We’re a few minutes into a coaching session, and the PM is walking through the strategy.
“It starts with sourcing…our relationships are strong…then how we underwrite risk…the team has been together a long time…the track record…and how we construct the portfolio…”
I stop her.
What’s your 1–3–1?
When teams want to be compelling, they often default to more——more detail, more slides, more proof.
But more without structure doesn’t compel. It confuses.
In the last note — One, Big, Clear Idea — one idea sets the frame. The rest of the story lines up behind it.
This is the discipline:
One, big, clear idea. Three points that build the case. One takeaway that travels.
Start with the one.
The idea that makes the decision easier. The answer to the problem you solve.
Not a list of strengths.
Then three.
Three points that build the case for the idea. If a point doesn’t strengthen it, it doesn’t belong.
Structure it in three. Go deeper on each.
Then one again.
The takeaway. What they should say when someone asks, “Why them?”
Most presentations don’t fail because they lack content. They fail because the content doesn’t build a case—or the case isn’t clear enough yet to be built.
So they keep talking. It feels safer to add than to reduce.
But the decision doesn’t get made on everything you said. It gets made on what someone else can repeat.
The 1–3–1 forces that moment.
It turns a deck of information into a reason to choose.
