BRIEFING NOTES ECONOMY MINISTRY

Regina

18 January 2017

Saskatoon

24 January 2017

WHAT YOU ASKED FOR

• Tailoring a briefing note for the audience;

• What are they looking for?

• What is useful when it comes to background information?

• How much is enough, how much is too much ?

• Refresher on how to organize information for a briefing note

SINCE YOU ASKED…

• We have problems writing clearly and communicating ideas to external and internal audiences;

• Those problems are a symptom of a much larger issue—lack of training and appreciation for critical thinking;

• We never imagine what might be useful for people trying to make a decision;

• We are a hierarchical, president driven organization, fearful of change. So we keep writing the same kind of briefing notes, over and over again;

• Employees need more of our support.

APRIL 2016MESSAGE FROM CABINET

• Documents are too long;

• Documents are often poorly structured, meaning that we have to hunt for important information;

• This wastes time;

• Please share this.

WE WRITE TOO MUCH.

WE DON’T WRITE CLEARLY.

OFTEN OUR LENGTHY PROSE IS POORLY

ORGANIZED.

WE ARE NOT HELPING OUR AUDIENCE OF DECISION-MAKERS.

IT’S TIME TO RADICALLY RE-IMAGINE HOW WE WRITE IN

GOVERNMENT.

”

“

TODAY WE WILL…

• Survey the current state of briefing notes the Government of Saskatchewan;

• Introduce a performance standard designed to tell you where you are at;

• Point towards areas of improvement;

• Talk about clear writing, logical organization, a point of view and concrete examples;

• Talk about anticipating the needs of your audience.

THINGS TO REMEMBER WHEN WRITING

• Stop talking about us. Start talking about the people we serve.

• Stop talking about our interior, organizational processes. Quite literally, no one cares.

• Move from the abstract to the concrete.

• Start looking at things through the eyes of the customer

• Sleep in their beds to know their dreams.

Why write a briefing note?

A briefing note is…

❖ Part of a broader comms strategy;❖ Part of an issues-management strategy;❖ A tool for risk mitigation, record-keeping.❖ A tool to assist in decision-making.

Uses❖ To communicate a message/values/rationale to

an internal or external audience.(CII)❖ To provide decision-makers with all of the

relevant information needed to make an effective policy decision. (CDI)

❖ To explain a past decision in the context of current information and future predictions.

❖ A template for a change process.

What should be in a good briefing note

❖ Public policy (and by extension, briefing notes) must be:❖ Forward looking-include statistical trends and informed

predictions;❖ Outward looking- illustrate the factors in play at local,

national and international levels;❖ Innovative and creative (questioning the established

way);❖ Empirical-using evidence;❖ Evaluate-contain a systematic assessment of early going,

for use in self-correction.

Source: UK Cabinet Office, 1999

Questions to ask, before you start writing.

❖ ❖ 1) Who is the audience? What do they need? What

information would be useful to them? How could I structure this information to make it most useful?

❖ 2) What is my hypothesis? What evidence exists in support of that hypothesis? What hidden assumptions must be explored?

❖ 3) What is this note being used for? To help decision-makers arrive at an informed decision? To justify a decision that has already been made? To survey the rationale of past decisions and place them in context?

❖ A short paper that quickly and effectively informs senior executives about an issue.

❖ Distillation of complex information into a:❖ short;❖ well-structured;

❖ document.

Characteristics

❖ Short-one or rarely—two pages.❖ concise: every word used as efficiently as

possible.❖ clear: what matters to the reader, organized

effectively.❖ reliable- accurate, sound, dependable.

Structure

❖ Issue: one sentence, why this matters.❖ Background: A quick history, evolution.❖ Current status-last decision made.❖ Key considerations: Players and alternative

points of view. Why we disagree.

Templates

WHAT’S IN AN ISSUE

STATEMENT

• A brief, one sentence description of the issue that your note is addressing

• Non-prejudicial, objective statement of the circumstances

• Should clearly state the subject matter

• Must anticipate that any option could be adopted.

WHETHER AND HOW….

