How I helped a council-controlled organisation improve its board papers
The board chair was newly appointed. Most of the board members were fresh faces. They were all highly experienced directors – professionals whose entire working life was sitting on boards.
Not sitting – reading. Their work was reading packs of board papers and going to board meetings.
At this organisation, the board packs were well over 300 pages long.
They were also:
detailed and highly technical
unnecessarily formal
a mix of operational and strategic-level content.
The board chair needed things to change.
What the organisation asked for
They asked for techniques to help people realise that boards needed a different level of information from senior executives, saying:
‘You can’t put a report to the senior leadership team into the board template and expect it to work’.
They asked for help getting people to take pride in their board reports. They wanted to change the perception that board papers were an annoying extra. They wanted people to see communication with the board as a vital part of achieving the organisation’s strategy.
They asked me to show people what a modern, concise writing style looks like. The goals was to hit the right level of formality and not rack up the word count.
Oh. And the chair’s parents were English teachers, so they wanted correct grammar too!
What I delivered
1-day training for the board paper writers
Half-day training for the senior leadership team, so they clarified their goals in commissioning papers and supported a concise, modern writing style when they reviewed papers
Half-day proofreading training for the executive assistants, who fix those niggly errors
Training the whole chain of production
This programme made sure everyone was on the same page
The whole production chain was trained.
People who commissioned papers refreshed their understanding of what kinds of updates and decisions are appropriate for a board to receive. ‘Do we actually need a paper on this?’
People who wrote papers learned what good looks like and practised writing a paper. ‘Is this strategic-level content that’s quick and easy to read?
People who reviewed papers practised giving feedback against reader-focused criteria. ‘Does this communicate effectively?’ became the question, not ‘Is this how I’d write it?’
People who proofread agreed on style choices to create consistency across board packs. ‘Is there anything that could distract?’
Commissioners, writers, reviewers, proofreaders – they’re all part of the production process.
A highlight – board members visited
At each of the 1-day trainings, a board member visited. They told us what a director’s life is really like and what’s important to them as readers of board papers.
For me this was a special experience. Participants heard first-hand what mattered to their target audience. I didn’t need to work hard to sell the idea that readers want clear, precise writing – the directors took care of that for me!
When people wrote their drafts, they had a director fresh in their mind to ‘speak to’ as they wrote. This helped people shake off the old, formal writing style.
The changes we saw
I checked in last week with the Head of Governance. He said ‘There's definitely been a lift in the quality of board reports. These are generally more considered, planned and better written.’
‘There's also more thought being given to options analysis, outlining the logic employed to recommend preferred options and also pre-empting likely director line of questioning.’
I love that his comments are mostly about improvements in the quality of thought behind the papers.
Good writing allows directors to think about the content of papers, not work hard to understand them.
When writing is higher quality, the thinking behind the writing – the ideas – stand out more to readers. This is exactly how it should be. The writing should not pull focus. It should transmit the ideas.
Better-informed directors are able to make better decisions.
Want to up your team’s game? colleen@colleentrolove.com