...
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Frank
Manager, China
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Internal Communication Plans Needed for Various Organizational Levels For such high level strategy, the company needs internal communication plans. These should have target audiences with taylor-made messages to allow each level employee to understand the strategy....
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RAKESH ARORA, India
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Strategy Communication on a Need to Know Basis The answer does not lie in a Yes or No. Infact, the answer is a mix of pragmatism and experience. Apply the Need to Know Basis-principle. There would be some who would have to be on board about the co...
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Pat Hannon
Lecturer, Ireland
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Communicating a Strategic Plan is Critical for Foundations of Success In order to manage strategic change, communicating a strategic plan is critical to building the foundations for success and by understanding that communication is a two-way process and feedback on com...
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Olivier Riviere, France
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Communicating Only a Part of your Strategy is Often a Necessity By communicating a strategy, a set of tactics or product plans (= 3 different levels), a company "programs" its own environment, including its own workforce. Therefore, without being cynical, it is no...
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Wilf Marshall
CxO / Board, United Kingdom
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Employees can also Provide INPUT for the Strategy Interesting debate but it is rather based on the idea that members of the organization don't already know the strategy as it applies to their area of activity.
In my work I approach development of a...
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alonge
Teacher, Nigeria
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Preparing the Communication of the Strategy Before actually communicating a strategy (or not!), the management can get the peoples' perspectives about it, without really making the crux of it already known.
This can be achieved by using secre...
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Belay Gezahegn
Director, Ethiopia
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Disclosure of Strategy Strategy is a sketched map that leads to a vision. In a battle field strategy, the precise plan is not to be disclosed to the enemy, likewise the business strategy is not to be disclosed to rivalries....
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Conroy Fourie
Coach, South Africa
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Sometimes Not Communicating the Strategy is Called For Some years ago I ran a business and we communicated the strategy fully and had all the elements in place to fulfil the strategy, forums, training, coaching etc. etc. This was a non-core business subsi...
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Andrea Kelly, Jamaica
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Communicating Strategy is Important The communication of strategy is important to build the strategy map to achieve what is intended. Communication of strategy gears an organisation towards an action plan and for focus to be maintained ...
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Barry Schaeffer
Consultant, United States
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Strategy Communication I think we may be confusing Strategy and Tactics.
A strategy is the broad goal set for any organization and must be capable of exposition in simple, clear and unambiguous language.
Tactics are every...
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Ngwashu kelvine, Cameroon
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Communicating your Strategy Could Help Develop Organisational Framework McKinsey didn't make a mistake to include 7Ses in their 7S framework or concept. Which means to develop a complete framework for your company and to follow this concept you most communicate all the a...
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Patrick Cauley
Manager, United States
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Communication of Strategy is Power Behind Change In John Kotter's book “Leading Change”, he describes 8 reasons why many change effort fail (whether this is a vision change, mission change, objective change, project/task change).
Many of these fail...
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Gandhi Heryanto
Management Consultant, Indonesia
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Support Communication of Strategy with Easy Data Michael Birshan and Jayanti Kar, in McKinsey Quarterly said that you don’t need a formal strategy role to help shape your organization’s strategic direction. You can start by moving beyond frameworks ...
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Tom Wilson
HR Consultant, United States
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Communicating Strategy Through Purposing and Action Research @Gandhi Heryanto: Peter Vaiil recommends meeting everyday for "Purposing", which is a daily translation of the strategic vision into the sort of task assignment @Erika Bellander outlines. This immersi...
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HAIDER ANWAR RASHID, Saudi Arabia
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Without Communication, Strategy Will Remain Wishful Thinking @Pat Hannon: Yes, a strategy is only as good as execution. There are many cases when a good strategy failed due to poor implementation, and the primary reason behind poor implementation is usually no ...
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Andrew Blaine
Business Consultant, South Africa
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Strategy: to Tell or not to Tell @Conroy Fourie: In my opinion, the step you took to limit the knowledge was a tactical decision, based on the goal to protect your business.
The end state that formed the ultimate goal of your origi...
