In our recent article on why transformations so often fail, we noted that one of the top five causes is when transformation communications are treated like a project.
This article is the first of a series in which we put forth an alternative – brand-integrated narrative as a lever of value creation, value protection, and time to value.
Understanding brand and narrative
Senior executives understand that a strong brand is much more than the fun, visible elements like logos and taglines that the average associate or customer sees. An organization’s brand encapsulates the identity of the organization, encompassing its purpose, values, and the emotional capital vested in the company by customers, talent, investors, and strategic partners. An organization’s narrative is the aggregate of the stories and touch points which convey their brand’s purpose and values.
Integration of brand and narrative is make-or-break
At Adeptation, we believe – and have the firsthand experience to back our assertion – that brand and narrative integration is a make-or-break driver of enterprise transaction and transformation success.
When CEOs and operating company Presidents bet the future of their organizations on large-scale transactions and transformations, people seek clarity about the organization’s purpose and direction.
In the absence of a tightly orchestrated, brand-integrated narrative, people at all levels inevitably go off-script. The human tendency to ad lib, in the absence of knowing what to say, opens the door to misinterpretation that produces confusion and misalignment at best and alienation at worst. We expect most professionals reading this felt the weight of that last statement in their bones.
Brand-integrated narrative should be used as a strategic lever of value creation, value protection, and time to value. But all too often, the narrative needed to support transaction and transformation success is underdeveloped or inconsistently communicated.
Why? Well, few realize just how hard it is for leadership teams to define and deliver a clear, unified narrative that resonates broadly when these leaders are personally grappling with evolving identities and objectives while concurrently coaching their direct reports through the same, as well as leading intricate initiatives and work streams.
Organizations and their leadership teams achieve more compelling narratives through expert facilitation because being the first to contribute introduces professional risk at a time when identities and roles are in flux.
When do clients engage Adeptation?
We partner with organizations during high-stakes moments to shape how leaders, employees, and organizations see themselves. These high-stakes moments might happen at leadership off-sites, in the periods between spin-off announcements and investor roadshows, or at any point in transformations or transitions of ownership where coherent narratives are vital.
This work demands exceptional emotional intelligence, expertise, and leadership finesse because we are not only shaping the organization’s narrative, but we are also touching the very core, the heartbeat of the organization that underpins the governance layer – and that influences every executive in the room and the way they lead the organization going forward.
Brand-integrated narrative as a lever of time to value: A case study
One of our clients, a consumer goods company being carved out from a multinational conglomerate, engaged us when they were four months away from key deadlines in their transitional services agreement (TSA). Transitioning the new company’s IT and Digital infrastructure from on-premises to the cloud was a core part of the new owner’s value creation plan.
All core systems were changing. This meant the consultants and systems integrators working to ready the new ERP, CRM, eCommerce, HRIS, supply chain and logistics systems needed a high degree of partnership with business owners to map and redesign processes. Awareness and participation, however, was inconsistent.
The CIO asked us to shake the tree to secure business engagement and readiness. With only four months until the first TSA deadline – and a 10-figure financial penalty for missing it – we assessed the situation, developed a strategy, and stood up a communications and training hub by the end of our first week.
We knew that a brand-integrated transformation narrative, communicated by all members of the executive leadership team to all hands, would shake the tree and get business momentum behind the efforts. In the interest of time, we modified our usual process. We studied the company’s purpose and values as well as each executive’s role, leadership style and vibe from existing meetings and assets. Then we crafted one script with defined segments authentic to each executive and clear transitions to the next executive’s segment. The vision, rationale, script, directions for recording their video segments and deadline for completion were delivered as a complete package. We were effectively telling, not asking, the leadership team that we needed their video to drive awareness that this carveout and migration was not an “IT initiative” but something existential for the company. The authority to tell, not ask, is why you need a leader, not a lead, to orchestrate the narrative in high-stakes environments. Refer to our article why transformations so often fail to learn more.
The ELT was genuinely excited by our approach. The video narrative opened with the CEO’s overall vision for the company and its products. Then executives from Digital, Supply Chain, and Finance shared additional layers of the vision and how the new tech would enable their teams to deliver on it. Speaking last, the Chief Transformation Officer tied it all together – the ambitious vision for the future, the modern tech ecosystem, the pressing deadlines, and the work to be done to ready the new systems critical to the company’s success and achievement of its vision. The closing line incorporated the company’s tagline for maximum emotional resonance.
When associates watched the video, they heard the ELT speak as one voice supporting the brand-integrated transformation narrative.
The video shook the tree – it shaped the way the executives led their teams going forward, and the steady communications drumbeat accelerated business momentum behind the transformation work, achieving key deadlines – that’s time to value.
In our next article, part two of this series, we will explore brand-integrated narrative as a lever of value protection.