Does your strategy resemble the “collection plate”, a convenient place for people to drop in whatever contributions they desire, resembling a hodge-podge of ideas, initiatives, pet projects, KPIs as well as organizational targets?
Strategy often stumbles because it is a collection of complicated facts and initiatives that are confusing and difficult to follow.
Even a strategy that boasts of becoming number one often fails to take off.
Growing faster than the market is interesting (and financially attractive) to a handful of senior executives, however when you move down into the the rank and file, people ask, “What’s in it for me?”
Magnetize your strategy with a story about helping customers and creating value for others.
Logic and facts encourage us to think, yet stories evoke emotions that compel us to act.
As you and your leadership team set out to craft the company strategy, remember that facts shared with stories are 20 times more likely to be remembered.
Facts tell us what happened, stories tell us why it matters.
Create a strategy, with a story that matters, and magnetize others.
Illustration by John S. Dykes @ Theispot