How does the business strategy complement mission, vision and values communications when working to build an intentional culture?
The first step of building culture is when leadership define the goals of a company and how those goals will be reached. Those concepts are most often stated as mission and vision statements. Both statements are fairly concrete and act as touchstones that guide long-term and day-to-day business decisions.
Of course, values are also a part of the cultural construct. While the mission and vision define the organizational direction, the values are there to guide how decisions are made and how employees should generally behave in pursuit of the company goals.
The business strategy is made up of the initiatives and tactics that help the company achieve those goals. They’re measurable. They’re actionable. They specifically instruct how the various roles within the company are expected to collaborate in pursuit of the vision. While business strategies shouldn’t shift around every day, they are, by definition, more fluid that the vision and mission. Finding ways to include the business strategy in communications is a great tool for driving an intentional culture.
Our job as an internal communications agency is to drive engagement and align the day-to-day actions of employees with the vision of the leaders of the organization – to help employees understand how their individual roles contribute to the success of the enterprise.And while there are many things that contribute to or detract from employee engagement, Tribe’s recommendations concentrate on three main drivers: 1) Belief in what the company does. 2) Trust in leadership’s vision and direction. 3) Employees understanding how their roles support the vision.
Cultural ideas like mission, vision and values are just words until they’re attached to something tangible. With articles, videos, podcasts and other internal media, we aim to highlight modeled behavior so that others can easily envision what good looks like within the culture.Internal communications should support all of these elements. But Tribe most often focuses on calendarizing pillars of the business strategy and highlighting the teams that have the greatest impact those initiatives. Then we work to wrap the conversation in values that most closely supports the example.
Of course, this can’t be achieved in a single communication. We work with our clients to plan out communications over time to ensure that we hit on the major initiatives and can highlight the values that should be guiding behaviors. Thoughtfulness in developing the calendar ensures that we spread the love throughout the organization so that the conversation isn’t too HQ-centric or focused on just a few pet topics.Using the business strategy to engage employees and drive culture requires collaboration with leadership and a certain level of resolve. Need help building an intentional culture? Tribe can help.
