In many organisations, strategy has quietly shifted from a discipline to a story.

Boards and executive teams spend increasing amounts of time crafting compelling strategic narratives, vision statements, transformation journeys and ambition decks, yet far less time on the hard work of strategic thinking itself.

Narratives feel decisive.

Strategic thinking is slower, more uncomfortable and far less linear.

When the story leads and the thinking follows, organisations can project confidence while becoming strategically fragile.

The Comfort of the Narrative 🛋️

Strategic narratives play an important role.
They align stakeholders, mobilise effort and create coherence in complex environments.

But they are not a substitute for strategy.

Narratives simplify.
Strategic thinking must confront uncertainty, trade-offs and difficult choices.

When narrative begins to dominate, familiar signals appear:

• Strategy discussions focus on what we will say rather than what we will do
• Risks are reframed to fit the story rather than examined on their own terms
• Ambiguity is smoothed over instead of explored
• Confidence increases while optionality quietly narrows

The organisation sounds clear, but is thinking less clearly.

Why Narratives Take Over ⚠️

There are understandable reasons narrative displaces thinking:

• Pressure to project confidence to investors, markets and employees
• Shorter leadership tenures and faster decision cycles
• Cultural discomfort with uncertainty and doubt
• Board and executive settings that reward fluency over rigour

Narratives generate momentum.
Strategic thinking builds resilience.

In volatile conditions, momentum often wins, until it doesn’t.

The Hidden Cost of Story-Led Strategy 💥

When narrative replaces thinking, organisations tend to:

• Commit too early and too publicly to a single course of action
• Underestimate execution risk and second-order effects
• Miss weak signals that do not fit the story
• Defend decisions rather than update judgement

By the time performance issues surface, the narrative is often so embedded that changing course feels like failure rather than leadership.

What Strategic Thinking Really Requires

Strategic thinking is not about having the most compelling story.
It is about preserving the quality of judgement over time.

That requires:

• Holding multiple plausible futures in play
• Testing assumptions continuously, not just at annual strategy offsites
• Separating confidence in direction from certainty of outcome
• Creating space for dissent, doubt and inconvenient data
• Allowing the narrative to evolve after the thinking has changed

Good strategy is rarely neat.
It is adaptive, iterative and often unresolved.

The Role of the Board and Chair 🪑

Boards are critical in preventing narrative drift.

Effective Chairs and Directors:

• Ask what would have to be true for the strategy to fail
• Distinguish clarity of communication from quality of thinking
• Notice when challenge gives way to reassurance
• Create permission to revise the narrative without loss of credibility

Strong governance does not demand certainty.
It protects the organisation’s capacity to think clearly under pressure.
 
Final Thought 💭

Narratives matter, but they must remain servants, not masters, of strategy.

When organisations prioritise sounding confident over thinking deeply, they increase the risk of being surprised by events they should have anticipated.

In uncertain environments, the real strategic advantage is not the most compelling narrative.

It is sustained strategic judgement.

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