Make the link: It’s not as obvious as you think

With so much going on day to day, a simple yet powerful comms practice often gets overlooked: making the connection between people’s work and your organisation’s strategy.

Assuming you do have a solid organisation strategy and a genuine commitment to deliver it, there’s still a critical gap many communicators miss:

Your people don’t automatically connect the dots between what they do and where the organisation is going. You have to help them. Explicitly and repeatedly.

I was reminded of this while refreshing our own organisation’s communication strategy this year. It’s so easy to assume the link is obvious, especially when you’re close to the work. That when we communicate something once or twice, everyone gets it. That your people will “just know” that initiative X, policy Y or project Z is part of a broader strategic goal. The truth is they don’t.

Even your most engaged people are busy, distracted, or heads-down in their own work. So when they hear about a new system rollout or an updated process, they’re not always thinking, “Ah, yes, this is clearly contributing to pillar three of our 2025 strategy.”

It’s our job as communicators to make that link and to keep making it. I know it’s not a flashy part of the job, but it’s one of the most powerful things you can do to connect your people to purpose.

It’s easy to get lazy on this stuff. We create a beautifully crafted comms strategy at the start of the year and then it gets shoved in a drawer once the BAU chaos kicks in. We default to output over outcome and forget the discipline of making the connection to strategy stick. We assume people will "get it" because we get it.

Sometimes, in the push to prove we’re strategic, we overlook the slow and steady work that earns trust and builds influence — the work that ultimately gives comms a seat at the leadership table. The discipline of reinforcing how work connects to strategy might feel dull, but it’s what helps people with short attention spans make sense of change and shows leaders the value of communication done well.

Before we go on, I want to be clear that this isn’t about forcing employees to love corporate strategy, or turning every team member into a strategic mouthpiece. Many people simply want to do their jobs well, feel supported, and go home with energy left in the tank. That’s entirely valid.

But most also want clarity to understand what’s changing, why it matters, and how their work contributes. Making the link to strategy is about creating meaning, consistency and, crucially, respect.

Respect means treating people as though they deserve to know the bigger picture and communicating with the assumption that they’re smart, capable, and more likely to engage when you take the time to show how the work connects.

This is not just something we do in our comms materials. Our role is to help leaders, project teams and others make this connection easier to see and easier to explain.

Six simple ways to make the link

Here are six very simple ways I’ve done this in my work over the years.

1. Create a strategy message bank

Build a set of go-to messages that link projects and updates to your strategic priorities. Keep them sharp, flexible and easy to reuse. It’s especially useful for leaders and teams who don’t live in the strategy deck. No more digging through old speeches or updates. Create a ‘Central Station’ for consistent, strategic messaging.

2. Always add the “why it matters” line

nclude a short line that ties the story back to strategy. It could be as simple as: “This initiative supports our goal to become a leader in X by 2025.” One sentence is often enough to help people place the update in a bigger story instead of seeing the communication as a random update.

3. Weave it into every touchpoint

Touchpoints like town halls, team updates, launch events, screensavers and digital signage are a chance to reinforce your strategy. Encourage leaders and teams to explain why something matters and how it supports the bigger picture. Repetition may feel dull to you, but when it brings clarity, it’s a sign of alignment.

4. Use your external comms to reinforce the internal message

Employees read the news, scroll LinkedIn, and notice what’s being said externally. And they compare it to what they experience inside. What happens internally is often reflected externally and vice versa. So make sure your strategy shows up in social media, media releases, newsletters and public events. It builds consistency and credibility for your people, while signalling direction to the outside world.

5. Call it out in video content

Video is one of the most engaging formats we have, and there’s plenty of research to back it up. Not everyone loves to read, but most people will watch a short clip. Whether it’s a CEO update, a project explainer, or a short piece for LinkedIn or your intranet, use video to clearly say out loud how the topic connects to your broader strategy.

6. Never miss an opportunity to reinforce

Strategy shouldn’t live in a slide deck or a once-a-year town hall. It should show up in the day-to-day language of the organisation. Rather than hammering it home, the goal is to gently reinforce, again and again, that what we do is not random. It’s intentional, and it matters.

This isn’t rocket science. But in the rush to keep up, it’s easy to forget the basics. Showing people how their work connects to the bigger picture doesn’t need big budgets. Just some discipline, consistency and respect.

Next time you're communicating an update or writing a story, ask yourself: Have I made the link clear, or am I assuming people will just know? It’s not as obvious as you think.