How To Write The Perfect Strategic Narrative

I get this question a lot:

Can you help me polish my strategic narrative so that it’s perfect?

Yes, I can, both in English and in French.

But let’s define what a “perfect” strategic narrative is.

• “Perfect” means impactful. Not beautiful.
• First and foremost, it means that you write it, and then you activate it. You do it alone, but not on your own. Get some help as needed. Most of the value of building a strategic narrative comes from the process of thinking strategically in complete sentences. The perfect strategic narrative writing process does not let you abdicate your responsibility. It’s the role of the CEO, Founder, or Business Owner to write it.
• We’re not here to commit an act of literature. The primary goal of a strategic narrative is to align people and ideas. The style needs to be functional and focus on brevity, clarity, and humanity.
• “Perfect” also means that it uses the language of the people you’re working on mobilizing: your participants. Writing a strategic narrative is an exercise in tactical empathy. Use words that recognize their beliefs and position before all.
• The structure is most important. A “perfect” strategic narrative will cover four dimensions: the origin, the opportunity, the perspective, and the product. During my talks, I go over this structure in great detail, and I teach everything about it to people just like you in The Strategic Narrative Workshop.
• This will seem counterintuitive: the ideal way to get to a perfect strategic narrative is first to make it imperfect. Use it in rough prototype form right away, even if you’re convinced it’s not ready. Then, get your strategic narrative out of the lab soon, even if it’s full of bugs. The final form is never final. Getting feedback from your team, community, and customers is crucial to increasing adoption from everyone. It’s a number one priority.
• Finally, a strategic narrative becomes perfect when it’s not written anymore but translated into business practices. Ultimately, it must show up in the form of new buying habits from your customers and new working habits from your team. The words of a perfect strategic narrative become almost invisible because actions replace them. When the members of a movement know by heart their narrative, they don’t need to read it anymore; they just know what to do.

Writing the “perfect” strategic narrative is not so much about beautification. It’s a lot more about execution.

Keep that in mind, and you’ll become a powerful narrative owner, not just a storyteller.