Explaining to employees that the company is going to concentrate on a narrow span of activity when their daily experience is that some customers really value the services you are dropping is a tough sell. And my experience is that leaders underestimate the scale of this task and hope to achieve it through a few well-worded communications.

In fact the challenge is about finding a way to explain the detailed implications of the strategy to employees in a way that is relevant to them. Most staff understand the overall slogans without difficulty – where they struggle is in translating the grand-sounding exhortations into something practical.

In order to make it all work, we need to help middle managers explain, debate and lead with clear advice and what’s changing and what’s stopping.

Liam