What Is the SCR framework? Your guide to better business storytelling

The SCR framework is all about transforming a set of facts into a compelling narrative that demands action. It guides your audience through a structured argument so they naturally arrive at the conclusion you want them to reach. It stands for Situation, Complication, Resolution—a sequence designed to move people from passive agreement to active buy-in.

It’s especially powerful when you need to persuade—whether that’s convincing leadership to approve a new initiative, aligning a team on a strategy shift, or making the case for a big decision in a high-stakes meeting.

Why SCR Works: The Power of Narrative Tension

Humans process information best when it follows a story-like structure. If you just state the problem and your solution in a blunt, factual way—like:

"Sales are down, so we’re expanding into a new market."

…it feels abrupt and doesn’t build buy-in. People immediately start questioning:

  • Why are sales down?
  • Is expanding the right move?
  • Are there other options?
  • How urgent is this?

Since you haven’t walked them through your reasoning, they have to do the mental work themselves. And when an audience has to build the context on their own, they become skeptical instead of convinced.

From Stability to Urgency

SCR guides your audience through three distinct psychological phases so that by the time you present your solution, it feels logical, inevitable, and necessary.

Instead of just stating a solution, you first:

  1. Establish a Shared Reality (Situation)

    • What you say: “Last year, our sales were growing 12% quarter-over-quarter. Our core strategy was working.”

    • What it does: This grounds everyone in a non-controversial, stable starting point. It gets heads nodding. It answers, "Where are we?"

  2. Introduce Destabilizing Tension (Complication)

    • What you say: “But in the last six months, new competitors have entered the market, and our ad conversions have dropped. If we don’t adjust, we risk losing our momentum entirely.”

    • What it does: This is the pivot. It shatters the stability you just established, creating tension and stakes. It answers the crucial question, "Why is this a problem now?"

  3. Provide a Path Forward (Resolution)

    • What you say: “To counter this, we will expand into a new adjacent market and refine our ad strategy. This move will help us regain momentum and build a more defensible position for long-term growth.”

    • What it does: This is the payoff. It directly solves the tension from the complication. Your audience, already feeling the urgency of the problem, is now primed to hear the solution. It answers, "What do we do about it

The Key Shift

Instead of just presenting information, you build a case. You walk your audience through the logic so they see why action is necessary. The SCR framework takes them from:

Passive Agreement → Feeling the Tension → Demanding a Solution

That’s why it works. It doesn’t just deliver clarity; it uses clarity to generate urgency.

How to Use the SCR Framework in Your Own Presentations

Now that you understand the core dynamic, here’s how to apply it effectively.

1. Situation: Set the Stage

Before you introduce a problem, you need to anchor your audience by reminding them of the current state. The key here is to establish:

  • What’s working?
  • What’s normal?
  • What context does the audience already understand?

Example:
"Over the last year, our marketing strategy has been performing well, with steady customer growth and strong engagement."

Tip: Keep this part concise. The goal is to align everyone on the same page before introducing the complication.

2. Complication: Introduce the Tension

This is where you introduce the problem, challenge, or shift that makes action necessary. The complication is the reason why the audience should care.

Ask yourself:

  • What has changed?
  • What’s creating friction?
  • What are the risks if nothing is done?

Example:
"But over the last six months, competition has increased, our customer acquisition costs have risen, and our conversion rates have declined."

Tip: Make the complication feel urgent but not overwhelming—it should create a sense of we need to fix this, not we’re doomed.

3. Resolution: Present the Solution

Now that the audience understands why something needs to change, it’s time to introduce your solution—framing it as the natural next step.

Your resolution should:

  • Clearly solve the complication
  • Feel logical and inevitable
  • Show the benefits of taking action

Example:
"To counter this, we’re expanding into a new market with lower competition and refining our ad strategy. This move will help us regain momentum and position us for long-term growth."

Tip: Connect your resolution directly back to the complication so it feels like the right response to the problem—not just a random idea.

Making SCR Work for Your Audience

When applying SCR, keep these best practices in mind:

  • Make the complication feel real. If your audience doesn’t feel the problem, they won’t care about the solution.
  • Keep the situation short. Avoid long backstories—get to the complication quickly.
  • Frame your resolution as the next logical step. It should feel obvious and necessary, not like a gamble.

More Resources on SCR & Presentation Structure

If you want a deeper dive into how to structure persuasive presentations using SCR, check out the step-by-step guide in the Presentation Design Toolkit.

Previous Post Next Post

Related Posts

Story fuels the motivation that drives action.

