Selling Your Strategy
It doesn't matter how good your strategy is, if it isn't communicated in such a way that it is believed, accepted and implemented. Strategies are about your plans for the future, but you need people to consistently deliver the strategy today and tomorrow. Storytelling will help you do that. Without implementation, strategy is just pretty slides.
Inspire - Ideas into Action
A strategy is just words. Storytelling translates ideas and triggers action.
Engage, Persuade, Align
You want people to believe in, and embrace their work, and to do it well.
Cultural Change, Simplicity
Simple, retellable, memorable cultural foundations are the basis for success.
Strategy needs Believers
Business leaders would love to have a team of engaged and focused believers rather than people just showing up to get paid. Leader have to persuasively communicate their purpose and their strategy, or plan, to achieve it.
"Movements have narratives. They tell stories, because they are not just about rearranging economics and politics. They also rearrange meaning. And they’re not just about redistributing the goods. They’re about figuring out what is good." Marshall Ganz - Senior Lecturer in Leadership, Harvard
Business leaders need to focus on their why, their purpose. But to deliver their purpose and business goals they need a plan, a strategy, carried out by people. Storytelling helps communicate strategy effectively.
Do you want your strategy to be understood, accepted, implemented and acted on? Tell great stories.
How StoryPower® can help communicate your Strategy:
- 1-2-1 Storytelling and SpeakerCoaching sessions for big events - strategy roll-outs and updates;
- coaching and supporting strategy advocates throughout the business - 1-2-1 or in groups;
- small group workshops on storytelling, presentations and pitches with interactive exercises and real life bespoke case studies, group projects and presentations, plus personal and immediately useable feedback;
- supporting webinars;
- ongoing group and 1-2-1 coaching.
8 Reasons why storytelling is essential for communicating your strategy
- Engagement: Stories engage people's attention more effectively than raw data or statistics. When you tell a story, it draws the audience in and keeps them interested in the strategic message.
2. Contextualisation: Stories provide context and meaning to the strategy. They help explain why a particular strategy is important, its historical background, and its potential impact.
3. Memorability: People remember stories much better than dry facts and figures. This makes it easier for employees, stakeholders, and team members to retain and recall the key elements of the strategy.
4. Emotional Connection: Stories evoke emotions, making the strategy more relatable. Emotionally engaged individuals are more likely to buy into the strategy and contribute to its success.
5. Simplicity: Complex strategies can be simplified and made more understandable through storytelling. Stories break down intricate concepts into relatable narratives.
6. Alignment: Storytelling helps align the organisation's members around a common vision and purpose. It provides a shared narrative that everyone can rally behind.
7. Persuasion: Effective storytelling can persuade and influence people to support and execute the strategy. It can convey the benefits and advantages of the strategy in a persuasive manner.
8. Cultural Transmission: Stories are a powerful tool for passing down the organisation's culture, values, and strategic priorities to new employees and stakeholders.
Storytelling humanises and contextualises strategy, making it more accessible, memorable, and compelling for all involved parties, ultimately enhancing understanding and effective communication.
" Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”"
- Sun Tzu
Turn Strategy into Action
A strategy won't be implemented based on a press release, a slide show, a single speech or an email. In large organisations, the story of a strategy has to be told and retold. For a new strategy, a strategy upgrade, or a strategy pivot to be adopted and actioned throughout a business, the message has to trickle down through the business in speeches, meetings, roadshows and more. It has to be heard, believed and adopted. And it has to be unaltered and unarmed in the telling and re-telling.
StoryPower® can help you and your team become better storytellers and strategy re-tellers within your business.