Communicating Strategy

If you don't communicate your strategy in a way that your people understand and find compelling, how can you expect them to help you succeed with it? Research suggests only 5% of the people in an organization understand its strategy. If that is true for your organization, whose strategy are the other 95% implementing? Not yours, that is for sure.' Phil Jones' Communicating Strategy is designed to help you communicate your strategy in a compelling and effective way, and dramatically improve implementation and the resulting outcomes. It provides a clear framework for building a communication plan as well as practical information, techniques, tools, tips and exercises that can be applied to explain and deliver a complete and coherent message. With guidance on how to create change champions, the book is vital reading for senior managers globally.

Table of Contents:
1. They don't get the strategy 2. Ten heresies 3. Communicate what, to whom and why? 4. Understanding and Motivating Change 5. What's in it for? 6. Developing the story of the strategy 7. Let me tell you a story 8. The aligned management team 9. The handcuffed organization 10. Developing your communications strategy and plan 11. Final thoughts Appendix: The channels - communicating the message

About the Author :
Phil Jones is a strategy and performance management specialist. During his career he has helped many organizations develop, communicate and implement their strategy better in organizations as diverse as retail and investment banking, insurance, FMCG, utilities, leisure, manufacturing and IT services. He has worked in the UK, Europe, the US and Far East for organizations ranging from multi-nationals, FTSE100, SMEs, to start-ups. In the public sector he has helped organisations that include City Councils, MoD, NHS Trusts, the Department for Work and Pensions and Strategic Health. Phil's background includes a corporate strategy planning role and in the management team of a dot.com as well as extensive management consultancy experience with the niche consultancy Renaissance set up by Norton & Kaplan (authors of the original balanced scorecard books) as well as both KPMG and Price Waterhouse. He now runs Excitant Limited to help organisations turn strategy, into performance and results through their people.

Review :
'This book represents an informative and innovative addition to the literature on business strategy that should interest company executives and academics within fields of business organisation and business development' - Economic Outlook and Business Review 'The messages in this book are important for anyone interested in strategy! Phil Jones discusses the critical issue of communicating strategy - and what's best - he communicates his messages in a very engaging and easy to understand manner.' - Bernard Marr, Chief Executive, The Advanced Performance Institute 'Even the most well conceived strategies can be next to worthless if they are not communicated properly, understood fully or used to shape decision making actively - at all levels in an organisation. Phil Jones' insights into how businesses can make this happen are remarkable for their clarity, well grounded and - best of all - demonstrably effective! He has created a wonderfully pragmatic guidebook for achieving success.' - Ken Douglas, Technology Director, Office of the CTO, BP International Ltd 'This book sets out to give you the tools to make decisions for yourself and develop your judgement...It isn't a step-by-step guide (thank goodness) but rather suggests options that you can apply with confidence to your own particular situation and that gets you thinking for yourself...It's a user-friendly book, refreshingly free of management-speak. Once you've read it I'm pretty sure it won't go back on the shelf but will become a part of your armoury in the challenging world of business, strategy and maybe even relationships.' - Edge Magazine 'Each chapter of Communicating Strategy poses practical business strategy questions. If you can answer them, you've obviously read the book - if you can't it's time you did!' - Philip Dearing, Managing Director - Mutual One Limited 'Everything in this book is obvious - after you have read it. It is a practical book you can use and apply every day, as well as being a guide to planning a larger communication strategy.' - Martin Coombes, Partner, Innovation LLP 'Communicating Strategy articulates a route to success by both building on the strengths of relationships at work and by demonstrating how to deal with the disconnect that can occur in leading change when strategy is not jointly owned. Above all, it is apparent that the author has walked the walk!' - Shelagh Grant, Chief Executive, The Housing Forum 'One of the most valuable features of this book is the questions posed by the author. In each chapter, Jones lays out questions that require readers to come to grips with the extent of their knowledge of his concepts as they relate to the readers' organizations. The questions are not for review, not for contemplation at the ends of chapters but instead seem to create an ongoing internal dialogue to allow the reader to collaborate with Jones on customizing the materials for his or her needs...' - Communicating Research Trends