Why strategic goals and values don’t stick (and how to make them stick)

Every organisation wants its people to “live the values” and “understand the strategy.” You’ll see these phrases plastered across posters, intranet banners and onboarding decks and town halls. While it’s often written with genuine intention, more often than not, most people don’t remember any of it.

Not necessarily because they don’t care or they aren’t committed, but because organisations often forget one crucial thing: strategy and values only matter if people can feel them, not just read them. So, how does this fail and what can we do to address it?

Here’s why strategy and values fall flat

Employee recall of strategy and values is consistently low across industries. Not because the ideas are wrong, but because:

• They’re written in abstract language that no one uses in real life,

• They’re launched once and never revisited,

• They rely on a leader-led cascade that drops messages before they ever reach the frontline,

• They’re presented as corporate wallpaper, not meaningful guidance, and

• Perhaps most importantly: employees didn’t help shape them.

When people can’t visualise it, connect to it, or see themselves within it… it disappears.

The human way to make strategy stick

Instead of treating strategy and values like a broadcast exercise, the real opportunity is to treat them like a collaborative, emotional experience. Here’s the shift organisations need to make, by moving from:

1. “Announcing” to “co-creating”

People back what they build. When employees are involved in shaping new values or strategic priorities, it taps into ownership, identity and belonging. Suddenly, it’s theirs, not the CEO’s latest passion project.

2. “Explaining” to “showing”

If your values aren’t concrete enough to visualise, they won’t land. “Integrity” doesn’t paint a picture. “Speak up when something feels unsafe” does. Our brains store images, not corporate buzzwords.

3. “Cascading” to “surround-sound” communication

The old model of passing messages down the chain is broken. Reaching your people today means going directly to them: through channels they trust, voices they relate to, and formats they actually enjoy. Think peers, teams, leaders, videos, stories, short-form, long-form, digital and physical, but all working together.

4. “One and done” to “repeat with imagination”

Repetition builds memory, but variety builds engagement so if you’ve got new values… one email won’t cut it. You’ll need to use a variety of ways to reach your people. Think: videos, stories, leader anecdotes, team discussions, examples in action, cross-functional showcases. It may be the same message, but they’re all very different flavours.

5. “Corporate serious” to “seriously engaging”

Corporate communication doesn’t need to be dull to be professional. In fact, a lot of big corporates use things like gamification, creative campaigns, competitions, visual assets, team challenges to create moments people remember. Plus, memories strengthen meaning.

6. “Abstract” to “actionable”

If an employee can’t articulate what a value looks like in their role, it won’t influence behaviour. Concrete language bridges that gap to visual, practical and human comms.

The role leaders must play

Ultimately, strategy and values don’t live on intranets, because they live in conversations. Like team meetings, decision-making moments and in what leaders celebrate, question and tolerate.

We all learn what values look like in action; not what the values themselves are. So if you want the strategy and values to be remembered, lived and believed, the solution isn’t better posters or prettier slide decks. It’s what we covered above!