You should be telling your board a story rather than overload them with hundreds of pages of information for a board meeting.

I know the problem, people want “summary in detail” as I wrote last year in a blog. That is, even when you provide them with a fair bit of context, someone always wants more while someone else is complaining it is too much information.

Fred Hilmer in his book “What’s Wrong With Boards” refers to the pain when boards are swamped with information, sometimes to seemingly satisfy compliance requirements, other times to obfuscate to avoid unwelcome questions. He goes on to say, a key role of the chair of a board is to make sure, as far as is reasonably practicable, that the board has good information for decision making.

Hilmer sites the example of Netflix that provides “… 30-page online memos in narrative form that not only include links to supporting analysis but also allow open access to all data and information on the company’s internal shared systems, including the ability to ask clarifying questions of the subject authors.”

It’s 2023, surely this approach of providing links so those who want more can easily access it, and those who don’t are not overwhelmed. And who doesn’t like a good story 🙂