A client was asked by his CEO to make his presentations to the company’s Board of Directors more strategic. The client, a charming, personable guy, tended to fill his slides with evidence of all the work his department was doing. Since he had less than ten minutes to update the Board each quarter, he was pointing out grains of sand when he should have been describing the broad shape of the beach.
He had to take several steps back to look at the need that his functional area addressed, the value created by his function, and how the function was structured within his company to create that value. Once he did that, he would be able to give the Board brief examples of the projects his team was working on.
The new presentation began with a bold claim: “The state of (the function) in our company is strong”, a statement not unlike the beginning of many States of the Union addresses.
The second line was equally succinct: “It is strong for three main reasons.” And here he listed the reasons: leadership, structure and resources, which he then went on to explain.
At the end, he was able to update them on some of the particular issues, but at least board members had a brief glimpse of the big picture, and could therefore put the specifics into context.
In my experience working with executives reporting to senior decision-making bodies, this is a common challenge, for several reasons.
1. They often assume that board members are familiar with the particulars of their function, which is rarely the case.
2. They want to demonstrate their level of activity.
3. They find it difficult to articulate a strategic perspective on their own work.
One way I’ve used to encourage them to think about making their presentations more strategic is to answer some simple questions, such as:
– What is the reason for your function’s existence? What is the one thing that, if you didn’t get it done, the company would be exposed to enterprise risk?
– What is the problem (or problems) that your function solves?
– What benefits does your function provide?
Pretty simple questions, but sometimes hard to articulate. Nevertheless, it’s a good idea to get the big ideas across first before you drag any audience into the particulars.