As a leader, how do you connect employees with the purpose—and the why—of your company or organization? In other words, how do you enable your vision to translate into action? I’ll offer a hint: it’s more involved than some think.

My question is inspired by a seasoned leader who told me that one of the mistakes he made his first time as a CEO was that “as soon as I communicated my vision, I expected it would cascade throughout the organization.”

It didn’t.

Leaders must create a process that helps employees make the connection between a corporate vision and the specific job they are supposed to do. That’s a communication task that’s not to be taken lightly.

First, you need to fully align the leadership team.

Second, you must create the expectation that they will cascade that alignment and understanding into their organizations.

Third, you have to set the expectation that the next levels will cascade it into their organizations… and so on.

Fourth, you have to test and validate that this is all happening properly, all the way to front line employees. If not, readjust and test again.

Above all else, you want to avoid the game of telephone, in which even simple messages get jumbled beyond recognition as they are communicated multiple times.

One last point: as a leader, you can repeat the same vision 30 times and still not get the outcome of an aligned organization that understands what matters and why we are here. You have to step past the message and create a process to adapt it for use across all the different corners of your organization.