TLDR: Logic makes people think, but a great story is what makes them act. We analyzed Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie's TED Talk to decode how he turns a compelling story into a persuasive call to action. In this edition, we break down how Hamish McKenzie structures his TED Talk to create that effect—and how you can use the same moves to give your message more traction, urgency, and staying power. Some talks explain what you've built. Movement-building talks articulate what you believe. This is the difference between a presentation that informs and one that ignites. It’s the strategy you see in pivotal TED Talks and high-profile keynotes—especially when someone is introducing a fundamental shift in how we work, live, or create. It does more than just explain an idea; it builds energy around it by giving the audience a reason to care and a role to play in what comes next. But how do you get from belief to action? Story fuels the motivation that drives action. A story reframes your idea inside a broader change, helps people see themselves in the future, and creates the momentum needed for true buy-in. Today, we're breaking down a masterclass in this approach: “This Is What the Future of Media Looks Like,” a TED Talk from Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie. It’s structured around belief and designed to spread. We’ll look at three moves he makes that you can use to give your own message more traction, urgency, and staying power. Let's dive in. Move #1: Frame the Moment, Don't Just State the Topic Movement-building talks don’t ask the audience to simply consider a new idea. They place the audience inside a turning point and make the stakes feel shared and personal. This urgency begins in the first minute. McKenzie starts with a bold, high-level assertion: “We’re living through the most significant media disruption since the printing press.” He’s not just saying "media is changing." He’s naming a once-in-a-century transformation and putting the audience directly in the center of it. The seemingly small shift to "we" makes the moment feel collective and the story deeply relevant. How to Use It: Open with a shift that’s already in motion—something your audience is feeling, noticing, or quietly wrestling with. Anchor your idea as a timely and necessary response to that change. Move #2: Give the Change a Clear Shape At the core of McKenzie’s talk is a simple, powerful arc: an old system, a period of chaos, and the emergence of something new. This structure works because it mirrors how we naturally make sense of change—by looking back at what broke to understand what must come next. He gives each phase a memorable name:  The Temple: Top-down, centralized media.  The Chaos: Fragmented platforms ruled by algorithms.  The Garden: A slower, more human model built on trust. By walking the audience through this sequence, he gives them a logical and emotional path to follow. The future doesn't feel like a radical leap; it feels like the next inevitable step. How to Use It: Use a three-part arc to lead your audience through change. Whether you’re introducing a new strategy or rethinking a process, show where we were, what broke, and where we’re going. Give each phase a name to make it stick. Move #3: Use a Metaphor That Challenges the Norm The worlds of tech and media often describe change with metaphors of speed, scale, and domination. McKenzie chooses a different route. In a culture of acceleration fatigue, he offers something unexpected: a garden. This metaphor is a brilliant counterpoint. It does three things instantly: Reframes disruption as growth. It shifts the story from violent upheaval to something organic and worth tending to. Challenges dominant narratives. It questions the assumption that bigger and faster is always better.  Creates emotional resonance. A garden feels personal, resilient, and communal—precisely what creators seek in a chaotic landscape. This isn’t disruption-as-destruction; it’s disruption-as-restoration. The metaphor makes the future feel less like something to brace for and more like something to build together. How to Use It: If you're in a space where everyone uses the same tone or analogies, choose the opposite. A well-placed contrast can reset expectations, shift the frame, and make your message unforgettable. Wrap-up McKenzie’s talk shows how powerful a message becomes when it’s framed as part of a larger story. By establishing a shared belief, mapping out the journey, and offering a hopeful vision, he makes his idea feel meaningful and urgent. That’s the ultimate win. You create a message that’s easier to remember, easier to share, and far easier to get behind.

