The Language of Your Strategy

Introducing a strategy to your team is tricky, especially if the language you are speaking doesn’t resonate with them.  Many leaders and managers excitedly declare a new company strategy or a new company plan with the expectations that the team will embrace, engage and celebrate.  Then, those same leaders find themselves frustrated with the response and performance of the team to this new initiative as it slowly becomes another failed plan. 

What causes this strategic failure? What can the business owner or executive do to fire up the team and get them engaged for the duration of the initiative?  Why are these strategies met with such apathy?  The answer is simple: it’s the language.

Business strategies are often introduced in the way the Ten Commandments were introduced to the Israelites — from on high.  When receiving guidance from a higher authority, God has a lot of clout.  When receiving a driving initiative from the boss, it’s simply another idea or plan that creates change, causes more work, and disrupts workflow which means this cool new idea is going to meet some resistance. 

Even the plans and programs that are collaboratively developed throughout the organization meets with resistance.  They meet with the same resistance, as well.  Even if it is a good idea, a great plan, or a very innovative strategy, few people are going to simply embrace or accept it simply because someone said so. 

You are going to have to work a lot harder than that if you want a strategy to gain momentum in your organization.

The key to introducing and implementing a strategy that sticks is the language that is developed with it.  Some key aspects of this language are:

• How it is presented
• Who presents it
• Who developed it
• Who is commited to be held accountable for its success
• What it the cost of opting out or resistance
• What exceptions exist 

Your next business strategy requires total engagement and commitment of the entire team–from top to bottom without exception and with complete and total accountability–for it to work.  With every strategy du jour there are participants who:

• pass down the rules, but don’t abide by them;
• who expect others to make the changes, but are exempt from them;
• create work and headaches for others, but avoid the stress themselves

The language of your strategy requires a comprehensive organizational commitment from its inception to its implementation and its follow-through.  Break the rules or create exceptions to them only jeopardizes the plan.  It’s a complicated process; but, it is the only way to get your strategy in play and succesful.