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Strategic Narrative

Shape your story to inspire and unite your people

What is a Strategic Narrative and why is it important?

A strategic narrative is an organisation’s story. It brings their mission, vision, purpose and values into a holistic, unifying and compelling narrative.

Your strategic narrative does more than say what your organisation does – it says who you are, why you exist, where you’re going and why people should join you on your journey.

What is a Strategic Narrative and why is it important?

A strategic narrative is an organisation’s story. It brings their mission, vision, purpose and values into a holistic, unifying and compelling narrative.

Your strategic narrative does more than say what your organisation does – it says who you are, why you exist, where you’re going and why people should join you on your journey.

The benefits of a Strategic Narrative

  • A unifying purpose that brings your people together
  • A shared vision that your people feel they own and feel part of
  • A story that helps your people understand and connect more strongly with your values
  • A clear picture of what good looks like when it comes to behaviours and competencies
  • The foundations for an authentic and compelling employer brand

Our approach:

When we develop a strategic narrative, we make sure we get all the ingredients right. Then we turn it into a story your people are proud to be part of. 

Explore the steps we take below.

Step one
Understanding who you are

We’ll work with you to evaluate your existing narrative, mission, vision, values and behaviours. Do they still align with your strategy and where you are heading?

Step two

Adding your people’s perspective

If needed, we’ll run surveys and focus groups to help you understand what your people think and feel about your story. We’ll capture their stories, too.

Step three

Writing your story

Our creative experts will write your story in a way that connects and makes an impact with your colleagues.

Step four
Embedding it

We’ll develop the internal and external communications plans and toolkits you need to embed your strategic narrative with your people.

Step five
Sharing it

If you need support rolling the story out across the talent lifecycle, we’ll be ready to help.

Recent strategic narrative projects:

The LEGO Group were reshaping their Talent Acquisition team and they wanted to form closer connections with business functions and explore clever ways to deliver even more.

They needed their story to be shared with everyone else in the organisation so that everyone knew it was changing for the better and what it meant for them and their working relationship.

We involved the Talent Acquisition team to define the promise they were going to deliver.

  • We uncovered their story

  • their vision

  • and their team character

The result was a team aligned around a shared narrative, energised by a clear sense of purpose and equipped with a story they could confidently tell.

How we unlocked the potential of a collaborative culture for the recently merged team at University of the Arts London.

We designed discussions and held conversations to bring the recently restructured team together – to take a pause and plan ahead. We helped the team come up with

  • a shared vision for SMRA that was relevant and inspiring

  • four values that resonated with the team and reflected the ways they’d achieve their vision

  • behaviours that made each value actionable and showed how they’ll be lived out day to day. 

Our work united the team, encouraged collaboration, sparked meaningful conversations, and clarified the vision and values that could inform day-to-day decisions and sustain the initiative over time.

“Workplace culture isn’t a slide deck - it’s how people feel, behave and belong. And we give a damn about getting that right.”

Meet our culture experts:

Richard Badley

Richard Badley

With over 20 years of experience, Richard loves using data to tackle organisational challenges and measure employee engagement - he developed our Organisation Network Analysis framework to do just that.

Hafsa Aziz

Hafsa Aziz

Hafsa has been consulting organisations for over 8 years in culture change, strategy and people development.

 

Abbie Leonti

Abbie Leonti

With more than two decades in digital advertising and communications, Abbie has seen firsthand how powerful the right culture can be. She is driven by the belief that inclusion and strong cultural foundations enable teams and organisations to truly thrive.

Sarah Sturgess

Sarah Sturgess

As our Chair & Managing Director, Sarah has shaped SMRS into the organisation it is today - and has helped employers around the world create better environments for their people.

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