Get in the room
The reason people tune out
Start answering the right questions.
Most leaders don't struggle because they lack substance. They struggle because their message doesn't land.
It sounds like this: "I want to give you some context…" "Let me walk you through what we did…" "There's a lot here, but…"
I say this with care: your listener doesn't.
High-stakes listeners are tracking Crux. Change. Choice. That's it. Three gaps to close — every time:
Noise → Crux. You share every interesting detail. They're scanning for the headline: what's the point, and what's at stake?
Narrative → Change. You describe what you do. They need to hear the impact of it.
Neutrality → Choice. You stay descriptive. They're waiting for decisive: what you want them to do next.
Try this: Before your next meeting, talk, or pitch, force everything through three questions:
- Crux: What's the headline? The point? What's at stake?
- Change: What transformation does your work bring about?
- Choice: What do you want this person to do next?
If it doesn't clarify one of those, cut it.
🌿 Cut, cut, cut til' you crux, change, choice.
→ Get the weekly briefing
Run it
Stop solving the wrong problem
Overcoming the Objection Loop.
You've seen this one. You present an idea. Someone says: "That's interesting… I just have a few concerns."
It sounds reasonable. Measured, thoughtful, professional, even. So you do what smart people do: you address the concern. You tighten the numbers. You clarify the logic. You fix the slide. Problem solved!
But then they raise another. And another. And another. Round and round you go: you keep solving, they keep raising more.
When someone raises a concern, test before you solve. Because most objections aren't problems to solve — they're signals to decode.
Try this: The next time someone raises a concern, don't jump into fixing mode.
Step 1 — Name it. "That's a fair point to raise. Before we solve for that specific concern, I want to make sure I understand the bigger picture."
Step 2 — Set a boundary. "If we could address that concern completely, would you be ready to move forward?"
Step 3 — Create safety. "Or are there other factors we should put on the table now?"
- Clear yes? The barrier is isolated.
- Hesitation? You've just uncovered the real issue.
This one formula can save you weeks of pain.
🌿 Test before you solve.
→ Get the weekly briefing
Change what happens after you leave
The window matters more than the pitch
Identify the path.
In high school, I won the National Debating Championship. Embarrassingly, long past high school, I still believed the work was perfecting the argument. Tighter evidence. Stronger framing. Better answers to the hard questions.
Then I watched weaker ideas get adopted. And I started to realise that the work was actually being in the right rooms at the right moments.
Institutional adoption doesn't happen in response to good ideas. It happens at specific moments.
Whatever your field, there are windows. A multilateral financing instrument being drafted. A national sector plan under design. A new minister in their first hundred days. A major retender that locks in priorities for years. Miss these windows and you wait another cycle.
So how do you get in the right rooms at the right time? The third phase of DRIVE is Identify the path — and it's four moves:
Assess winnability. Which contexts have political will, an open window, partner density, and momentum?
Map timing windows. Financing cycles, political cycles, operational triggers.
Map the decision chain. Who decides, who influences the decider, who can block. The formal decision-maker may not be the real one.
Define the first win. The smallest foothold that creates momentum.
Try this: Map the next three institutional windows relevant to your work. For each one: what document is being drafted, who owns it, and what would you need ready to influence it?
🌿 Timing is not luck. It's research. Make it easy to say yes at the right moment.
→ Get the weekly briefing