Communicating a company vision is an exciting opportunity for internal communicators. However, without context and clarity about your organization’s plan or the leaders’ agenda it can become taxing to get every employee signed up. In this post I wanted to share a few perspectives that can help internal communicators gain perspective while staying connected to employees’ expectations.
The past vs the future: Every new vision is expected to look to the future and set better and higher goals. However, it may be useful to understand how closely connected are employees to the earlier visions, if any. Can they relate to it? Are there any relevant hooks that you can tap into for launching the new vision? Connecting to the past is good – especially recalling the journey and what success meant for the organization over the years. Fundamentally, the organization’s core values and ethics must continue to form the bedrock of the new vision.
Clarify line of sight: Sometimes lofty visions get confined to office branding and literature on the intranet. Probe intently if the leaders can provide direct line of sight to their teams on how each one of them can live the vision. Have concrete examples at work that resonate with their understanding of the vision. If an employee doesn’t practice the vision in principle can others spot it? Are there ways of working that everyone must adhere to? Does it have to be different from what was done before? Identify your responses to these questions before connecting the dots on the vision communication plan.
Map your approach to your audiences: With multiple generations now working within organizations it might be useful to understand how they receive and process information. Balance ‘show and tell’ vs ‘involve and reiterate’ based on the level of maturity among employees as well as their receptiveness to change. A top-down approach can only do so much and winning the ‘hearts and minds’ isn’t easy unless you have a clear engagement plan. You will also need to engage differently after the vision has percolated among your staff – by probably seeking feedback, inviting examples on how the vision is working and drawing insights from offline conversations or online chatter.
Timing is everything: A great sounding vision can’t save an organization if you have misread the launch timing. For example, if there has been a recent restructure in the business you can expect employees to focus on the vision when they are concerned about their job security. Likewise, just because you have a new leader it doesn’t mean the earlier vision is redundant. Communicating a new vision because you have a different leadership doesn’t send a confident message about the company’s plans.
Helping employees through change: A new vision gives hope and meaning to employees but unless you coach them through change, very few will practice it in reality. The communication needs to address what stays the same, what changes, why are we changing, whom does it impact and what is expected of employees now and in the future. By inviting suggestions from a sub-section of the audience you will also be able to gauge their openness to change. Provide context on three key themes: think, sense and act and what it means for employees in their daily work.
A vision can only get cascaded right when everyone has a role to play – however senior or junior you are in the ranks.
