The ACE Masterclasses Podcast

When work becomes messy, where do you start?

Skill 03 · Structured Thinking. Nick and Mark on how consultants bring order to unclear problems, chaotic processes and too much information: MECE thinking, rapid structured scanning, fishbone diagrams, whiteboarding and prioritising by impact and feasibility.

For anyone expected to create clarity when the answer is not obvious. Learn it in the room or at your own pace: ace-masterclasses.com

People spend evenings and weekends perfecting decks, send them a week in advance and still arrive at a meeting where nobody has read them. Why does this keep happening?

In Skill 02, Mark van der Burgt and Nick Breukelman explore decision writing: how to structure a document around the decision it needs to support. They discuss why documents become too long and how to make them easier to read, discuss and act on.

The conversation covers the 10-page rule, cover memos, SCQ, the pyramid principle, appendices, stakeholder management and the difficult art of killing your darlings.

A practical episode about creating focused documents and respecting the reader’s time.

Why do companies expect people to communicate clearly, structure complex information and build decision-ready presentations, while rarely teaching them how to do it?

In Skill 01, Mark van der Burgt and Nick Breukelman explore storylining: the ability to turn complex information into a clear, logical story people can follow. They share the lessons that made the biggest difference in their own careers, explain why this skill matters far beyond presentations and discuss how the lack of practical hard-skills training led them to start ACE Masterclasses.

An open conversation about clarity, structure and making complex ideas easier to understand and act on.