Productivity
Build a board deck
The quarter, assembled from the raw materials, with the hard slide included.
Fill it in
Financials, metrics, plans and whatever else.
Against plan, not against last quarter.
What you need from the room.
Your prompt
Build the board deck from . Explain the variance against PLAN, not against last quarter. The board approved a plan, and the question is whether it is happening; a comparison with last quarter is the number a management team reaches for when the plan comparison is uncomfortable. One page of metrics, then the two or three things that actually matter this quarter. A forty-slide deck is a way of not having a conversation, and the board will read the appendix if it exists. Include the hard slide: what is not working, what you are doing, and what you got wrong. It buys more credibility than any good news. Make the ask explicit and put it before the appendix. Send it in advance and expect it to have been read.
Continue and pick your folderOpens with everything above already filled in.
Why this works
A comparison with last quarter is the number a management team reaches for when the plan comparison is uncomfortable. This explains variance against plan, keeps the metrics to one page, and includes the slide about what is not working.