Writing a great executive summary
Australia’s board paper expert Mary Morel talks to me about writing a great executive summary. I discuss some of the pitfalls to avoid and give some advice on how to write them well.
Enjoy the podcast or read the transcript below.
Mary Morel: Hi Julie – thanks for coming in today
Julie Shannon: Hi Mary – thanks for inviting me
Mary: So tell me – what makes a great executive summary?
Julie: A great executive summary inspires confidence in your readers.
It shows you’ve done your research, clearly frames the topic and presents all the results or recommendations they need to know.
It also keeps your analysis to the fore, so it’s easy to see why you’re making each recommendation.
Mary: So faced with weeks, sometimes months of research, how do you get started on shaping this into a summary format?
Julie: Imagine this is the only part of the document someone will read – and often, that’s genuinely the case. You need to ask yourself – have you given the reader enough information so they know what your main outcomes are? Will they be able to walk away and act on those recommendations with a reasonable amount of confidence?
In fact for larger reports, I often work with writers to prepare these executive summaries so they can act as standalone documents for use in plenty of other contexts – for example at briefings, to send to media, to put on a website or use at a public presentation. If you think about using the executive summary in other contexts like this, whether you will use it this way or not, I think that helps.
Mary: What about short reports?
Julie: For short reports – a minor business case for example – you’ve got to convey all this information on the first page. In that case, writing a 15-second pitch can help frame your ideas. In three or four sentences, can you convey what your issue is, why your reader should care about it, and what your main recommendations are?
Mary: That means letting go of a lot of content…
Julie: It sure does. The rule is to provide only just as much content as your reader needs and no more. If they really want more detail, they’ll ask you for it. Just don’t add in every fact possible, ‘just in case’. That won’t impress anyone. And it will definitely frustrate your reader.
Mary: Then how do you make the call on the content you need to include?
Julie: The information that’s important to you, is not necessarily the information your reader cares about the most.
You need to ask what’s in it for them? What are the costs and benefits to the business? What are the risks – financial and otherwise? How does this align with your corporate goals? What are other competitors doing in this space? Then order and present this information in a way that will suit how they approach the topic.
Most of the time, that means putting your recommendations upfront, and then providing the context for these, rather than the other way round.
But if it’s engaging and well written, your readers will be inspired to keep on going and read the rest of the report – if they have time, that is.
Mary: Yes, time is the issue. Most executive teams barely have enough time to wade through their monthly set of business cases
Julie: Absolutely! And if they don’t have to work hard to get across all your information, they’ll thank you for it. Even the most complex topic can be conveyed in a short space. I should also add, even the most boring topic can be framed in an interesting way with a little effort.
Mary: So what makes a topic boring?
Julie: The biggest mistake I see is using the executive summary as an introduction. It makes me want to fall asleep straight away – or order another shot of coffee to get me through!
Vague fluffy background statements about the history of the project and the 10-year corporate plan are not what your reader needs to see first – if at all. Lengthy definitions, methods of analysis and details about stakeholders rarely have a place here. Put them at the end of the document – even in an appendix if you really need to include them.
Mary: Any other common pitfalls you can warn us about?
Julie: Omitting other options to consider or not fleshing these out well enough. For example, in a business case I looked at recently, there was no comparative financial analysis for options in a capital works project, and no comparison projections of project running costs into the future. Once this context is added in, it’s much easier to make a call and approve a recommendation or not.
We’re taking about an executive summary, so this might only take a line or two. But without it, you’re going to lose credibility. Your recommendation might be completely valid, but your reader needs to know you’ve done your research and considered other options too.
Mary: You mentioned ‘engaging and well written’ – any pointers there?
Julie: All the usual best-practice writing techniques apply tenfold here. Strong active verbs will give you an air of authority and increase your readers’confidence in your recommendations. Short clear words and sentences support this. Cut the jargon but keep any essential technical terms.
But the best technique that will lift your summary to the next level is clever use of heading and subheadings. These make your document easy to scan, reinforce your points – and your readers will love you for it. Can you present your main points in the headings and subheadings alone?
The executive summary is the most critical part of your document. Frame your ideas and outcomes well, order them for impact, and use subheadings as way to reinforce your points – that’s the best way possible to present the executive summary.
You can learn more about business writing from Mary at her online writing training centre.
