When your company is undergoing major change, it can be a tough transition for everyone, especially your organization’s employees. They may be wondering how the company’s transformations will affect their roles, responsibilities, and leadership.
To help dispel any rumors and to ensure everyone is on the same page, it’s crucial that you craft a compelling and honest narrative with your leadership team. You’ll be in a strong position to address any issues, while at the same time heightening your company’s success for the upcoming months.
A strategic narrative centers on a leader’s ability to convey a powerful vision and strategy for the organization’s future. One can also be useful because it:
– Illustrates the change in a positive fashion
– Creates an environment for employees to give feedback
– Shows that a company values its key stakeholders
Here are three tips to guide you in crafting your own successful strategic narrative:
1. Gather input from the most important individuals at your company
To start, collect as much information as possible, including input from key stakeholders. To do this effectively, you’ll need to tap your trusted advisors and leadership to discuss the story in a truthful and supportive manner. The result of brainstorming the narrative with the individuals who know your business best is that you will be able to present something that will ultimately benefit the transformation you’re aiming to enact over the coming year.
2. Work to draft a narrative that exudes empathy
Craft a narrative that speaks to the transformation your company is about to undergo and illustrates empathy. This may be a time-intensive process because it also requires a strong vision of the different avenues though which you want to share your transformation. Some options include sending emails to employees, holding meetings to fill people in, and working with PR teams to share the information publicly.
Once you’ve figured out how to strategically share your change narrative in an empathetic way, you can meet with your leadership team (1) to discuss what must be included in the outline and (2) to ultimately agree upon what channels will serve as the foundation of your transformation communications.
3. Share the narrative in a confident, composed manner
After building your change narrative, it’s time to put the final touches on the communication plan. Once it’s been edited and approved by key members of your team internally, it’s time to share this information with your employees as well as any external partners.
During this period, it’s important that those on your leadership team act confidently when discussing information with others. Acting as a source of composure and guidance, you’ll help others feel more comfortable about the upcoming transformations.
Another key part of the process: make sure that you allow those affected by these changes and transformations to share their feedback at this juncture (whether it’s positive or negative). Keep open lines of communication with employees. You’ll help keep your employees motivated and excited to continue working for you, while also investing in the continued success of your company.
Ultimately, gathering input, crafting a narrative that illustrates continued commitment to employees and sharing information in a thoughtful manner will help your transformation process attain its goals.