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Big Picture strategy communication

An innovative way to engage employees in your organisation's strategy

A business strategy is only going to succeed if you can get employees at all levels to understand, support and deliver it.

The Big Picture is a highly successful technique to turn your strategic aspirations into concrete reality. A Big Picture is a visual analogy for the journey your organisation has embarked on. It exploits the power of images and storytelling to make your strategy convincing and meaningful.

The Big Picture is a potent way to show where an organisation has come from, its position today and where it's going. Crucially, it helps employees see where they fit in and how they can become part of the success story.

Axiom's approach

We work with you to develop an original visual metaphor for your Big Picture. This process should include discussions with senior management and representatives of frontline staff. One of our illustrators then executes the metaphor as a large-scale illustration.

Typically, the Big Picture is used as the centrepiece of a management conference or other major event that launches the strategy. It then forms the basis for briefings and action-planning discussions between line managers and their teams across the organisation. This is what brings the strategy to life locally.

The Big Picture approach will:

• help leaders explain the organisation's strategy clearly, consistently and compellingly
• trigger storytelling - the world's most effective communication technique - throughout the organisation
• provide a common language and reference for staff to understand and discuss strategic issues
• show everyone how they can contribute to the success of the organisation.

Big Picture benefits

• Greater engagement in your strategy or change programme
• Enhanced productivity even during an unsettling period
• Faster and fuller delivery of the strategic outcomes

Proof that it works

Can we prove it works? Well, our clients can. Research among their employees shows the impact of the Big Picture approach.

Just one example. Following a Big Picture communication for Manchester Airports Group, the client's employee opinion survey found that:

• 76% of employees had a clear understanding of the company's objectives and vision
• 93% of people managers understood how they could contribute to the strategy
• 87% of senior managers believed the Big Picture had helped bring the strategy to life.

Our Big Picture approach has won communication awards for clients including AstraZeneca, Co-operative Financial Services and United Utilities.

Want more proof?

• AstraZeneca
• Manchester Airports Group
• Mölnlycke Surgical
• United Utilities

To talk to us about engaging your employees in the Big Picture, use our contact form or call us on +44 (0)1329 833411.