Learn more

The thing that breaks the pattern will stick

TLDR: Your audience is going to forget almost everything you say—that’s not an insult, it’s just how our brains are wired. The secret to making your message stick isn't to talk louder or add more data, but to strategically break the pattern of your presentation to jolt their brains awake at key moments. In today's edition, we'll show you how to use this powerful 'Isolation Effect' to make your ideas unforgettable. Your audience will forget 90% of what you say. The question is, which 10% do you want them to keep? Most presentations are a data dump. We leave it to the audience to sift through the noise and find the message. That's not a strategy—it's a mistake. The best communicators don't leave memory to chance. They use a psychological trigger called the Isolation Effect to make their key ideas unforgettable. By strategically breaking a pattern, they put a spotlight on what truly matters. In this edition, we'll show you how to use this principle on your slides, in your delivery, and with your data, so your ideas don't just get heard—they get remembered and acted on. What's a lonely apple got to do with it? The principle gets its more formal name, the Von Restorff effect, from the psychiatrist Hedwig von Restorff, whose research in the 1930s first formally showed that when you're presented with a set of similar items, the one that differs from the rest is the most likely to be remembered. The classic example is simple: If you see a list of numbers—9, 17, 4, 32, Apple, 12, 28—your brain instantly latches onto "Apple." When you look at that list, the outcome seems obvious. Of course "Apple" stands out. This doesn't exactly feel like groundbreaking information. And yet, for as simple as this principle is, it’s rarely something we think about consciously when we build our presentations. As you've learned in past editions, our brains are built for efficiency. To save energy, they get incredibly good at recognizing and processing patterns. A deck full of text-heavy slides is a pattern. A speaker talking at the same pace for 20 minutes is a pattern. Once your audience's brain senses a predictable pattern, it settles into a low-energy mode. They might be hearing you, but they aren't truly processing the information with any priority. The Isolation Effect is your tool for deliberately and strategically breaking that pattern at key moments. Each time you introduce something unexpected, you force the brain to wake up, spend a little extra cognitive energy, and pay attention. You’re essentially putting a flag on a specific piece of information, signaling to the subconscious, "This is one of the important ones. File this away." Putting the isolation effect to work This principle is one of the most satisfying to apply because the results are so immediate. Here are a few ways to use it for your key points 1. Isolate Visuals on a Slide. This is especially powerful for data that tells a story. Imagine a bar chart showing a full year of sales data, but your core message is that the third quarter's outstanding results drove the year's success. Instead of making all the bars the same color, you would make every bar a muted gray except for the Q3 bar, which you would make a vibrant, contrasting color. This instantly anchors your entire narrative to the most important fact on the slide, ensuring the audience sees the main takeaway unequivocally. 2. Isolate Key Slides in Your Deck. Your presentation's structure is a pattern. If you have three core pillars in your argument, introduce each one with a slide that breaks the established visual pattern. For example, in the last Stripe Sessions keynote, John Collison broke a long sequence of text/data based slides with a single, full-bleed photograph of penguins. The stark visual surprise was used to underscore the main message that their technology unlocks truly unexpected outcomes. This technique creates a powerful, memorable "chapter heading" for each key idea. 3. Isolate Moments in Your Delivery. Just as you can isolate multiple visuals, you can isolate multiple moments. For each of your main points, you can use your voice as the isolation tool. Right before you state a critical takeaway, pause. A full two seconds of silence before each key message creates a series of anchors, giving each point its own space and gravity. A word of caution: The risk of misplaced emphasis The Isolation Effect is a powerful tool, but like any tool, it can be used in the wrong place. Its effectiveness depends entirely on what you choose to isolate. Be mindful of these common traps: Isolating the trivial: If you use a dramatic pause or a vibrant color to highlight a minor supporting detail, you risk signaling to your audience that this is the main point. You're inadvertently telling them to remember the wrong thing. Overusing the effect: If you try to make five different things on one slide "pop," you create visual noise. The Isolation Effect works because it creates one point of difference against a consistent pattern. Remember: when everything is special, nothing is. The goal is not just to make something stand out, but to make the right thing stand out. Before you apply it, ask yourself: "If they remember only one thing from this slide, what do I need it to be?" Use the effect on that, and only that. Wrap up A primary goal of most presentations is to ensure the audience walks away with the handful of key ideas you need them to remember. The challenge is that the default for most communication is for everything to blur together. We focus on sharing all the necessary information, leaving the work of prioritizing it to our audience. The Isolation Effect changes that. It gives you a tool to intentionally build a structure of memory for your audience. Each time you use it—by changing a color, a slide layout, or your vocal pace—you are building a "mental signpost" that says, "This is important. Pay attention to this."

Learn more

Revealing data in stages: A smarter way to present

TL;DR: When you show all your data at once, you force your audience to play catch-up. A simple shift—revealing it in layers—helps them follow your thinking and absorb what matters most. That chart makes perfect sense—to you. You’ve been in the data for weeks. You know exactly where to look and what the numbers mean. But your audience is seeing it for the first time, and it’s a lot. Every bar, label, and number competes for their attention. They’re squinting at the chart, trying to find the key point you just mentioned while also trying to follow what you're saying. Most of the time, they miss both. Take this example:You’re presenting results from a Q3 email campaign. You say, “We saw a 40% jump in open rates, but conversions stayed flat compared to Q2.” That’s a strong setup for a deeper conversation. But if Q3 is buried in a full bar chart—no highlight, no clear anchor—people start scanning. They’re hunting for Q3. By the time they find it, they’ve missed what you said next. Here’s the fix: reveal your data in stages.Instead of putting everything on the slide at once, walk your audience through it one step at a time. Think of it like pacing a good story—you don’t start with the ending. Here’s one way to break it down across a few slides: Slide 1: Set the stage.Start with just the context or the baseline. Help your audience get oriented before the numbers start rolling in. Slide 2: Add the key insight.Now bring in the standout result—highlight it, label it, make it unmistakable. Slide 3: Show the full picture.With everyone grounded in the setup and focused on what matters, expand the view. Now they’re ready to take it all in—and actually understand it. This approach isn’t about simplifying the data—it’s about simplifying the path to understanding. A quick example from the stage At ConvertKit’s Craft + Commerce conference this year, Chenell Basilio used this exact strategy in her keynote. She was telling the growth story of Sahil Bloom’s newsletter. Instead of showing the full line graph up front, she started with just the early growth phase. No clutter. No labels. Just enough to make people curious. Then, once everyone was with her, she revealed the full timeline—and labeled just one moment: The Ask. That was the move that drove his exponential growth. And because it was the only label on the slide, it stood out instantly. That’s the power of revealing data in layers. It gives your story structure. It helps your insight land. Wrap-up People can’t process everything at once. And when a chart demands too much effort, your message gets lost. But when you walk your audience through the data step-by-step, you help them focus, follow, and remember.

Learn more