Board Paper Bootcamp for Leaders

Cohort-based Course

Lift the quality of thinking in your team's board papers without rewriting them yourself

Course overview

Help your team engage senior leaders and Boards with higher quality insights

Do you wonder why board paper writing courses haven't materially lifted the quality of discussions in senior leadership and Board forums?


Papers might be more polished, but the insights are still buried and the drafting process is ugly.


Iterating multiple times around fine details is time-wasting and leads to dense, unreadable papers that lead to more questions than answers.


Despite much iteration, poor quality papers set up leadership conversations that are heavily weighted toward understanding rather than discussing issues.


So, how do you stop rewriting your team's papers so both you and they work 'at level' ... and mostly during normal business hours?


Let's slash the number of times you review drafts and the time it takes your team to prepare them.


And ... enjoy richer discussions in leadership forums too.

For experienced leaders who need their teams to deliver papers that quickly 'nail the issue'

01

C-suite leaders frustrated about the quality of discussion and decision making emerging from their senior leadership and Board meetings.

02

Functional leaders needing to engage multi-disciplinary leadership groups in business cases and other recommendations.

03

Program managers needing to engage decision makers in significant programs of work without losing pace.

You'll leave this Leaders' Bootcamp with

A highly efficient operating rhythm for consistently delivering better papers with less rework

Use our Elevate framework to set up a simple, scalable operating rhythm. Consistently guide your team to quickly prepare papers that deliver a specific outcome.

A technique for quickly reviewing drafts before papers become a runaway train

Use our SCAN | SCORE | SHARE technique to review your team's one-page 'message maps' in 15 minutes.

Tools and templates for guiding your team

Leverage story patterns, templates and guides to lift the value you and your team deliver. Spark off our extensive library of real-life examples too.

Papers and presentations that you and your team can be proud of

Imagine how good it would feel when you and your team enjoy your senior leadership and Board discussions?

More time to think and deliver on your top priorities

What could you be delivering on if you were not reworking your team's papers?

What people say about working with me

        I really like Davina's teaching style. She has helped clarify my thinking and improve my writing.
Alex Shea

Alex Shea

Head of Financial Crime Governance
        You are underestimating how important effective communication is and this program can help you improve.
Darren Hutchison

Darren Hutchison

Supply Chain Project Implementation Manager
        Davina's program gave me a simple structure for developing effective communications that I can use over and over again to get approvals, get funding, manage risks and issues ... and get fast decisions. It has helped me take my career to the next level and more.
Cerise Uden

Cerise Uden

Project Director
        I was amazed at how Dav managed to help me get everything on one page that was so simple and clear. The thinking process also helped me think on my feet to handle left-field questions in the middle of presentations, not just to prepare a quality paper.
Steve Thompson

Steve Thompson

General Manager

Meet your instructor

Davina Stanley

Davina Stanley

Clarity First Program

I love what I do.


I help senior leaders and their teams prepare high-quality papers and presentations in a fraction of the time.


This involves 'nailing' the message that will quickly engage decision makers in the required outcome.


I leverage 25+ years' experience including

  • learning structured thinking techniques at McKinsey in Hong Kong in the mid 1990s before coaching and training their teams globally as a freelancer for a further 15 years
  • being approved to teach the Pyramid Principle by Barbara Minto in 2009
  • helping CEOs, C-suite leaders and their reports deeply understand their stakeholder needs and communicate accordingly
  • seeing leaders cut the number of times they review major papers by ~30% and teams cut the amount of time they take to prepare major papers by ~20%*
  • watching senior meetings focus on substantive discussions and better decisions rather than trying to clarify the issue


My approach helps anyone who needs to engage senior leaders and Boards.


Recent clients include 7Eleven, KPMG, Mercer, Meta, Woolworths.


Learn more at www.clarityfirstprogram.com



(*) Numbers are based on 2023 client benchmarking results after ~8 weeks of working with me in a group.

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Board Paper Bootcamp for Leaders

Leaders' Bootcamp syllabus

01

Design your new operating rhythm

Map out how you and your team can use my Elevate framework to think through major papers. Prepare a briefing to help your team draft a current paper during the workshop.

02

Iterate around a highly-structured message map

Practice collaborating in small groups to build a one-page message map around a well-known controversial topic. Apply my SCORE framework to evaluate the quality of thinking in the message map.

03

Elevate your team's skills

Prepare the tools you need to help your team change. Decide how to navigate existing corporate templates. Ask questions. Submit a draft paper for review and suggestions from me.

04

Schedule a 30-minute private coaching call

Schedule a 1:1 with me to confidentially review your draft paper and discuss strategies for helping your team.

Schedule

10 hours over 3 weeks + own practice
  • Receive personalised attention in a small cohort

    includes 30-minute 1-1 coaching call

    In capping registrations at 15 participants there will be plenty of interaction in class.


    I will also confidentially review a paper of yours and provide email suggestions before we have a 1-1 to answer any other questions you may have.

  • Learn online, stretch in class

    3 hours per week + personal practice

    I ask you to complete 1-1.5 hours' of self-paced learning per module, which you can start as soon as you register. I will stretch you to apply the concepts in your day-to-day work and when we come together in class.

  • 6 months' extra support

    Clarity Hub Access

    Continue learning with your cohort and others also seeking to lift the quality of their team's thinking. Join monthly MasterClasses, share ideas, ask questions and complete challenges. Access extensive library of sample papers.

Help your team quickly prepare papers and presentations you are all proud of

Help your team quickly prepare papers and presentations you are all proud of

Lift the clarity of messaging

Help your team craft messages that jump off the page so you can review them quickly.

Elevate the quality of insights

See your team's high-quality insights bubble to the surface and land with decision makers.

Increase velocity

Cut the time it takes to prepare better papers that lead to better and faster decisions. Some teams halve paper preparation time. You can too.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Board Paper Bootcamp for Leaders