How An Executive Summary Can Positively Change What People Think

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executive summary
Want an easy way to deliver value and get executives to look forward to the information packages you produce? Crafting smart executive summaries is one way to get noticed and influence their thought process.

 

By definition, an executive summary goes to executives which makes it the most powerful opportunity for you to get support and visibility. When you entice executives to see what you see, if it is compelling enough, they start helping you out on their end. And that is a game-changer.

 

Because all executives will read the executive summary straight away before looking at the details, you have a chance to give them a perspective that will change how they see the facts and the details to follow.

 

 

The executive summary is a trailer, a beginning of a story and a nudge to crave more information. The value is in how you present the facts that showcase your thinking. Other people can produce the same report but they will not see what you see.

 

When you are in charge of delivering insights, you have an opportunity to make a difference by shining the light on certain aspects of what you have to say that would make people act in the right direction. The right direction can be strategy, purpose, objective, customer promise, values or anything else your intelligence is there to facilitate (may well be your own beliefs on what is best for the business you serve).

 

You don’t have to play mind games but changing things is impossible without changing minds first. And this is how you build your reputation as an intelligent person who sees things that others don’t.

 

 

The executive summary has three purposes:

  1. Tell them what they are getting
  2. Give them some juicy food for thought
  3. Make them read the lot
Executive Summary Goals
Goal # 1:

You may think that what they are getting is self-evident. I’d like to challenge that thinking.

The executive summary is the place where you position what you have to say. You are not delivering a summary report, insights or facts. No, no, no.

 

You are delivering a confirmation, a disappointment, a direction, a discovery, an exploration, or whatever you need it to be to get things moving along the process you control.

 

There are only three outcomes after your information delivery – you get it right, you get it wrong or you make no difference. And so, to begin, you have three choices around the information you supply – position it right, position it wrong or let your recipients position it for themselves.

 

If you are in finance, management or business, surprises are not your friends (unless everyone else is surprised when you are not). Telling them what exactly they will be getting will channel their mind to view the information supplied from that perspective.

 

It is even more important to tell them what they are not getting to prevent assumptions.

 

The format of how to say it will vary depending on how formal the report is and who the recipients are. I recommend using my Communication Toolkit to choose the words, the structure and the way to frame the actual message. The purpose of this article is to list what information to include so you give just enough valuable insights they can’t get elsewhere and get their mind working in the right direction before they read anything. Your first sentence better anchor their thinking to how you see this matter so you are on the same page from the very beginning.

 

Goal #2

The information in the body of the executive summary should answer these fundamental questions we are all unconsciously searching answers for:

 

  • What has changed and by how much?
  • What does it mean for what is most important to them right now?
  • What is likely to happen now and how it may affect them?

 

The amount of information to include in the summary can vary between a short paragraph for an email and a full-page piece for a formal external report.

 

Here is the list I tested to be most helpful when selecting impactful insights for the three big questions above:

  1. Three biggest changes (short-term, long-term)
  2. Three biggest trends (top three risks, top three opportunities)
  3. Top likely reasons and driving forces for (a) and (b)
  4. How (a), (b) and (c) affect the organisational purpose, promise, capabilities, demand, speed of doing business, return on investment, resource allocation and overall company value
  5. Opportunities, risks and leverage you can see
  6. Questions to ask (here are some ideas)
  7. Actions to take
  8. More ideas in Secrets to Working with Uncertainty

 

 

Goal #3

What would they be dying to know after what you have just shared? Tell them what other details are inside and why they need to know those before they do XYZ. The more curiosity you generate beforehand, the more memorable your information package will become.

 

Executive summaries are a great tool to influence the mindsets in the direction you’d like to promote.

 

Look for more articles on creating commentaries for information packages that influence outcomes.

 

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