I recently watched a video by Vinod Khosla (video later in the newsletter) on fund-raising. His point was deceptively simple:

When investors decide to fund a company, the decision happens first. The logic arrives later to explain a decision that has already been made. 

Although he was speaking specifically about fund-raising, the underlying pattern shows up far beyond pitch decks and is quietly unsettling, if you’ve built your career only on logic, rigor, and proof - people feel their way to a yes and then use logic to justify that feeling.

Teams commit to strategies before results exist; customers buy before value is fully experienced; partners align before outcomes are proven. In all of these situations, data, logic, and rigor matter deeply. But they rarely come first - the emotional decision almost always precedes the rational explanation. 

Most leaders we work with are not poor communicators. They are clear, thoughtful, and deeply informed. They have done the analysis and can explain their reasoning step by step. And yet, despite all of that, things stall. Their plan makes sense but fails to generate commitment or buy-in. 

What’s missing in these moments is usually the absence of narrative sequence. Facts presented without a story ask the listener to do too much work on their own. People may understand what is being said, but they do not know how to place themselves in relation to it, or what the decision is asking of them next.

When storytelling works, it resolves a set of unspoken questions that people carry into any high-stakes decision:
Why this, and why now?
What changes if this works?
What remains broken if it doesn’t?
What is being asked of me in the meantime?

By answering these questions implicitly, storytelling creates emotional readiness. The same data that once felt unconvincing begins to feel obvious, because it now has somewhere to land.

This is why storytelling is not an optional layer that leaders add at the end of a decision. It is often the mechanism that allows people to move forward when certainty is incomplete and waiting is not an option.

As you head into conversations this year that require alignment without full proof—whether with investors, teams, or stakeholders—it helps to pause before reaching for slides or spreadsheets.

Ask yourself what emotional decision needs to happen first, before logic has anything to explain. That question often does more work than most frameworks, because once you know the movement you are asking people to make, the story tends to reveal itself.

Think about an upcoming conversation where certainty is incomplete but commitment is required. In a single sentence, write down what you are asking people to believe before you can ask them to agree. That sentence is the beginning of your story.