How do you get the new strategy translated and told?

There is a new vision or strategy. But how do we get it to our people in an appealing way? A question that several companies have posed to Speak to Inspire in the past period and that we have answered in collaboration with the client in each case.

Here you can read the experiences of Bartho Boer (Director Communication NS), Henriette de Hoog (Senior Communication Advisor NS) and of Gijsbert Bary (HR Business Consultant ABN AMRO ABF).

Storytelling about strategy

"Speak to Inspire organized the Week of the Storytelling together with us. We were faced with the challenge to get our new strategy to all people through all managers in a short period of time. For this we did the storytelling training in one week in 4 countries for 80 executives in combination with creating and practicing everyone's own story with this new strategy.

In doing so, Speak to Inspire showed its top professionalism in three areas. 1) practical organization to fix this in one week, 2) challenging on the content and method of communication to the organization 3) innovative and extremely instructive during the training itself.

Continuously telling your own story is becoming an increasingly important competency within leadership.Something you need to keep training on, and Speak to Inspire has the right people and tools to guide you in this."

Gijsbert Bary - HR Business Consultant ABN AMRO Commercial Banking

The NS vision from paper to practice

"'Together we make the Netherlands accessible. For everyone.' We developed that vision at NS after discussions with more than 2,000 colleagues. Paper is patient, but our colleagues and travelers are not. They want to hear what this is going to mean. That is why we wanted 200 managers, who are leading the change, to tell this vision of the future to their teams. A real story with a clear message; up close and personal.A story that others in the company can relate to and warm to.

How to approach that? First, we developed a customized presentation training with Speak to Inspire, aimed at translating NS' new vision of the future into its own story. Then Speak to Inspire conducted a train the trainer for Bartho, myself and five colleagues from the Communications Department. Last step in the preparation: participate as a participant in the first few training sessions that Speak to Inspire set as an example.So that we could eventually give the training to managers ourselves.

We learned how to help colleagues make their message relevant to their specific departments. How to put that into an appealing story.And how to tell it with verve.

Then the baptism of fire. As long as it sticks to factual information, the initial training goes smoothly. It becomes more difficult to put a personal spin on it. "I have no idea how to start!" exclaims Jan, manager of a large team of financials at NS. He practices a second time, and with some tips from the group, it gets better. By the third time, it is clear: the story only works now that he makes the examples real and personal. No management talk, but simply saying what you are up against.It is precisely because of the reactions of his colleagues that he overcomes his diffidence.

The feedback on the training sessions was very positive. To quote one of the participants, "I had no idea how to start, but learned to put a personal spin on the story so you start easily and are on the right wavelength right away." This gave managers the confidence to carry the new vision forward. And gave our teams the inspiring manager they deserve.A great success."

Bartho Boer - Director of Communications NS and Henriette de Hoog - Senior Communications Advisor NS.

If you want the new strategy for 2019 to really land within your organization, we would love to help you! Contact us at info@speaktoinspire.nl or 020-4204068.