An Elegant Puzzle

My general approach to presenting to senior leaders is: Tie topic to business value. One or two sentences to answer the question “Why should anyone care?” Establish historical narrative. Two to four sentences to help folks understand how things are going, how we got here, and what the next planned step is. Explicit ask. What are you looking for from the audience? One or two sentences. Data-driven diagnosis. Along the lines of a strategy’s diagnosis phase, 39 explain the current constraints and context, primarily through data. Try to provide enough raw data to allow people to follow your analysis. If you only provide analysis, then you’re asking folks to take you on trust, which can come across as evasive. This should be a few paragraphs, up to a page. Decision-making principles. Explain the principles that you’re applying against the diagnosis, articulating the mental model you are using to make decisions. What’s next and when it’ll be done. Apply your principles to the diagnosis to generate the next steps. It should be clear to folks reading along how your actions derive from your principles and the data. If it’s not, then either rework your principles or your actions! Return to explicit ask. The final step is to return to your explicit ask and ensure that you get the information or guidance you need.