The phrase “brevity is the soul of wit” comes from William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. It is spoken by the character Polonius, a verbose and pompous courtier.

The meaning of the phrase suggests that the essence of wit, intelligent humour or cleverness, lies in being concise. In other words, expressing thoughts clearly and succinctly often demonstrates greater intelligence and creativity than long-winded explanations. The phrase has since become a common expression used to emphasize the value of brevity in communication.

Part of my daily work entails working with boards to undertake board evaluations, a way for boards to do an intensely honest self-assessment of how they performed over a period of time. What has become an increasingly irritating pain point for many board directors over the last ten years is the size of board packs being produced by management. The purpose of a board pack is to provide information about a reporting period, typically a quarter, which includes financial, operational, risk, strategic initiatives, human resource, legal and regulatory updates and a whole slew of vital company information that enables a board director to perform their governance role.

As doing business becomes more complex and regulatory rigor becomes even more invasive, management in many organizations struggle to determine what to put in and what to leave out in board packs today, which will ensure that directors are not only kept informed, but also won’t turn around and say, “Why didn’t you tell us about that?” Management become card carrying members of the “Cover Your Backside (CYB)” information club and board packs become digital reams of paper saying many things, while saying nothing new at all. Technological advances over the last decade have forced board packs into the digital age via board platforms that are highly secured to prevent confidential data from being shared. While that is a good thing, it prevents busy directors from lifting a 30 page paper and putting it through an artificial intelligence (AI) tool to reduce the document into a palatable one page summary. Thus, many directors are reduced to becoming speed readers, sifting through mountains of verbose information to try and glean what is being communicated in a not-so-effective way.

So, to my colleagues in executive management, here’s a thought: your team members are more than likely using a computer to put your department’s board pack together. Ask them to click on the “AI Assistant” button to make an executive summary of the document. An executive summary is designed to inform decision makers about the most critical aspects of a document so that they can quickly grasp the main idea and make an informed decision. At the top of the page, indicate to the reader if the paper is “For Your Approval” or if it is “For Your Information”. Your reader will bless you abundantly under their breath because you have just helped them to decide if they are going to read your paper first thing in the morning when they are clear headed and sharp enough to assess what their being asked to approve, or read it in the evening when they need a sleeping aid in the name of a report on the five trees that were planted as part of the corporate tree planting CSR initiatives for the year.

An executive summary should be 10% or less of the total length of the document. If it can be reduced to a one pager, you’re a leading candidate for the most valuable player award in the Brevity Hall of Fame. It typically looks like this:

Introduction: A brief statement of the purpose and scope of the document.

Highlights: Key findings, insights or data. If in bullet point rather than paragraph format, you’ll find a happily receptive audience.

Request or Recommendation(s): State the “Approval Ask” or provide a rationale for the FYI update.

Conclusion: Summarise your summary in a summarised manner. (See what I did there?)

And for the love of God and country, please use simple language? Here’s a free example to test on your AI tool. Insert this impossibly jargonic CYB sentence and ask your tool to reduce it to ten words.

“In light of the recently conducted fiscal analysis, the organization is experiencing a significant downturn in financial performance metrics, primarily attributable to suboptimal revenue generation and unforeseen market volatility. Therefore, it is essential to implement a robust strategic pivot aimed at recalibrating our operational framework and leveraging synergies within our core business units to facilitate an upward trajectory in profitability, thereby ensuring alignment with shareholder expectations and long-term value creation.

Your AI tool will likely summarise it thus: “We’re facing poor financial performance and need to adjust strategies.” The End.

Brevity is the soul of wit. Try it!

X: @carolmusyoka

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