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I just listened to a Stanford GSB podcast where Professor Jesper Sorensen said something that stopped me in my tracks:

“No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.”

He was talking about strategy, and how leaders often think it’s something you set once a year and then execute.

But the reality? Strategy has to adapt constantly.

 

And that means you need to be able to articulate your strategic thinking on the spot, in real conversations, when you don’t have your slides.

The problem is most leaders can’t. They freeze. They ramble. They lose the thread of their own argument when asked to explain their reasoning without preparation.

I see this all the time in ​The ISA​, and I saw it just last week with one of my students.

When Brilliant Strategy Meets Poor Communication

Vicky, one of my ISA students, is a regional leader at a French fashion company in Hong Kong. She was preparing for her monthly business review with the group CEO, and she’d done her homework. She’d analyzed the data, identified trends, built a compelling strategic case:

Her strategy was sound. Her argument was logical.

Then the CFO asked: “Given the sales decline, why shouldn’t we implement immediate cost-saving measures?”

Vicky knew the answer. She’d spent weeks building the case for why cutting costs now would kill their momentum.

But in the moment, she struggled. She started explaining August data, then jumped to European brand performance, then mentioned sportswear, then circled back to budget.

The executives looked confused. They couldn’t follow her logic.

She had all the pieces: the assumptions, the logic, the conclusion. She just couldn’t articulate the argument clearly when it mattered most.

This is exactly the gap that strategic communication needs to fill. You can have the world’s best strategy, but if you can’t organize your thinking when leading a meeting, kicking off a presentation, or answering tough questions in an interview, your strategy stays stuck in your head.

The Framework: SAR (Strategic Argument Response)

Here’s the framework I taught Vicky to organize strategic thinking in real time:

S: State Your Strategic Logic

Lead with your conclusion in one clear sentence.

A: Articulate Your Assumptions

Make your reasoning transparent and testable.

By stating assumptions explicitly, you enable constructive debate. Your team can say, “I disagree with assumption #2” rather than just “I don’t think that will work.”

R: Respond to the “So What”

Connect to business impact: profits, market position, or risk.

Notice the structure? Clear conclusion. Transparent assumptions. Business impact.

That’s how you articulate strategic thinking under pressure.

 

The Practice Challenge

Right now, imagine your CEO asks: “Why should we invest in your proposal over the three other options on the table?”

Set a 90-second timer. Can you answer using SAR?

S: What’s your strategic conclusion? A: What key assumptions are you making? R: What’s the business impact?

If you can’t answer clearly in 90 seconds, you don’t have a strategy problem. You have a communication framework problem.

Want to Master This?

Inside ​The Impromptu Speakers Academy​, we practice key frameworks in my 20-day self-paced program. You’ll get the reps, the frameworks, and the confidence to articulate your strategic thinking clearly when it matters most. More than 100 students like Jaime have immediately seen a difference within the 20 days.

 

No more freezing when asked tough questions. No more rambling through updates. Just clear, confident communication that commands the room.

Preston