Giving your strategy its best chance - Strategic Narrative

In the 200 or so products I’ve worked with over the years, there have been some truly excellent strategic plans developed by the teams involved – cutting insight, opportunities and challenges uncovered, winning strategies innovated to meet them.

However, regardless of the quality of that strategic thinking, undoubtedly the greatest threat comes after their creation – in their capture and communication.

Inevitably it seems, these delicately nuanced arguments get boiled down into bullet points, charts and tables. In doing this, words and phrases that might challenge are replaced with the deliberately ambiguous. Important connections between insights and ideas are ripped apart and clumped in lists or abstract diagrams. Bullet points reign supreme.

We’re left with a strategic plan that is a pale semblance of the thought that went before. To the outside observer it appears to be largely generic and is hardly inspiring to senior stakeholders who must bless it, or to those who must ultimately implement it.

Sound familiar?

There is a better way - it’s called strategic narrative and it means capturing your strategy – with all of the nuances and interconnections - into a strategic “story”.  


If you’ve worked with Central before, you’ll know that diffusion of innovation (the force behind word of mouth) is key to our thinking, as it is the single greatest influence over a physician adopting a new therapy. We also know that people best pass on (diffuse) ideas and experiences through narratives (“stories”).

Therefore, when it comes to communicating a strategy to any level of stakeholder, a narrative is the best format with which to do it.

“A good story has a point that becomes clear through the telling. Likewise, a good plan lays out a vision – not just a generic platitude, but a fully enunciated statement of how the business creates value.”*

What does a strategic narrative look like?

In their paper published in the Harvard Business Review, Shaw, Brown and Bromily* discuss how these strategic narratives should flow through three sections:

1. Set the stage – define the current situation in an insightful, coherent manner
2. Introduce the dramatic conflict - What challenges does the company face in this situation? What critical issues stand as obstacles to success?
3. Reach resolution - the plan must tell us how the company can overcome obstacles and win

These interconnected sections need to be written as sentences and paragraphs that flow coherently, enabling the reader to fully absorb both what you strategically intend to do, or not do. The whole narrative should be between one and two pages long.

Engaging the reader in a narrative also gives them a chance to get enthused about the thinking behind it. Rather than cold bullets in a SWOT matrix, they feel the excitement engendered in the challenges and opportunities because they better understand the context behind them. This in turn has them anticipating the eventual resolution.

Senior stakeholders get the chance to assess and contribute to a strategy, fully understanding the context and issues around it. They can contribute more relevantly and endorse more whole-heartedly. The implementers of the strategy can feel the excitement of their tasks and make better informed decisions on the ground.

However, there’s another benefit to using strategic narrative over shorthand PowerPoint.

“Requiring that a plan have a narrative logic forces to the surface the writer’s buried assumptions about cause and effect. The act of writing a full, logical statement encourages clear thinking and brings out the subtlety and complexity of ideas.
Indeed, sometimes we sit down to write believing we have a clear idea, but our difficulty in getting it down on paper exposes the flaws in our thinking.”*

In short, you’ll create a better plan. It’s too easy to hide between bullet points and behind colourful charts. The strategic narrative ensures that your thinking is coherent and complete.

In putting together strategic narratives with clients I’ve found that in most cases the vast majority of the thinking is already there, ready to be captured. But without fail there are some critical gaps in knowledge or rationale that are highlighted. This is yet another benefit of the process – by going through it you just might find that flaw in your strategy that could otherwise unravel it.

How do you use the strategic narrative?

We all know that important meetings are won or lost before they start. Stakeholders need time to assimilate and then rationalize complex ideas, which is what makes pre-reading so important to any major discussion, and a strategic narrative is the ultimate pre-reading document (conversely a PowerPoint presentation, without the human presenter with it, must be among the worst).

It may be that you require a few charts to reinforce the strategy during the eventual live meeting, but the heavy lifting will already have been done.
When do you write it?

Now! No matter how early or late on you are in the development or marketing of your asset, there is a strategy to be communicated. I wrote one for a pre proof of concept molecule just last month!

Of course, writing a strategic narrative doesn’t come easily to all, especially the first time. It can also be difficult to put such a document together when you are so close to the project (“unable to see the wood through the trees”) and don’t have the time required readily available. As I previously mentioned, Central is experienced in putting these narratives together and would welcome the opportunity to support you in writing yours.

If you’re like me you’ll be right now feeling a little excited at the prospect of creating your narrative, but daunted at the same time. That’s excellent - it’s how all good things start.

Go for it!

*Shaw, Brown and Bromily, Harvard Business Review May-June 1998