The power of a Strategic Narrative
Once you have contextualized your micro strategy and thought through your scenario planning – capturing this in a strategic narrative is a powerful inspirational leadership tool.
People get caught up in the day to day. The further towards the frontline we travel, the more our team members are dodging bullets and digging trenches. Its easy for them to forget what war they are battling when they are mentally so far from home.
Your strategic narrative ties this together. I provides the why and the what. It gives a succinct narrative of where we are and what we are doing next.
Im going to introduce a very simple but effective communication framework to help you capture a powerful strategic narrative. You can use this framework in any applicable communication, even if changing dinner plans for Friday…
Story telling in a nutshell
The world seems to have gone a bit bananas for story telling in business. While I do appreciate why and where full on story telling can be useful – the gap between basic (poor) communication in business and hard core Nike Jordan movie scripts is just too great. I find many people want to run before they can walk in the realms of professional story telling.
Let’s start with a basic jog:
If you think about your favourite film. Not a drawn-out, never-ending series. And not an 8 part Harry Potter opus – a single 90min to 2 hour film. The script normally goes something like this.
We meet the characters, understand their lifestyles and their environment: Jim is 25, chronically single but is fundamentally a nice guy. Jill just started in accounting, is beautiful and has recently broken up with her long term boyfriend. After some awkward scenes, Jim and Jill end up out on a date and all is good in the world.
We meet the tragedy: Just as you are filled with hope for mankind, Jill receives a text from her ex. His father has passed away and he is having a mental health episode. Jill feels bad, invites Josh over to talk. One thing leads to another, Josh snogs Jill. Jim walks in. Catastrophe.
We want to know how it ends: Despite Josh’s father passing away, he I still an arsehole. Jill sees the error in her ways and feels terrible. Jim is boarding a plan to escape the deep despair of his life and work environment after the Jill embarrassment. As the airplane doors are closing, we see Jill run up to and pound on the aircraft door through the little window – and all is right in the world again.
This is how every single film my wife chooses to watch goes. Every. single. one.
Why? Because that narrative structure works. And this is it:
The S C R framework
SCR stands for Situation Complication Resolution.
Situation: Why are we here? What are we trying to achieve? What have we learnt? What was the plan?
Complication: What has changed? What is new information that changes our plan? What has happened to derail or change our strategic direction? What new thing do we need to figure out?
Resolution: So, this is what we are going to do next in response. The focus remains unchanged despite the complication or we are changing focus as result. This is what we are going to implement or figure out next. This is the next action to help us move forward.
The value of the SCR is that it lays out the full story of what is happening so everyone is on the same page and has shared context. Lets look at a couple of examples:
Go-To-Market SCR:
“Our strategic focus for 2023 has been taking our new generative AI product add on to market. Focus has been on the banking sectors in Germany, the US, the UK and Canada. The first half of the year saw great interest from existing clients, sales partners and high priority prospects.
As the sales cycles have evolved, it has become clear that we need integrations into third party software solutions that are different to the standard integration of our core product. Building these will require different expertise and resources and may introduce IP risk.
We are setting up a cross functional task team to build a business case on whether this is feasible and advisable. This will be completed by end October in order to inform our AI strategy for 2024 – and give us time to engage Partners and Clients on the outcomes.“
This seems simple and obvious. Reading a good SCR often feels that way. But, three cautionary points:
Managers are often very poor at this. They assume everyone is on the same page in terms of context, so they “jump right in”. They figure out everyone is on a different page much later on and waste time and credibility.
Managers don’t repeat the narrative enough. “Surely they all understand what we are doing from the exec presentation in January”. Again, people have personal lives, day to day responsibilities, a myriad of collaboration points, staff to deal with and projects (theirs and others). Don’t assume what pertains to your strategic narrative is top of mind to them.
Managers compile and deliver it so poorly that it sounds like they don’t know what is going on. The professional SCR is NOT a movie script. It is a holistic but succinct narrative of why we are here and what we are going to do.
I often start a meeting with the SC of the SCR. The point of the meeting is to determine the R.
So, back to strategic narratives. Use the SCR framework to have a succinct one pager of what is happening in the business and how it influences the next steps in your team / department / function is very empowering for your staff.
The strategic narrative will help you:
Ensure you are aligned with you senior leaders. Getting them clear on your strategic narrative ensures they know where youre headed and why. Clearly and powerfully. They can spot gaps or redirect more efficiently. You can easily update it and circulate as things evolve
Identify any change in driving force, uncertainty, lesson or other significant and relevant complication that you haven’t accounted for and that may impact the resolution. Using your narrative, your senior managers, your peers and your team can easily spot if something is missing from the cohesive thinking and help build more effective next steps
Inspire your team. Understanding WHY they are doing what they are doing is purposeful. Linking what they are doing to business or functional strategy gives them insight into the strategic thinking of the business – this is always inspiring.
Being a clear communicator of strategic narratives makes you an inspirational thought leader in the business. It will help you achieve better outcomes, influence more effectively and be someone others want to work with.