Exercise

Get to the Point

Lead with the Basics – Horse Before the Cart

                                                                                    By Carla D. Bass, Colonel, USAF (Ret)

Critical in writing ... put key info first ... horse before the cart

Lead with the Basics — Horse before the Cart Image from “Write to Influence!” Gotta keep that sense of humor!

Get to the point soonest in your communication. Time flies; the reader’s attention is fleeting.  This applies to sentences, paragraphs, and entire documents. Learn to triage the main message from ancillary detail and backup information. Sequence accordingly.

This applies with one exception … raising a controversial topic or proposing contrary alternatives. But, that is another story!

Before:

  1. If defenses exist that could lessen the impact of a computer attack, the solutions should be identified in the proposal.
  2. To quantify the costs and expected benefits of transitioning end-to-end IT services, and to help IT leaders build the business case, we created a detailed economic model.
  3. A principal member from each of the twelve counties, designated by the head of each Board of Supervisors, comprise the Transportation Commission.
  4. In early 2019, while supporting the American Federation of Organic Horticulturalists and the Virginia Organization of Master Gardeners, he wrote a feature article on gardening.
  5. For a corporate management team tasked with deciding among a number of possible options on fielding a major system worth 5 million dollars to manage product dissemination across the U.S., facilitated a team to a decision in four half-day sessions using FacilitateSystems to solicit opinions about the options; DPX, a marginal benefit-cost decision tool to combine probabilities; DPK, a decision analysis tool combining influence diagrams and decision trees for building technology area roadmaps; and SoundDecisions to evaluate options and present results of the discussion.

After

  1. Identify in the proposal existing defenses against computer attacks.
  2. We created a detailed economic model to quantify the costs and benefits of transitioning end-to-end IT services, and to help IT leaders build the business case.
  3. The Transportation Commission consists of a principal member from each of the twelve counties, designated by the head of the respective Board of Supervisors.
  4. He wrote a feature article on gardening in early 2019 while supporting the American Federation of Organic Horticulturalists and the Virginia Organization of Master Gardeners.
  5. Facilitated a twenty-person team, helping it make several decisions about fielding a $5M system to manage product dissemination across the U.S. Did so in four half-day sessions; effectively employed three state-of-the-art IT facilitation tools.