Communicate Your Strategy

I saw an amazing piece in USA Today just a few days ago. It was in the lower left corner of the front page of the business section called USA Today "Snapshots."Here's the exact quote:

"Most employers don't share company strategy - Of the companies with a formal strategy in place, 70% describe their performance as better than their competition, compared with 27% of those without it, according to a survey. Percentage of companies that tell their employees what the strategy is: 95% don't tell, 5% tell."

The survey, entitled "Making Strategy Execution a Competitive Advantage," was conducted by the Cognos/Palladium Group and included responses from 143 strategy-management professionals.

I wasn't surprised by the first result. It's difficult to perform if you don't have a strategy. On the other hand, I find it shocking that 95% of companies that have a strategy don't communicate it to their employees.

This just is not common sense. How can people execute a strategy if they don't know what it is?

Clarity of purpose and direction is one of the secrets in my book, 4 Secrets of High Performing Organizations.To me, creating and achieving clarity of purpose and direction goes something like this:

• Your mission defines your purpose for being - why you are in business.
• Your vision defines a medium-range goal - what you hope to accomplish in the next three to five years.
• Your strategy defines a plan for reaching your three to five-year vision.
• Your annual business plans break your strategic plan into one-year chunks.
• Business unit, department and individual objectives define accomplishments for all organizational units and individual members of your organization.
• If individual, department and business-unit objectives are met, you should achieve your annual business plan.
• If you achieve your annual business plan each year, you have successfully executed your strategy, and you will have achieved your vision.

I don't know how any of this can happen if your people are not aware of your strategy.To me, communicating your strategy throughout your organization is so much common sense that it's a no-brainer.

Bud Bilanichis president of the Organization Effectiveness Group in Denver, CO, a management and leadership consulting group whose clients include Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, AT&T, the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.For a lively exchange on leadership, management and running a business, visit his blog, Common Sense Guy.

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