The art and strategy of scenario writing

Abstract

From the point of view of a successful scenario writer for Royal Dutch Shell, there are several there are several artful techniques that go into crafting and presenting business scenarios. The first is art of keeping it short. To do this at Shell the author produced two different products based on two distinct mental disciplines: (1) thorough research leading to rich, fully articulated stories (the full scenario book); and (2) the distillation of these stories into essential concepts and images (a little book that was widely read and distributed). Any scenario author seeks to create new patterns of thinking in the mind of the managers. Therefore, model the scenario as if it were a stage set created by words. The managers are the actors who will animate it by their participation in each alternative scenario world. This then is the design goal for any scenario writing: engage the managers to step into the play and make it their own. The author’s method is to stimulate the development of scenarios in their minds to the point that they are just not hearing a memorable story but they are experimenting with it and imagining alternatives.

Citation

Flowers, B.S. (2003), "The art and strategy of scenario writing", Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 31 No. 2, pp. 29-33. https://doi.org/10.1108/10878570310698098