IABC Master Class: From Shared Clarity to Coherent Action: What Senior Leaders Told Us About Communication's Role in Strategic Alignment

To execute a strategy, someone needs to connect it with the people who carry out the work. That means helping them reach a shared understanding of the direction, then keeping their decisions, trade-offs, and course corrections coherent as the strategy moves (a constant reality today). Senior leaders in our research see communication professionals as well placed to play that role. They also see a function too often stuck at the tactical end, asked to announce strategy only after it's set. The gap between the role comms could play, and the one it is usually asked to fill is the opportunity this masterclass explores.

IABC is proud to have partnered with Zora Artis and Wayne Aspland on their third global study on strategic alignment. This study draws on 55 interviews with CEOs, Chiefs of Staff and senior leaders across five continents. Those leaders were candid about where communication falls short today, and equally clear about what it could become.

Session 2 (8 December): A strategy refresh or announcement is one of the moments when communication professionals are most visible, and most likely to be asked for a launch plan or campaign. We use it as the working case for this session. What does your role look like in each of the four shifts, from early planning through to the months after the announcement? Where does it start and stop, and who do you need alongside you? We explore how to help leaders tell a consistent story, give executives evidence they take seriously, equip people leaders for the conversations that matter, and keep the strategy coherent when it needs to pivot.

Both sessions are interactive. If you have a strategy refresh or announcement on the horizon, bring it with you: you’ll have time to test the ideas against your own situation and compare notes with peers from around the world.

You'll walk away with greater clarity about the role you can play, more confidence to step into it, and strategic and practical steps on what to do and how to do the work.