#Consultinghacks — How to come up with a strategic narrative for (almost) anything
Tags: Strategy, Narrative, Project Management, Presentation Tips, Consultinghacks

So many times in my career as a Management Consultant, I have been tasked the daunting job to come up with the first cut draft of a narrative to present to the clients. This narrative could be in any form emphasising the product or service we were selling, or just zooming in on the problem at hand, or how we intended to solve the problem statement. This initial cut usually evolves into a sculpted, backed by data, picture perfect deck that either serves as a presentation material or a reading material.

So what is the quickest way one can get started when they are tasked with this common job?

Source: concealedwines.com

1. Why are we here today?

As Simon Sinek says, start with ‘Why!’ It is important that this particular group of stakeholders should know why they are in that particular meeting that day. Use this space to set the context of the problem, why this project is monumental and the select commitments and mission as a whole.

2. What are we intending to do?

Having explained what the problem statement is, creates a nice segue for what we as consulting firm are intending to do about it. What are the steps involved in this multifold-kickass solution we are offering.

3. Who is going to be part of this?

The explanation about the activities will certainly create a lot of questions for the audience. So go ahead and talk about the roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders. Here’s where you analyse the stakeholder groups and cluster them under — who needs to be key focus, who needs to be just informed, who are the sponsors, who makes the key decisions etc.

4. How do we intend to execute this?

Usually the ‘what’ and ‘how’ segment gets overlapped because the minute we talk about doing an activity, the general reaction is — oh yeah? how do you intend to execute this?

Here is where we add the “Our Approach” or “Our Methodologies” or “Our framework” segment in the presentation to further support your proposition.

5. When is the intended timeline kickstarting?

In majority of project planning, the best discussions evolve during this stage of the presentation. Getting the stakeholders to co-create and agree on the key milestones and the time in which it is expected to be delivered is probably the single most important thing to clients, as it is generally tied to payments tied to these key milestones.

Make sure you add as much granularity to this segment as possible. If you’re doing this for the first time, check out this useful blog for some context.

6. What the future looks like as a result of this action?

More often, we hit the point in a discussion with stakeholders where they are convinced of the project impact but unable to picture what ‘change’ looks like. Make sure you don’t miss this and get creative here :)

One other thing that consulting firms recommend doing (besides adding numerous slides under appendix, which not many people read) is, including their portfolio. This is the section that typically showcases why they are the best at what they do, showcases their great different partnerships and key client works where they’ve already proven their solution/methodology works. Go for it, because you primarily need this in any proposal work but as any subsequent meetings that follow, you will not need to emphasise why the clients keep needing us. Just a good execution will speak for it :)