Effective Board Reporting

Better reporting, stronger governance

We give compliance, risk, and financial analysts tools to deliver clear, efficient messages and draft more quickly with much less stress. It covers essential skills for drafting successful reporting documents for boards and committees and:

dramatically reduces page count without losing essential information
cuts down writing time by half
delivers stronger analysis
develops drafters’ skills and confidence
uses the board’s time, focus, and expertise well

What ineffective reporting may be costing:

Icons from board reporting brochure
too much volume to be readable
unclear or hide and seek messages
poor use of reading and meeting time
undermines board’s ocnfidence
increases risk
waste in the process

Workshop details

We customize our workshops to your organization, team, documents, templates, and style guides

- In-person—One day (8 hours)
- Live webinar—Two Zoom sessions (3.5 hours)
Everyone involved in writing and reviewing board reporting.
1. We meet with you to discuss your group's challenges and goals
2. You send us a series of representative documents
3. We analyze your documents
4. We customize our course material using excerpts from your documents
5. We hold the workshop

What you’ll learn

Avoiding common problems that plague board reporting
Adapting to the needs of the board or decision maker
Delivering concise, readable reports
Structuring both text and visuals to deliver essential information
Building strong analysis
Understanding how to cut non-essential content
Drafting so board members can find information easily
Drafting faster (and making the reviewers’ job faster too)
Understanding the writing style that’s most valued by decision makers
Writing clearly and objectively
Creating strong visuals
Translating specialized and technical content

Prioritize and synthesize complex information

Deepen analysis and the ability to present it effectively

Speed up the process and reduce the number of edits

I spent all morning fielding calls, emails, and visits to my office saying how valuable this training was for us.

— Great-West Life Co.

Over several years, we went from reporting everything that happened, hundreds of pages, to reporting what the board needs to know. Much of this change was due to Wordsmith.

—BMO

To add—

—Sunlife

Have documents that look like this

Before (314 words)

Issue

The XX Committee (the Committee) was tasked with sourcing information that could potentially be used to strengthen Province X’s health care system, deliver better results for citizens, and deliver greater efficiencies.

Background

Over a matter of nine months, the Committee conducted research and facilitated discussion with stakeholders with expertise across the field of health-care systems.

Stakeholders involved in the Committee discussed at length how to best ensure that evidence is gathered, analyzed, and disseminated throughout the system relative to publicly funded services, technologies, structures, processes and procedures and incentives.

It should be noted that much research and analysis has been done on leading and best practices. The sources of this research and analysis were cross jurisdictional in nature, as well as in our own province.

Many possibilities were discussed. These included a “clearinghouse function” being identified or established and other structures being engaged and put into place to ensure greater coordination and application in the use of evidence.

Analysis

The Committee’s mandate is built on the platform of the ongoing and increasing need for the health system to do more to ensure that evidence is appropriately applied in order to better inform decisions about services, practices and policies and improve health outcomes in Province X.

The Committee is of the belief that the Province X Health Act should contain provisions to establish an objective, independent entity with the resources to assess and analyze health research and other relevant evidence in order to inform decisions on health services throughout the system.

The Committee agrees that as its recommendation is implemented, all necessary steps should be taken to optimize the use of existing expertise and resources, such as those residing in the health system, X Province universities, institutes, and other health agencies, as well as national research organizations.

Recommendation

It is recommended that Province X establish an arm’s-length entity to support evidence-based decision-making throughout the health system.

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After (249 words)

Issue

The XX Committee investigated how best to use health research to strengthen Province X’s health care system.

Recommendation

The Committee recommends the Province X Health Act establish an independent body to collect and analyze research, communicate findings, and inform decisions on health services.

Background

The Committee’s mandate was to analyze ways to improve Province X’s health care system, deliver better results, and increase efficiency.

The Committee worked over nine months to research the issue and consult healthcare experts. We gathered and carefully reviewed the information available nationally, internationally, and here in Province X.

There is already a solid body of research in health care, but there is currently no organization to coordinate and communicate it.

Analysis

Province X is not currently maximizing its ability to use existing research to make evidence-based decisions.

The Committee found rich opportunities to improve the health system by:

better understanding the existing body of health-related research
integrating existing research into the province’s day-to-day practices
communicating findings to policy makers to inform decision making

The Committee believes the best approach is to establish an independent body to undertake these responsibilities.

It is important this body have the necessary resources.

The advantages of establishing an independent organization

This body would:

centralize the research
draw on expertise from institutes and agencies, provincial universities, national research organizations, and within our own health care system
develop strategies to inform decisions about health care and propose ways to apply evidence to daily practices across the system