Winter: “You should do this!”

• Framed to elicit a yes or no response from cabinet

• Invites them to accept, reject or amend the proposal being put forward.

EXERCISE ONE

Discuss and report• What’s important in the document ?• What’s not ?• What are they really trying to say ?• How would you fix it ?

Report back

Lessons learned:• If you say everything, you say nothing;• Keep sentences short;• Structure is important.

Data dumps…

..are hard to structure.

No narrative…no voice…no story…no point…no interest.

Readers have to hunt for useful info.

Long, ponderous sentences

harm clarity.

❖ many issues, most unrelated.❖ no background or familiarity with most issues.❖ cannot spend the time doing their own research.❖ need a capsule version of key points and

considerations.

Your Audience — Decision makers

Have Empathy❖ A good briefing note (CDI, CII, news release,

speech) myst synthesize information in a way that makes it useful for people making decisions or defending decisions already made.

❖ Reading your briefing note should not be a chore❖ People should want to read your document.❖ People should feel the need to read your

document.

TEXT ANALYSIS

Text analysis

• Why some stories are better than others.

two scores

• Flesch-Kincaid Read Ease score (1 - 100)• North American Grade Level

Reading Ease score

Govt. of Sask. briefing note.

Average Score = 30-36

NOT-SO-GOODSCORE

WORD CHOICE IS CRUCIAL.

FOR SASKATCHEWAN’S PUBLIC SERVICENEW TARGETS

• A Flesch-Kincaid readability score of 50 or greater;

• A grade level between 6-8;• 12 to 15 words per sentence.

“IAN, GRADE 6 LEVEL IS HARD TO ACHIEVE,

WITHOUT DUMBING DOWN THE CONTENT

”

“

MORE THAN 40% OF NORTH AMERICANS HAVE ONLY BASIC LITERACY SKILLS.

IMPROVE YOUR NOTES THROUGH…

• The use of concrete language;

• The use of superlatives;

• The use of comparison;

• Special attention to narrative structure;

• Keep sentences short;

• Use a readability index.

SAMPLES YOU SENT ME.

Grade Six readability is hard to achieve, but it’s not “dumbing

down”.

SIMPLE IS NOT EASY,

IT CAN BE ELEGANT.

B. ObamaM. Obama

H. ClintonD. Trump

0

23

45

68

90

Readability ScoresMajor Convention Speeches

July, 2016

B. ObamaM. Obama

H. ClintonD. Trump

0

2

5

7

9

Grade LevelMajor Convention Speeches

July, 2016

STRUCTURING INFORMATION

Subordinating Style

• Components linked by relationship of:

CAUSALITYTEMPORALITYPRECEDENCE

CAUSALITY: ONE THING CAUSES

ANOTHER

TEMPORALITY:ONE THING HAPPENS BEFORE ANOTHER.

PRECEDENCE:ONE THING IS MORE

IMPORTANT THAN THE OTHER.

Time for a shiftTemporal

CausalPrecedence

IS THERE A TOOL THAT HELPS ME STRUCTURE

INFORMATION?

THE POSITIONING STATEMENT

The positioning statement

• Emotional statement;• Key Message;• Two Facts;• Action Statement (demand)

POSITIONING STATEMENT EXERCISE

NEWS RELEASE, 07 JANUARY 2015 SASKATCHEWAN RESEARCH COUNCIL

Positioning statement exercise• Go back into your groups;• Use positioning statement to review release;• What’s this really about ? • Can it help you make things better?

REPORT BACK IN 15 MINUTES

THESIS

• Storytelling is the key to getting your message across

• You need a narrative structure for your

• writing

• presentations

• conversations

THE HIDDEN AGENDA:IF YOU’RE NOT TELLING A

STORY…YOU’RE NOT DOING

ANYTHING.

”

“

SUCCESSFUL POLITICIANS UNDERSTAND THIS

PERFECTLY.

NATIONAL POST27 SEPT. 2016

WE SPEND A LOT OF TIME IN GOVERNMENT

• speaking to people who are not listening

• writing reports that never get read• failing to engage people.

