Communicate your business strategy and gain employee buy in

You need to communicate your strategy and business story to build common purpose across your organisation and to guide everyday behaviour from your employees.

How to communicate your business strategy and story

You could:

• publish your business story on your website along with photos or videos to help bring it to life
• make your business narrative document freely available for all employees eg through your intranet
• publish a summary of your business strategy and strategic narrative on a range of materials for your workplace eg posters, postcards, business cards, desk-drop leaflets or screensavers
• include regular features or case studies in internal newsletters - or on the intranet if you have one - to show how employees have used the business values to inform their decision-making
• be creative in how you communicate your narrative - eg use graphics, photos, maps or timelines to illustrate your business' past, present and future
• hold a regular meeting for all employees - eg every six months or annually - to communicate your strategic narrative and its link to business plans - and give everyone the chance to ask questions, raise any concerns and feed into the business strategy and narrative
• arrange a conference call for any employees who can't attend your regular meetings, are based in global locations or who work remotely
• link new internal programmes back to the strategic narrative - eg briefings on new products
• make sure that you communicate your narrative to every new employee so they understand the business culture and its importance from the start eg make it a key part of the induction process - see induction programme: what to include