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Linking Strategy to Action: Another X-Factor in Employee Engagement

Only a small number of companies successfully link strategy to action. Here are some ways to make that link quicker, easier, more inclusive, and at multiple levels within your organization.

Success Cycle

One of the three most important pillars in the OpX Workforce Engagement document is Connection (Empowerment, Enablement), specifically how a company communicates with employees and helps them understand the company beyond their day-to-day operational activities. When employees don’t see the bigger picture—vision, mission, strategy, action plan—or understand just how their work contributes to it, they are less likely to be engaged.

Under the Connection pillar, the OpX Workforce Engagement document describes just how the best CPG companies communicate a compelling vision, a well-thought-out strategic plan, a robust business plan, and the corresponding key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure that ensure success (see Success Cycle graphic, opposite page). But a recent Harvard Business Review article points out that only a small number of companies are actually successful at linking strategy to action.

Perhaps the most important reason for this is that those employees responsible for the day-to-day operational activities are rarely involved in strategy development because it is traditionally seen as the domain of senior-level executives. As a result, the corresponding action plan and operational KPIs for which plant-level employees are now responsible are not fully understood because they were not involved in their development or a robust rollout plan from leadership. In fact, because leadership did not solicit input from the shop floor, the connective KPIs and action plans might not be the best ones.


   To hire and retain the most engaged employees, you must invest in their training.

While the OpX Workforce Engagement document identifies some solutions to this dilemma, some recent work by the FSO Institute offers additional insights and experiences to make the link between strategy and action quicker, easier, more inclusive, and at multiple levels within the organization. Most importantly, it provides engagement opportunities for day-to-day employees to provide input and help them better understand the why of what they do and just how their work contributes to it.

To learn more about this new way of linking strategy to action, FSO Institute spoke with Dan Sileo, an FSO coach formerly with Procter & Gamble, Sunny Delight, and Sugar Creek Foods.

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INTRODUCING! The Latest Trends for Food Products at PACK EXPO Southeast
The exciting new PACK EXPO Southeast 2025 unites all vertical markets in one dynamic hub, generating more innovative answers to food packaging and processing challenges. Don’t miss this extraordinary opportunity for your business!
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INTRODUCING! The Latest Trends for Food Products at PACK EXPO Southeast