Information engagement is a military concept that has some utility in the corporate arena, especially in large, far-flung companies. In essence it means how are you going to tell the story of your portion of the business to your team, as well as the senior leaders in the company. It’s not marketing. It is your group’s narrative and how you decide to convey it to your team, your bosses, customers, potential customers, and potential employees. Whether you are in the military or the corporate world it is especially important in a geographically dispersed organization.

Telling stories is one of the most powerful means that leaders have to influence, teach, and inspire their team. An organization’s stories, and the stories its leaders tell, help solidify relationships in a way that factual statements encapsulated in bullet points or numbers don’t. One concept for leaders to think about is narrative. A narrative is simply the story of your team. It helps to connect the disparate people, locations, and events that you oversee into a coherent story. It also is a way to showcase your teams commitment to the company’s values and the company’s culture. Most corporate leaders use one of three types of narratives:

• Turn Around — Think the business is bad and we are coming together, rolling up our sleeves, and turning the business around.

• Struggle — Think the business is confronted with big challenges and we are working together, persevering, and overcoming those challenges on a regular basis.

• Progress — Think the business is going well and we continue to work together and make it even better.

As you think about what narrative to use as a leader, think about the big things that happened to you and your team over the last six months. Did they fit into more of a turn around, struggle, or progress story? What is the story going forward into 2022?

Information Engagement Strategy Example

Let’s say you recently got promoted the regional manager (not the assistant to the regional manager) and you are supervising 100 stores for your company.

• The first decision to think through is what is my information engagement style? Some leaders may decide that “I’ll let my results speak for themselves.” Even so, it’s an information engagement strategy. Just make sure it is a conscious decision and you have selected it because it fits with your personality and helps represent your portion of the organization in its best light. Others may decide that they are comfortable telling the story of their team through emails, pictures on internal company sites, and pictures or storiesn on social media.

• The second decision is what is going to be the narrative? Are we in the midst of a turn around, a struggle, or progress? Once you have selected one narrative theme it is important to stick with it for at least six months.

• The third decision is what is my Internal Information Engagement Strategy? How am I going to use zoom calls, power point decks, weekly virtual meetings, and weekly written updates to tell the story of our portion of the business? How am I going to use internal company sites to tell the story through pictures or stories? How am I showing that we are supporting the company’s culture and values?

• The fourth decision is what is my External Information Engagement Strategy? How are you going to tell the story of your part of the organization outside the organization? How am I showing that we are supporting the company’s culture and values? What methods are you going to use? Other leaders are right now using social media, podcasts, TV and radio interviews, or chamber of commerce meetings to tell their story and the story of their company to others.

  The external story may need to go even farther than the internal story. For instance, the external story might also be a subtle way to attract talented people to work in the business. Or it may be a means to showcase the company’s low prices, outstanding products or incredible customer service?

• The final decision is how am I going to measure the effectiveness of the Information Engagement Strategy? What metric am I going to use? What date am I going to measure it? And when am I going to relook the strategy and see if we need to do something different?

TFCG’s Information Engagement Strategy

Part of my own information engagement strategy was to go on 10 podcasts in 2021. This is #10! The Do Hard Things Podcast with Jay Tiegs. Jay is a fellow cyclist and we had a great discussion. Here is the link to the show.

Conclusion

Use these ideas on information engagement strategy to tell your team’s story, improve your leadership style, and go on the offense in 2022.