WE SPEND A LOT OF TIME IN GOVERNMENT…FAILING

TO TELL A STORY.

WE SPEND A LOT OF TIME TALKING TO OURSELVES

ABOUT OURSELVES.

“Stories are the most powerful delivery tool for information.The best way to unite an idea with an emotion is by telling a

story.”

— Alex Frankel, Guardian, 27 November 2016

YOUR POLICY IS ONLY AS GOOD AS THE NARRATIVE

OR PUBLIC DISCOURSE YOU HAVE HUNG IT ON.

”

“

Nancy Duarte—Resonate.• Every story needs a big idea;• A unique point of view, rather than generalizations;• Convey what’s at stake;• Make people care about your perspective.

pg. 78

Point of view versus topic

• Governments write about topics;• People write with a point-of-view;• One builds a story, one doesn’t

The fate of the oceans isa topic.

Climate change is killingsea otters expresses a point of view.

— Nancy Duarte, Resonate.

YOU CAN HAVE PILES OF FACTS AND STILL FAIL TO

RESONATE.

”

“

—Resonate, Pg. 14

USE PLENTY OF FACTS, BUT ACCOMPANY THEM WITH

EMOTIONAL APPEAL.

”

“

• Information drives action

• Action has to be explained

• The end result of a decision, inevitably, is the exercise of power.

• The end result of that intersection is story.

WHETHER YOU KNOW IT OR NOT, THE GOAL OF YOUR

STORY IS TO EVOKE A RESPONSE.

”

“

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said…

…people will forget what you did.

…but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

How do you feel after reading most government documents ?

THE USE OF NUMBERS IN

STORIES

NUMBERS NEED CONTEXTSTORIES SOMETIMES NEED NUMBERS

• Always• be• comparing

THIS IS A NUMBER

THIS IS A STORY.

The US Federal Air Marshal Service spend $800 million annually.

That $800 million represents

• 40% of what the US Secret Service spends;• 10% of what the FBI spends annually.

Know the difference between numbers and

stories.

• Only 5% of US flights have an Air Marshal;• Since 9/11, there have been no hijackings;• There have been more arrests of Air Marshals• than by Air Marshals since 9/11.

Here’s some other stories…

From the abstract to the concrete.

The whole tendency of modern proseis away from concreteness.

George OrwellPolitics and the English Language

1946

Concrete narratives use superlatives to move

the story along.

fastest, newest, oldest, strongest,first-ever.

use of metaphor make writing concrete

Why this worked..• Clearly written, concrete language;• Well organized;• Articulates a point of view, with consequences;• A simple, defining metaphor (car).

VERNACULAR ELOQUENCE

“If we read every sentence aloud carefully…and if we then fiddle and adjust

our words until they feel right in the mouth and sound right in the ear, the resulting sentence will be strong and

clear.”

–Prof. Peter Elbow

Questions

• Do you write multiple drafts ?• Do you read them out loud to someone else ?

Read this section out loud.

Read this section out loud.

“If we read every sentence aloud carefully…and if we then fiddle and adjust

our words until they feel right in the mouth and sound right in the ear, the resulting sentence will be strong and

clear.”

PARTING THOUGHTS.

In your documents/presentations….• convey a big idea;• covey what’s at stake;• Convince me I should care.

Exhibit a clarity of intent

• What problem am I trying to solve;• What does ‘good’ look like;• How will I know when I get there ?

Rejected opportunity cost

• What happens if I do nothing ?

An audience transformed

• The highest goal;• Now that I’ve read this, I know this;• Now, I have to do something.

A PRESENTATION

TEMPLATE.

We had a big idea• It’s important because—• This idea came from—• We talked to these people, and they said—

Here’s how our big idea changed

• We were surprised to discover—• New information created these new insights—• Here’s why these insights are valuable—

The value proposition

• Our big idea will improve a process/save money/• make life better for people in the following ways—

Rejected opportunity cost

• If we do nothing, here are the consequences—• Here’s what they are doing on other jurisdictions—

Now that you now all this

• You must—

questions