Do you like getting status updates?  I’ve met few people who do. They tend to be long drawn out presentations that are heavy on data but light on insight and action.

Well, guess what?

Your boss and clients don’t like them either.

The problem is that most people over-explain. Your audience doesn’t need every detail.  In fact, they probably get frustrated when you walk them through the minutia.

I’ve developed a simple framework that can help you lay out your status quickly, simply, and efficiently.

What

Why

But

And

What

Provide the overall take-away or “headline”?

Are things generally ok or generally not ok?

Are you doing well overall but have a couple of concerns?

Do we need to take some type of immediate action?

Work to boil your status down to a single, headline with ten words or less.

Why

Provide 3-5 high level pieces of evidence to support your headline.  Each piece of evidence should be a single, short statement.

But

Let them know anything that is happening that contradicts your headline.

And

Let them know how you are moving forward.

If things are going well, how are you going to maintain that?

If there are problems, how are you going to fix them?

Putting it all together

Here are a couple of examples

 

By working through these four statements, you will quickly create understanding of your current situation.  You can then let your audience tell you where (and if) they’d like to go deeper.

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Brad Kolar is an executive consultant, speaker, and author with Avail Advisors.  Avail helps leaders drive results by simplifying their problems, decisions, data, and communication.  Contact Brad at brad.kolar@availadvisors.com.