HOW TO MAKE

STRATEGY

EVERYONE’S JOB

A GUIDE TO G

ETTING STRATEGY

OUT OF THE STRATEGY OFFICE

If you’d like to skip to a particular section, use the table of contents below:

Introduction Creating Strategic Aware ness

Creating Ownership Integrating Strategy With Other Management Processes

Aligning Competency and Skill Development

Aligning Incenti ves

Conclusion Mak ing Strategy Everyone’s Job Checklist

Aligning P ersonal Goals

Communicate The Strategy

Integrating Processes

Personal Alignment and Awareness

Non-Financial Incentives

Communicate The Results

Integrating Data

Personal Scorecard

Financial Incentives

You have a strategic plan, or you are wor king on one that will be rolled o ut soon. The time, care, and effort you put into creating it will hopefully prod uce a well-tho ught out plan that guides your company smoothly into the future . But that’s only h al f the battle. The other half is in the execution. In ord er for the plan to work, it must engage everyone equally. Strategic plans aren’t just for the strategy office or the lead er ship team. They require the help and buy-in of everyone in the o rganization.

It’s the only way your organization’s strategic plan wil l come to fruition. To engage every employee, you need effective communication, alignment, transparency , and the proper incentives in place . Culled from indust ry best practices and our own experience as performance management experts, this ebook tells you exactly how to shift st rategy execution away from a single department or office and toward the rest of the organization. It combi nes high-level information wit h specific actions, for plenty of valuable and practical takeaways. The final page has a checklist of everything in the eb ook organized by section. Whether you work in t he strategy office, are part of the leadersh ip team, or have been tasked with executing your o rganization’s strategy, this ebook will help you maximize your organization ’s success by getting everyone to engage with your s trategy.

INTRODUCTION

Strategy needs to be

everyone’s job.

This ebook contains helpful tip boxes specificall y for ClearPoint users. Here you’ll find practical takeaways and suggestions on h ow to utilize relevant ClearPoi nt features to maximize your results.

Use ClearPoint

CREATING STRATEGIC AWARENESS

CREATING STRATEGIC

AWARENESS

You need everyone at your company to become aware of, inves ted in, and inspired by your strategic plan. This process is often referred to as “getting buy-in” from the people who make up the o rganization. Creating awareness will allow your strategy to actually take hold in your organization. Awareness and excitement around your strategic plan—and everyone’s role in it—will generate a bottom-up momentum and bring your strategy to life . Your employees will feel inspired by unders tanding how they can help your organization achieve i ts mission. When people know the “why” behind their responsibilities, it leads to better productivi ty and quality of work.

Communicate The St

rategy

When the strategy is complete , it is time to bring it to the people. A visual representation in t he form of a traditional Balanced Scorecard strategy map (like the one pi ctured below) is especially impactful. If you don ’t have a strategy map, it’s useful to create some type of visual that will allow people to easily see and understand the s trategy. Infographics are a nice way to make information easily consumable and visually appeal ing.

CHAPTER 1: PRESERVING INFORMATION

CREATING STRATEGIC AWARENESS

Put on your “marketing cap” and get creat ive. Use your organization ’s communications department to b uild an internal brand, or, if you already have one, leverage your brand and logo to “color and shape” your strategy into something that is familiar across your organizat ion. Your t hemes, perspectives, or even objectives can have specific co lors associated with them for a polished and recognizable aesthetic. Once you’ve created your visual, find ways to share it. We’ve all heard advice around communicating important messages, things like, “Say so mething seven times in seven ways” and “Unless you are really tired of sayi ng it, you have not communicated it enough.” There’s a reason these are popular sayings—they’re true! It is impossible to over-communicate .

Be creative in your communications: Turn your visual representations into posters and flyers and hang t hem in conference rooms, break rooms , your building lobb y, and anywhere else where you can get eyes on the strategy. Create designed placemats for your conference rooms to keep the strategy front and center while decisions are mad e. Carve out time to talk strategy at an employee all-hands meeting. Host a “Strategic Planni ng Fair,” “Strategy Day,” or strategy launch party , and order a sheet cake with yo ur strategy map pictured on it. Create notebooks or other swag items with your st rategy imprinted on them for employees to use. Spread the word via a company newsletter or your i ntranet, if you have one. You can even create a “Measure of the Month” newsletter section highlight ing di ff erent strategic measures. Design and dist ribute wallet cards that illust rate the strategic plan. Add a strategy segment to your new hi re orientation program.

CHAPTER 1: PRESERVING INFORMATION

CREATING STRATEGIC AWARENESS

Your goal here is

to introduce everyone to the

strategy—and get them exci

ted about it! Try

anything and everything to get th

e

word out.

CHAPTER 1: PRESERVING INFORMATION

CREATING STRATEGIC AWARENESS

ClearPoint makes it easy to design and shar e strategy maps and visuals. You can apply brand colors to any document , incorporate images and other graphics, and s hare content internally or externally either via the web or PDF.

Communicate The Result

s

Making everyone aware of the strategy is the first s tep; you also need to be transparent with the resul ts each reporting period to k eep the momentum going. (Plus, it’s just plain goo d management.) Each month or quarter, you will be reporting on your strategic plan. It is imperative those results are communicated to the entire organization. Take the notes from your strategy review meetings, summar ize them for the correct audience, and share accordingly. Updates on your objectives, measures, and initiatives can be dis tributed via email as a PDF, placed on your Intranet site, or shared on TVs around th e o ffice. Brown bag lunches, sometimes called “Lunch-&-Learns,” are great opportunities for leadership to present results to the entire company. They reinforce the importance of the s trategy, provide good opportunities for transparency, and give everyone a chance to ask questio ns. A virtual “Ask Me Anything” session with leadership is another avenue to e xpl ore. We have seen other organizations create a simple tri fold brochure after each quarterly meeting. The outside is a quick summary of quarterly results (especially if it has an impact on b onuses) while the inside has a strategy map and a brief description of t he strategy with RAG i ndicators on each objective. T he back of the brochure has a status update of k ey projects the entire company needs to know about.