Does your organisation have strategic clarity?

Posted by  Shawn Callahan —July 5, 2010
Filed in Strategy

This evening I was reading Business Model Generation (thanks Tom Graves for sending me a copy). It’s an approach for designing your business model and comparing it with others, such as your competitors. It is one of many approaches that illustrates the phenomenal effort that goes into developing business models and strategies. Yet despite all this strategic effort leaders often assume that everyone will just know and understand the strategy and their role in it.

Without strategic clarity, a clear understanding of the strategy that everyone knows, strategy development is a waste of time.

So here’s a little test you can apply to your organisation. Don’t be too alarmed if you fail many of the questions, many organisation do. But if you do, come and chat to us about strategic stories.

5 questions to test whether your organisation exhibits strategic clarity:

  1. Can the executive team simply and clearly describe the strategy without referring to notes (or powerpoint slides) aided only by simple sketches they make themselves?
  2. Does the executive team all believe in and describe the same strategy?
  3. Do the decisions and actions leaders make confirm the strategy, especially what is said ‘no’ to?
  4. Does everyone in the organisation knows the strategy and understands how their work supports it?
  5. Does the organisation’s significant others understand the strategy (partners, clients, suppliers) and how they play a part?

About  Shawn Callahan

Shawn, author of Putting Stories to Work, is one of the world's leading business storytelling consultants. He helps executive teams find and tell the story of their strategy. When he is not working on strategy communication, Shawn is helping leaders find and tell business stories to engage, to influence and to inspire. Shawn works with Global 1000 companies including Shell, IBM, SAP, Bayer, Microsoft & Danone. Connect with Shawn on:

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