How to Define and Communicate Your Organisational Intent
Introduction
What is your grand narrative? How do you define and communicate your organisational intent? These are crucial questions that every organisation should ask themselves, especially in today’s competitive and dynamic market. A grand narrative is the organising principle that underlies your organisation’s purpose, values, culture, and goals. It is the story that you tell your customers, employees, partners, and stakeholders about who you are, what you do, and why you matter. A grand narrative can help you stand out from the crowd, build trust and loyalty, inspire, and motivate your team, and drive innovation and change.
But how do you create a grand narrative that resonates with your audience and reflects your identity? And how do you communicate it effectively across different channels and platforms? In this blog post, we will guide you through the process of defining and communicating your organisational intent. We will show you how to identify your core elements, align them with your customer needs and expectations, involve your stakeholders and employees in the process, and use storytelling techniques to craft a compelling and coherent narrative. We will also share some tips and tricks on how to choose the right channels and platforms to reach your audience, use consistent and authentic language and tone, incorporate visual elements and multimedia to enhance your message, and encourage feedback and dialogue with your audience. By the end of this blog post, you will have a clear understanding of what a grand narrative is and how to define and communicate it effectively.
How to define your organisational intent
Identify your purpose, vision, mission, and values.
Your purpose is the reason why your organisation exists and what impact you want to make in the world. It should answer the question: why do we do what we do?
Your vision is the long-term goal that you aspire to achieve and what you want to be known for. It should answer the question: where do we want to go?
Your mission is the specific and measurable objective that you pursue and how you deliver value to your customers. It should answer the question: what do we do and how do we do it?
Your values are the principles and beliefs that guide your actions and decisions and define your culture. They should answer the question: how do we behave and what do we stand for?
Align your intent with your customer needs and expectations.
Your intent should not only reflect your identity, but also resonate with your target audience and address their pain points and desires. You should conduct market research and customer feedback to understand who your customers are, what they need, what they expect, and how they perceive you.
You should also analyse your competitors and identify your unique selling proposition (USP) and value proposition (VP). Your USP is what makes you different from others in your industry and why customers should choose you over them. Your VP is what benefits you offer to your customers and how you solve their problems or satisfy their needs.
Involve your stakeholders and employees in the process.
Your intent should not be created in isolation, but rather in collaboration with your stakeholders and employees. They are the ones who will help you execute your intent and communicate it to others. You should involve them in the process of defining and refining your intent, as well as soliciting their feedback and input.
You should also communicate your intent clearly and consistently to your stakeholders and employees and ensure that they understand it and embrace it. You should align your policies, processes, systems, and incentives with your intent, and provide training and support to your team.
Use storytelling techniques to craft a compelling and coherent narrative.
Your intent should not be a dry statement or a list of bullet points, but rather a story that captures the essence of who you are, what you do, and why you matter. You should use storytelling techniques to craft a compelling and coherent narrative thatconnects with your audience emotionally and intellectually.
Some of the storytelling techniques you can use are:
Start with a hook: a catchy phrase or a surprising fact that grabs the reader’s attention and makes them curious to know more.
Use a structure: a clear beginning, middle, and end that guides the reader through your story and makes it easy to follow.
Use characters: humanise your story by introducing yourself or someone else who represents your organisation or customer, and show their personality, emotions, challenges, and achievements.
Use conflict: create tension and drama by presenting a problem or a challenge that needs to be solved or overcome and show how your organisation or customer does it.
Use resolution: provide a satisfying conclusion that shows how your organisation or customer achieves their goal or solves their problem, and what impact or benefit it has for them or others.
Use sensory details: make your story vivid and memorable by using descriptive language that appeals to the senses of sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste.
Use metaphors: make your story more engaging and relatable by using figurative language that compares one thing to another in a creative way.
How to communicate your organisational intent
Choose the right channels and platforms to reach your audience.
Your intent should not be confined to a single document or website, but rather communicated across different channels and platforms that suit your audience’s preferences and behaviours. You should choose the right channels and platforms to reach your audience effectively and efficiently.
Some of the channels and platforms you can use are:
Website: create a dedicated page or section on your website that showcases your intent clearly and prominently, and link it to other relevant pages such as products, services, testimonials, etc.
Social media: create profiles on popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc., where you can share your intent regularly through posts, stories, videos, etc., as well as interact with your followers.
Blog: create a blog on your website or on a third-party platform such as Medium, where you can publish articles that relate to your intent or demonstrate it in action through case studies, success stories, best practices, etc.
Podcast: create a podcast where you can discuss topics
Conclusion
In conclusion, your grand narrative is the organising principle that underlies your organisation’s purpose, values, culture, and goals. It is the story that you tell your customers, employees, partners, and stakeholders about who you are, what you do, and why you matter. Having a clear and engaging grand narrative can help you stand out from the crowd, build trust and loyalty, inspire, and motivate your team, and drive innovation and change.
To define and communicate your grand narrative effectively, you need to follow four steps: identify your purpose, vision, mission, and values; align them with your customer needs and expectations; involve your stakeholders and employees in the process; and use storytelling techniques to craft a compelling and coherent narrative. You also need to choose the right channels and platforms to reach your audience, use consistent and authentic language and tone, incorporate visual elements and multimedia to enhance your message, and encourage feedback and dialogue with your audience.
If you need help with crafting your grand narrative and training your people in storytelling, contact us today. We can help you create a story that matters for your brand.