Employees shouldn’t be scratching their heads trying to work out where their organisation is going, what it has do to get there and what on earth their role is in all of this.

‘They just don’t get the strategy’ is a common refrain, so much so that I’m surprised nobody’s set it to music.

Rather than being treated as secret stuff reserved for the eyes of a select few, business strategy should be communicated to and understood by everybody from senior management down to the front line – contractors and temporary staff included.

Senior managers, while quick to lament lack of understanding, aren’t doing enough to ensure strategy is translated and communicated in a way that helps people understand both the strategy and what it is that they have to do to make it happen.

Context is critical and the language of the boardroom isn’t going to cut it with the front line regardless of where they are and what they do.

If organisational priorities change and the people who are doing the work don’t know or don’t understand, the chances of achieving the desired results are pretty remote.

Given the tools, channels and professionals available to communicate organisational strategy, the following facts are mind numbing:

• Employees are responsible for making strategy happen. Studies show between five and 30 per cent understand their company’s strategy (CIO 2007, Harvard Business Review 2013, Gatehouse 2016, Sloan Review 2018).

• In a survey of 1,000 employees, 57 per cent reported they ‘would perform better at their jobs if they better understood the company’s direction’ (Holmes Report 2015).

• Managers play a key role in executing strategy, however 30 per cent receive no information on how to do it (the performance factory). Ironically, study after study shows managers are the most trusted source of information in many organisations.

• Only 44 per cent of Australian employees consider their leaders effective. They are weary of constant change in their organisations and want clearer direction and leadership (Towers Watson 2014).

The numbers don’t change much from one year and study to another. The internet, business literature and media are awash with the statistics and remedies, yet nothing changes. We have to ask why.

Another worrying factor in the mix is that one third of internal communication teams don’t have a strategy (IABC 2018). While this is a blog post in its own right, I’m going to suggest that this is a big problem in terms of the big picture.

When employees don’t know where the organisation is heading and what they have to do to help it get there, success is not a likely destination.

Image courtesy of Ponsulak at Free.Digital.Photos.net