Strategy ideas can keep you up at night with excitement. If you’re truly passionate about your job, and think you’ve found a way to implement real change, you will be eager to get started right away. But how do you make your employees share your vision? Here are five tips to make sure the message gets across.
1. Emphasise benefits
When employees hear about a new idea or initiative, often they will only take away the message of how much work they will have to do in order to make it happen. That isn’t great for morale, and can often lead to criticism of the idea. Instead, make sure that they hear why you want them to try it, how it will benefit them directly, and what it will do for the company.
This is so important for creating acceptance of any strategy. It also means that employees will be more inclined to work harder on the new initiative, knowing what it will do for them.
When presenting the idea, start by saying why it was needed – what problem are you solving? Tell them what you will need them to do, but follow up immediately with the benefits and how it will improve their situation. This way you create a ‘sandwich’ of benefit, work, benefit.
2. Be flexible
Even though you may have thought carefully about your new strategy idea, there might be angles you haven’t considered. Often these will be viewpoints that come from your employees, usually in positions that you have no experience in. Since you haven’t been there yourself, it’s hard to envisage the issues or problems that may crop up there.
For this reason, you should stay flexible and open-minded with your discussion. When an employee complains or presents an obstacle, it’s easy to dismiss them as being resistant to change. Instead, listen to their concerns and see if you can create a solution. This will bring them on board, and will ensure a higher chance of success for the project.
3. Stay calm
Your idea might have you excited, but there’s no need to act like a giddy teenager. Too often, new ideas are swept away in a tide of fervent declarations about how great and game-changing they are. There’s a thin line between being excited about something, and being anxious – that same kind of energy can translate badly to your employees. Keep calm, and present with conviction to put your case across.
4. Use images
Instead of relying on words, create a presentation with images, charts, and graphs. This will bring the idea home better for some of your employees. Everyone processes information differently: some of us are listeners, some readers, and some get it better with a pictorial element. A presentation which combines all elements has a better chance of winning over everyone who sees it.
5. Show the big picture
You also want your employees to know how their actions and initiatives are actually making a difference in the outside world. Charitable companies always have great engagement with highly motivated employees, despite their low salaries. Why? Because the employees know they are making a difference. Your company is, too – so just make sure that everyone knows that. How are you making peoples’ lives better?Using these techniques, you can create a pitch which engages your employees, helps them understand the reasons behind the new strategy idea, and allows them to jump right in along with you. The result will be higher success rates as everyone gets behind new
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- 5 Tips On How To Pitch New Strategy Ideas To Your Employees - February 17, 2019
Like your progression of getting their buy-in through explaining the benefits first and then remaining calm when they realize you are proposing a shift in what they do, how they do, or not do something.