How To Communicate A Strategy That Sticks

How do you effectively formulate your strategy in a simple way? There’s various ways to do so, but I prefer the 5P approach to Strategy Formulation

Strategy formulation is notoriously problematic. Clearly formulating your strategy is tremendously important. After all, if you can’t communicate it effectively, your strategy basically doesn’t exist.

Having worked with different formats and models, I’ve found that the following approach works well. I’ve called it the 5P Model of Strategy Formulation.

👉 Purpose: Why
The reason you’re doing what you do. Call it mission, values, impact or anything else, your Purpose describes how you want to make a difference and thus WHY your organization should exist.

👉 Perspective: How
The future image of your organization, envisioning as clearly as possible what it should look like a few years from now. It makes it clear HOW your Purpose could be realized.

👉 Priorities: What
The focus you will have in terms of attention, effort and budget. To realize your Perspective, there’s always too much to do. Therefore, you need to prioritize so that it is clear WHAT you are going to do.

👉 Plan: When
The plans you make to achieve your priorities. This adds a time dimension to your objectives so that it is clear WHEN you are going to do what and in which order.

👉 People: Who
The people who will do all of this. Nothing happens without people. Therefore, it is essential to identify WHO is going to do what—while keeping into account they have other things to do as well.

Is the 5P Model entirely original? Of course not. It looks, for example, like the Pyramid of Purpose. But it is different as well (such as a different order of the Why, How, What questions). What matters most, though, is that it makes sense.

We can see that by looking at the relationships between the 5Ps. There’s a cycle that goes two ways.

Clockwise:

Purpose gives meaning to the Perspective
Perspective creates coherence for the Priorities
Priorities define what the Plan should cover
Plan shows what People should do
People define the Purpose

Counter-clockwise:

People execute the Plan
Plan makes the Priorities actionable
Priorities make the Perspective tangible
Perspective outlines how the Purpose can be achieved
Purpose drives the People

You see? It is coherent and complete in both directions.