We write down how the decision was made

Most board papers answer a question nobody asked out loud. The first two weeks cut the question down. The test is simple: can the board answer it with evidence that exists, or evidence it can get before the vote. Then we name the evidence that would change the answer. When that second list comes back empty, the question is still too wide, and we say so before anyone spends money on it.

Four to eight weeks of gathering and checking. We write down where each piece came from, how far it can be pushed, and where it stops. Some of what the board wants cannot be known before the vote, and that sentence goes in the file with everything else. A limit of confidence recorded at the time is worth more later than a number nobody can trace back.

The file holds those four things. Every recommendation ends with a section on what would make it wrong. The material stays with the client in editable form, so the next board can keep writing in it rather than start again.

Two weeks to cut the reasoning down to what a forty minute board session can hold, then a partner runs the session. Most of those two weeks goes on what to leave out. The long file stays behind the short one, kept whole, so a partner can trace any line back to the evidence it rests on.