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#1: Brief better

Take ‘briefings’, abbreviate it; you get briefs. And that’s what they should be. Brief. If your time is short, my work is done: make briefings brief. Please carry on with your day.


If you’re still reading, then let me explain further. I work with some industry-leading comms teams who understand exactly the needs of the person they are preparing. I’ve also worked with some businesses where the leader has worn a pained expression when presented with their ‘briefing’; often, a nicely wiro-bound document that has all the information they could ever need. And then some more. They probably know 80% of what’s in the brief; in fact, the strategy is probably largely their thinking. The sheer volume of the information has presented difficulty. Because deciding what they need has now become their clear and present problem as they try and prep for their communication.


I’ve seen hundred-page playbooks for a half hour press interview; I’ve seen the ’10 key messages’ that the CEO couldn’t remember when the slide wasn’t in view; and I’ve been in TV green rooms where someone is manically imploring their boss: ‘…and don’t forget X, and don’t forget Y, and if they ask you Z, then don’t forget to say…’ moments before they’re about to appear on national TV.


Physics, as far as I remember, tells us that you can only fit a pint of water into a pint jar. Unless you apply extreme pressure, obviously, and increase the density of the water. Good luck with that. Because so it goes also that you cannot get more content into a certain space or time than it can sustainably hold. If a CEO is given six ideas with some proof points and (ideally) some insight around each one, then they are simply not going to able to get them all into a five-minute interview. It becomes randomised. The control is handed to the interviewer. Who knows what success looks like in this situation?


One company I work with gives the CEO a single side of A4 to focus them before broadcast interviews. It contains (and not in 5-point text) the core ideas for the quarter, some great stats, and push-backs on tough issues. I’ve yet to see him come unstuck through almost 100 Tier 1 live interactions. And it’s not always been easy street, from a corporate narrative or perfromance point of view.


As an external advisor, and one who is always trying to deliver repeat-seeking experiences, I have sometimes had a tough line to walk. I can’t really tell the ranking comms person in the room, who has very often hired me, that the briefing they are trying to foist on their CEO is a waste of time.


I often go back to the classic coach’s question: ‘What are we trying to do here?’ Once we get that principle-negotiated goal in place, then it becomes clear what we need to use to get it delivered. And it also becomes clear that while there is some great work in the briefing doc, for today we really only need pages 6, 12, and 34. Or whatever.


There are two more behavioural problems that I’ve seen repeat themselves over the years.


The first is people over-produce from the bottom up. Therefore comms people need to be ruthless editors; saying no is the quickest way to deliver the right information, in the right quantity. If you ask a researcher for a paragraph and you get 2,000 words, kick it back – kindly, explaining why.


The second is that leaders need to communicate back. Be clear in what you want, ask for it, and you’ll get what you need. Not long ago I delivered two workshops to help briefing writers meet the needs of an ExCo member; it would have been easier, and cheaper, to have half an hour with the leader to help her express what she actually wanted. The fact that no-one knew this bit of info was in fact the root of the problem.


Because you know what we call those requests of colleagues, in order to get the right information, in the right quantity? Briefings.


Guarente + Company Ltd is a comms consultancy working on performance and content for better outcomes for corporate leaders. It’s 20 years since Matt Guarente left financial journalism and started advising companies and their leaders, since when he has worked with C-suite individuals in the world’s most admired banks, investment managers, stock exchanges, publishers, manufacturing companies, utilities, telcos, tech cos, miners, steelmakers, retailers, real estate companies, hoteliers – and chefs. Contact him at Matt@Guarenteco.com


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