Board meeting prep

Applies whenever a leader has board, investor, or executive-committee time. Produces a pre-read that transfers context before the meeting and an agenda that spends the meeting on judgment.

The doctrine: a board deck transfers context before the meeting so the meeting can be spent exercising judgment. Everything below serves that sentence.

The sequence

Build in this order. Never start with slides.

Audience → Decision → Story → Evidence → Discussion → Commitment

1. Audience. Name every director. For each, write the lens they will apply (portfolio benchmarking, capital efficiency, execution quality, governance, network) and the one question they are most likely to ask. Read references/altitude-and-qa.md.
2. Decision. Write the single primary decision the room must make. Then up to two secondary asks for advice or input. If no decision exists, the meeting is a report: send it as a memo. Read references/decision-brief.md.
3. Story. Write what the board must believe to say yes. Reduce it to three governing messages at most. Each message is a claim, not a topic.
4. Evidence. Under each message, place the evidence that makes it true. One conclusion per visual, stated in the title. Deep evidence goes to the appendix and is presented only when a director pulls it. Performance reporting follows the same fixed format every meeting: read references/standing-report.md.
5. Discussion. Design the in-room agenda: retrospective, orientation, then the decision. Budget the room at 25:75 presentation to discussion. Read references/pre-read-and-room.md.
6. Commitment. Close on a named decision: who, what, by when, and what it unlocks. Capture it in writing within one business day.

Altitude check

Before anything ships, restate every claim at the altitude of the room. A board is asking about the company: what is really limiting growth, what sequence of work removes it, and where the board's own influence would help most. A report on one function's performance is a precise answer to a smaller question, and it costs credibility even when every number is right. Rewrite it as the company constraint, the cross-functional sequence that removes it, and the action only the board can take.

Capital competes

Every dollar requested competes with another credible use of that dollar. Prepare the ask as a comparison, not a request in isolation. Show the causal chain from investment to result, what has already been proven with smaller amounts, the milestone that releases the next tranche, and why delay costs more here than elsewhere. Read the second case in references/worked-examples.md before any capital ask.

What good looks like

• The expert's tell: the decision, the recommendation, and the ask are stated inside the first two minutes. Nothing builds to a reveal.
• The common mistake: presenting the pre-read. Directors read it. A meeting spent re-reading is a meeting with no judgment in it, and it ends on "any questions?" instead of a decision.
• The second mistake: defending the forecast instead of de-risking the causal chain. A forecast explains what could happen. A board funds what has evidence behind it.
• How to know it worked: the meeting produced one recorded decision with an owner and a date, directors spent at least 65% of the time talking, and no director learned material bad news for the first time in the room.
• Score the package against references/package-rubric.md before sending. Ship at 90 or above with no criterion below 7.

Rules

• MUST send the pre-read 7 calendar days ahead; NEVER fewer than 5 business days.
• MUST carry exactly 1 primary decision and NEVER more than 2 secondary asks.
• MUST state decision, recommendation, and ask within the first 2 minutes in the room.
• MUST hold three governing messages at most, one conclusion per visual.
• MUST include staying the course among the alternatives in every decision brief.
• MUST pre-brief every director before the meeting; NEVER let a director meet bad news for the first time in the room.
• NEVER plan more than 35% of the meeting for presentation.
• NEVER report activity volume as proof of progress. Show conversion and outcomes.