Who Are Your Business Case Heroes And Heroines?

Who are the business case heroes and heroines you leverage when working with colleagues and clients?

Consider that every business case you create includes a cast of characters you either include or exclude.

• Possibly because you never even considered these people as part of your story.
• Or, if there is going to be a hero or heroine, and it is not your products or services, then, voila! You easily cast yourself as hero.
• Also because you utilize business cases only as tactical, transactional  enablement tools.
• As a result, you overlook the power of use- and business-cases as living, breathing chronicles of your organization’s values and ethics, as well as performance.

However, when you expand your perception of business cases into exceptional stories, you discover a cast of remarkable heroes and heroines contributing to each remarkable and enduring client-focused outcome you co-create. (Note: I use the term “hero” throughout the remainder of this post as a gender-neutral, inclusive term.)

Ever consider that as you relate a business case to current and potential clients, you tell a story?

First, the new story you tell evolves one millimeter beyond a traditional business case. Remember, the main purpose of traditional business cases is to justify investment in a project or task in anticipation of a commercial benefit. Consider that the translational value of the story you co-create and tell together happens when your story expands beyond serving as a pretty fairy tale where everyone lives happily ever after.

Next, the story you tell expands the cast of characters included in that business case. Everyone morphs beyond serving in functional roles defined by the professionally-specific tools leveraged. As a result, you start including non-traditional players whose job titles, pay grades, education, professional disciplines, and generations are different than yours. (And working with some of these professionals may intimidate you or make you uncomfortable.)

Also, your business case story not only justifies client investment in your products and services. Instead, clients are compelled by the heroes in your stories, non-traditional cast members. Rather than fixing what is broken, these heroes are liberated from their traditional behind-the-scenes roles. As a result, they utilize their skills to anticipate and innovate for what is ahead, so you better serve clients together.

Discover how to translate the strategic business and human capital value of your co-created stories into the language and mindset of partners and stakeholders throughout your organization. 

When you perceive a business case as a translational tool with a transformative outcome, your client narrative changes. Often dramatically.

So do your internal conversations with colleagues. Because you expand the cast of characters included in each use-case. Also, your own perception of your professional purpose becomes more inclusive and diverse, enriched by the knowledge you gain from working with these heroes. As a result, your own professional habits change one millimeter at a time, as a result of each purpose-driven, productive, and profitable cast member hero in each story. Everyone has a role to play, no matter how big or small. Together.

These are the stories clients really want to hear, as we move forward into 2021, together. About the stuff they really need to know. So that clients and colleagues trust you will get to where you really need to go. When clients become part of the story, too, you do not go “back” to anything which preceded that relationship. Instead, you all move forward towards what is possible and what is next, together. One millimeter at a time.

Are you ready to create your post-pandemic use- and business-cases, combining voice of the customer methodology and storytelling? Then take this next step because it is more than time to take action.

Planning your next team, corporate or association meeting? Searching for a one-on-one catalyst to get you unstuck? Engage me to present a One Millimeter Mindset ™ program! Delivered virtually or in-person. Contact me here.

Babette Ten Haken leverages purpose-driven storytelling for professional innovation, cross-functional leadership and trust-based client retention. She serves organizations and associations wrestling with the impact of the 4^th industrial technology revolution on 3^rd industrial revolution business and hiring models. Her One Millimeter Mindset™ programs translate across communication disconnects between people and professional disciplines. Lead teams and clients co-invested in the strategic business and human capital value you bring to the table together, one millimeter at a time. Her playbook of cross-functional collaboration, Do YOU Mean Business? is available on Amazon.com. Contact Babette here.

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