A blog post from David Polmer
A new leader couldn’t understand why her meticulously crafted strategy deck wasn’t landing with her business partners.
After months of nuancing each slide and second-guessing every sentence and supporting visual, her final product had done little to move the needle with her most important audiences.
Each time I opened the strategy file, the deck had grown—more slides, more declarations: Here’s what we do. Here’s what we don’t do. Here’s how to work with us. Here’s when. It was exhaustive.
Even still, it had polish and within all the text was a sound strategy. But the issue wasn’t clarity on paper. The failure wasn’t intellectual, it was relational. The strategy lived in slides, not in the hearts and minds of her business partners or team.
Yes, the team had had a heavy hand in putting the product together. Though, their effort was an exercise in interpretation. Did they capture the directives from their leader? Did each slide match her expectations? Regardless of the answer, the leader would rethink, reposition, and even restructure.
By the time the deck was done, her team had spent dozens of hours crafting a piece that didn’t have their stamp on it. They were tired, disengaged, and disinterested in shifting behaviors to support the updated strategy. Worse than their time lost to this exercise was the loss of trust in their leader.
When the leader presented the strategy deck to her peers, every meeting followed the same script: she talked, they nodded, no one engaged. She’d email the deck, which would disappear into inbox purgatory and hope that she’d moved the needle with these key partnerships. In reality, it was back to business as usual once the meetings were over.
What had been missed in the strategy process wasn’t refinement or greater precision, it was the investment in the relationship and in granting others the space to be included. More than just weeks of work lost, she’d lost credibility.
Months later, with no meaningful shift in behavior or support, she was ready to rethink the approach. We agreed to start again, this time without the deck as a starting point. We’d focus on her and team rebuilding the strategy as a shared journey, grounded in peer partnership, not presentation. We attacked this effort in four parts:
A Four-Step Rebuild Toward Alignment and Ownership
Step 1: Listen First
Gather insights from the team and key business partners. What’s working? What’s getting in the way? What would “useful” look like to those on the receiving end of the work?
Step 2: Reflect & Shape Together
Return to the same voices and share what was heard. Show how the approach would evolve to better align with their needs. Ask what might still be missing and invite corrections.
Step 3: Commit Collectively
Outline the new vision and highlight how their input shaped it. Define together what a healthy working relationship would look like and agree on how to evaluate progress over time.
Step 4: Codify the Strategy
Document the vision and shared strategy that everyone helped build. Capture how this partnership would change the working relationship between teams, the work itself, and the joint measures of success. And express gratitude for their investment.
Executing the plan took time and effort. It required the leader to shift her mindset. It wasn’t about proving her original plan right as much as making people feel seen, heard, and valued. The strategy began to take hold not through slides, but through behaviors rooted in shared belief.
Her team slowly shifted from tactical order takers to strategic thought partners. Other teams brought them into important work earlier, counted on them for insights, and trusted that their recommendations were made based on what was best for the business.
They succeeded by creating alignment from the inside out—helping partners align on strategy, story, and supporting behaviors, and turning communication into a catalyst for building trust, belief and ultimately better results.
Effectively communicating strategy is an art, not a directive. It creates space for others to participate, not just receive. When we treat strategy as a conversation about shared goals rather than a “pen to paper” task, we unlock alignment, ownership, and emotional commitment—not just agreement over words, but belief in direction.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR – DAVID POLMER
 |
David is a strategy consultant and certified executive coach who helps leaders elevate communication from directive to connective. He works with leaders and teams to communicate with intention, build trust and alignment, and drive impact.
David is an IABC Chicago Board member on the Professional Development & Events Committee. Join him and other IABC Chicago members in building a community committed to connection, growth, and the advancement of the communications profession. |