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Ofwono Willy Osinde
Project Manager, Uganda
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Caution in Communication Strategy is Advisable I agree that every organisation must have a strategy and communicate it. But as @Patrick Mulvey said, caution should be taken not to communicate every information without screening. It is quite import...
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Alan Kennedy, Canada
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To Communicate the Strategy we first Need to Understand it... Communicating the why's, how's, and what's of strategy assumes a good understanding of those factors. Consider this McKinsey study on understanding strategy: The boards and management of a 1000 compan...
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Arif ur Rehman
Professor, Pakistan
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Upping the Communication of Strategy STRATEGY begs, nay demands, that it be based on simplicity, transparency, rationality, authenticity, transformation-ability, economy, geniality and all these sync with YONDER-ability – looking beyond ...
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Tom Wilson
HR Consultant, United States
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Upping the Communication of Strategy @Arif ur Rehman: Well, yeah. MBO is another term for action research. You say tomato......
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LEAH LYNDA I. STA ANA
Student (MBA), Philippines
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Communicating Strategy Strategy should be communicated. As to why how and what it is for the top management to decide:
- To answer Why, there must be a valid reason for it to be communicated such as that to whom it should ...
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Tom Wilson
HR Consultant, United States
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COMMUNICATING STRATEGY @LEAH LYNDA I. STA ANA: A mission statement is probably the most important strategic communication that needs to be done. It is a statement of the business the organization is in. Everything flows fr...
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jorge anibal hoyos hoyos
Manager, Colombia
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... Then what About Coordination? If the strategy is not communicated clearly and clear-cut into what general frame the components of the organizations can effectively work and the coordinated efforts where will wind up?...
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anil aggarwal
Teacher, India
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Communicating the Strategy- the Essential Step while Implementing Strategy The communication of appropriate information (strategy related) to the concerned individuals or groups that can influence the strategy or can be influenced by it plays an important role in the effecti...
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Andrew Blaine
Business Consultant, South Africa
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Vision ≠ Mission ≠ Strategy ≠ Tactics When describing the difference between strategy and vision, I often use the following simile situation:
1. Imagine you see a fantastic opportunity (Vision) in some out of the way place, such as Pofad...
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Dennis van der Spoel
Management Consultant, Netherlands
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Golden Circle is a Start @Dennis van der Spoel: The Golden Circle is a start, a tool to structure your mission and vision. Execution, however, is in The Art of Action (Stephen Bungay)....
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Arif ur Rehman
Professor, Pakistan
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Essentials of Communicating Strategy Top management must design the business plan and frame strategies to execute it. To proceed with the strategy, all employees need to be engaged; this demands how the strategy is understood – thus it b...
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Arif ur Rehman
Professor, Pakistan
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Delivering the Mission Statement Dear all: a mission statement -- compact proclamation by an organization -- conveys its ‘raison d'ętre’ and highlights its goals and principles. It informs both internal and external customers what th...
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zulganef sutan sati, Indonesia
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Strategy Must be Communicated @Erika Bellander: How could you differentiate between strategy and the plan that breaks down from the strategy? Since everybody knows that from the strategic plan we could see or read the real strateg...
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Erika Bellander
Management Consultant, Sweden
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Breaking Down Strategy Communication @Zulganef sutan sati: The breakdown will look at the areas that you need to enhance the the strategy.
For example, a new product-assortment would require hirings, financials, new processes in place e...
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Belay Gezahegn
Director, Ethiopia
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Communicate the Strategy, Not the Tactics I think strategy and tactics are confused here. The strategy to make your organisation profitable is quite different from the tactics you adopt to materialise your strategy of being profitable. The ta...
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dev chandra
Management Consultant, India
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Communicate the Strategy, not the Plan / Tactics Instead of getting into the semantics of strategy versus plan versus tactics, communicate what's necessary to convince stakeholders that you have a coherent, cohesive idea of the "what" and "why" of t...
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Molokanova
Professor, Ukraine
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Strategy is in the Mind of the Leader We need to accept the following fact. Strategy is not something that is bragged about to the public and told in the trainings. A fundamental premise of strategy is to take the enemy by surprise, to cr...
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