This is something I learned that takes time, but is definitely worth it…what I used to call “spend 5 hours now to save 60 later”.

This is particularly important in situations when controversial recommendations or findings will be presented. They tend to be large committees, cross functional, dealing with thorny issues where there will be “losers” and “winners” (like a change in cost allocation. Or recommended budget cuts. Or recommended process changes. Or any change). Or they can be situations where the team is now at a crossroads and needs to make a big change in strategy in order to get back on track. Or situations where what people think isn’t what’s actually going on, and it falls on you to communicate that.

For those situations, I have seen the value of “pre-selling”. Continue reading →