Seven essentials for creating an inclusive vision and strategy

 

All successful businesses need a strategy. It stands to reason that those with a clear and focused plan setting out how they will achieve their goals are much more likely to achieve them.

That much is not rocket science.

However, now consider the question: how well do you know yours? If you were asked by your line manager or CEO to describe its mission, vision and values, would you be able to do so?

If the answer is ‘no’, then that’s a very real issue. A lack of understanding and buy-in from employees into the bigger picture can have a negative impact on morale, their sense of purpose and the chances of both individual and shared success.

The key to designing and implementing an effective strategy, then, is inclusion. By involving and engaging the very people who will ultimately determine the success of your ambitions, the more likely that a positive outcome will be delivered.

Here are our seven essentials for co-producing an inclusive vision and strategy for your business or organisation.

1. Closure – don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Many will be wedded to the old strategy and the things it helped to achieve, so celebrate this success and decide what to bring forward with you. Similarly, close down what didn’t work so well, discuss it and don’t make the same mistakes again.

2. Stakeholders – take the time to map out those with an interest in your strategy and who definitely need to be involved. Ask yourself: who is accountable, who will deliver and who will care about it? Manage and build relationships with these groups – it’s their hearts and minds you will need.

3. The pen – too many cooks spoil the broth. Decide who holds the pen and has ultimate responsibility for creating the strategy. They need to see and hear everything along the way, so that they can accurately reflect all views and shape the narrative.

4. Involve – place maximum effort on involving groups who find it hardest to get their voice heard. These might include LGBTQ+ workers, remote workers or those for whom English is not a first language. It is hugely powerful when individuals can see their voice and ideas in the final strategy.

5. Iteration – it is vital to test an emerging strategy out, listen to feedback, make changes, build and improve it as part of a structured and iterative process involving key stakeholders. Make it the best it can be during the time you have available.

6. Narrate – not everyone will have been on the same journey as you, so keep them informed throughout. Create a powerful narrative and thus inspire people to want to come along with you. This could be via visual assets as well as the written word. Get creative and think outside the box.

7. Words – remember that words change minds. Choose language carefully and make sure it is meaningful to those delivering the strategy, and reflective of who you are. A really clever strategy does not sound clever.