The board already has a strategy. They want a vote.

Directors who ask for “a growth strategy” often have three versions in email already. What they lack is a packet short enough that dissent has nowhere to hide. Forty slides let everyone nod. Nine slides with a date force someone to say no.

The Board Narrative Lab is three days because that is how long it takes to throw away the travel photography and keep the staffing line. We put the non-entries on slide two, not in an appendix. If Vietnam is a vanity, it belongs in the same type size as the revenue chart.

Management teams sometimes use a long deck to delay a fight between siblings or between a plant and a trading company. We are not mediators. We will name the delay if it shows up in the document. If they need a family lawyer, that is a different invoice.

A useful packet includes the thing you wish were not true: a customer concentration, a quality scare, a founder who still closes. Leaving it out does not make the board brave. It makes the first credit-committee meeting a surprise.

If you want the lab calendar, use contact. If you want the longer operating cycle, read the mandate.