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Speech Devolving Company Strategy to a Team

By: Chris Hogan MSc - Updated: 8 Feb 2018 | comments

Working on a company strategy is a complete waste of time if it cannot be explained and understood by everyone in the company and turned into real tactics and tasks. A speech devolving the strategy down through the ranks of a company is only one of a plethora of tools that should be used to achieve this.

As part of a company strategy initiative a number of documents or presentations will have been produced that encapsulate the strategy. Your speech devolving the strategy through the company hierarchy should use the same language and phraseology as these documents so that your speech is consistent with other tools that will be used to turn the strategy into reality.

Mission Statement

There may also be some sort of encapsulation of the strategy in a short form, called a mission statement, usually only one or two sentences and often short and pithy. But beware of trotting out the mission statement before you have had time to outline the thinking behind it.

Although a mission statement ought to be understandable without context, in a speech devolving a company strategy that could change generations of thinking about what a company does or is, a mission statement may be perceived as being a little trite. It should be introduced toward the end of a speech to summarise and encapsulate the thinking behind the new strategy.

Outlining a New Strategy

You should use a very short introduction and try not to dwell on the way things were done in the past and why there was a need for change. It is unlikely that staff will be unprepared for this and you need to get on with the business of reinforcing new practices and new ways of thinking about the way people work.

Outline the new strategy
Mirror the language of the strategy documentation in any presentation materials
Use graphical pictures as well as textual bullet points on slides
List new goals and targets
Explain each goal in detail
Identify any new behaviour and attitude be required for the new strategy

It's important that you back up your words with diagrams and graphics. People learn in different ways and the words will stick with some people and the pictures with others. By using both text bullet points and pictorial methods you will cover more people.

As part of the process of devolving the strategy throughout the company you are likely to have to deliver much the same speech to different audiences while the strategy is rolled-out across the company. Try to modify the language you are using to suit the audience but without being patronising. It's unlikely that workers on a shop floor will respond well to a speech tailored for marketing executives, and that 's just as true in reverse.

Finishing with the Mission Statement

Once you have gone through the strategy as a whole you can start introducing the mission statement. Hopefully by now it will act as a reminder phrase which will trigger thoughts of the strategy in the weeks and months to come.

The Speech isn't Everything

It can't be stressed too much that the greatest strategy devolving speech in the world will do nothing to turn a strategy into real tangible actions unless it is at the heart of a full programme of strategy support events.

Depending on the size and culture of the company this could include posters and leaflets, workshops, online and offline presentations, suites of meetings that cascade down the organisational structure or any number of other initiatives.