Communicate your business strategy and gain employee buy in

You need to communicate your strategy and business story to build a 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