Moving beyond strategy and into behavior
DTU (The Technical University of Denmark) compiles a wide range of research fields which often speak their own “language”, so how do you get all the different departments to understand and work according to the same strategy? The DTU leadership team are strong visionaries, but implementing a strategy is always difficult in a large and complex organization with lots of professions and diverging interests.
The solution we designed together
Together, we made a development program that focused on
- Turning the strategy into concrete action by centering communication around the audience
- Setting a direction for all by being explicit about DTU’s core values
- Making the strategy relevant to all different fields and functions across the university by showing concrete actions
The outcome
The leadership team come out of the training sessions with tools for turning the strategy into action and hands-on experience in using them. The tools included
- Crystal clear leadership communication: always focusing on purpose
- Storytelling: creating connections in your communication that link concrete initiatives with the values and direction of the organization
- Argumentation: choosing the right arguments according to the situation and the audience
The leadership team left with a better understanding of how leadership communication is not just a matter of top-down but also bottom-up. They can now unite macrolevel strategy initiatives with a microlevel perspective that shows employees what kinds of behavioral change are expected of them. Therefore they can now communicate with the audience as their focus.