I had my Covid-19 booster jab this week. Even with the new Omicron variant in circulation, the analysis of boosters is extremely positive. Early results indicate that a third jab can increase antibody levels 35-fold as well as tripling the number of T-cells, which work to destroy infected cells and guard against severe disease.
The first jab step-changed immunity, and the second further raised protection. But, as the resistance offered by the first two shots wanes over six months or so, the third injection rapidly restores your protection levels.
The impact of the jabs has reminded me of the importance of ongoing strategy communication. While big strategy meetings can generate huge excitement and optimism, the urgent demands of day-to-day issues act to quickly weaken those feelings so that, just a few weeks later, it’s as if the strategy session never happened.
Regular formal strategy execution sessions are important, but so too are your more informal meetings. If you assume that a strategy lasts three years, that you work 200 days a year and that you have 10 meetings a day, you have up to 6,000 (3 x 200 x 10) opportunities for strategy conversations. Each of these opportunities is a chance to boost your organisation’s collective strategy antibodies and to beat back the infection of exclusive short-termism.
And, perhaps a little like the nurses delivering the vaccines, you might end up bored saying the same thing at every meeting, but I assure you that your people will not. It is the frequency and consistency of your strategy message that builds the collective awareness, understanding and commitment needed to boost your chances of strategy success.
Off The Record: My Shot from Hamilton: The Musical
I am not throwin’ away my shot
I am not throwin’ away my shot
Hey yo, I’m just like my country
I’m young, scrappy and hungry
And I’m not throwin’ away my shot
Written by Collins, Ortiz, Muchita, Miranda, Troutman, Trotter and Johnson
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Stuart Cross 2021. All rights reserved.