Broadly speaking there are two types of briefings. There are briefings for information and briefings for decision. There are also briefing notes which are outside the scope of this article and will be covered at a later date.

For the purpose of today’s article when I refer to a briefing I am referring to a conversation, presentation or pitch that you are providing to an executive in person or over the phone. I will be giving tips on briefing executives from the Assistant Deputy Minister (ADM) level and higher, but the same principles can be applied if you are briefing an executive director or director.
Briefing for information is a presentation you give on an issue to give facts. You are not necessarily expected to have an opinion on the situation or have a solution to any of the problems presented by the situation. As a rule, I try to prepare a few options or well considered comments in case the executive asks for your opinion after briefing them on information. They might not ask, but do not be caught unprepared.
 
Briefing for decision is a presentation you give on an issue and you are expected to present several options for the executive to choose from. These briefs tend to take the form of structured arguments that lead the executive to endorse one of the options presented at the end.
 
Whether you are preparing for an information or decision briefing think about these 5 principles:
 
1. Think “High Level”
 
If you spend any time with public service executives you will have undoubtedly heard the phrase “high level.”
 
As in: “Would you write me a high level summary? Could you ensure the briefing note is high level? The Deputy Minister would like just high level, don’t get too specific – she doesn’t have much time.”
 
High level is an abbreviation of high level overview. Meaning it is an outline that goes over the issues in broad strokes. Think cliff notes version of an issue. When you are creating a high level overview of an issue think of the broad themes, patterns and trends. If there are significant exceptions to patterns or trends, these might be important to note as well. For example if there has recently been a precedent setting court case that overturned an expected ruling against the provincial government. Imagine you only have 3 minutes to describe a given situation- that is high level.
 
So even if you have 15 minutes or 1 hour to brief, make sure that you are truly giving a high level summary and not getting lost in the weeds.
 
2. Summarize then provide options
 
This is important. Executives at the ADM level and higher do want you to know the details but that does not mean they want to hear about them. Summarize the situation/policy issue at a “high level” but come prepared to answer detailed questions.
 
Once you have made your choices regarding what you are going to say and the options you are going to pitch prepare to talk about them in a dispassionate way. When presenting be as neutral as possible. If there is an obvious route to choose or a route you think is best, you can say so. Just rationalize it with some evidence or examples. Do not just stamp your foot and say you want what you want because you want it. Really. It is not a good look on you.
 
3.Prepare, prepare, prepare and…prepare
 
It is very important that you know your subject matter backwards and forwards. Spend time preparing and practice your briefing out loud, preferably to another human. You need to be prepared to move quickly but at a manageable pace through your material. Aim to finish a few minutes early so you can take questions.
 
Should you prepare notes and bring them with you? Yes.
 
The only person who should not bring notes are those gods among us who have photographic memory and nerves of steel. You will need both of those qualities to brief without notes. Remember, you do not have to read a script that you have prepared but it is important to have notes to refer to when you get lost in a thought, get asked a question or need to refer to your notes when stalling for time to think of an answer to a question. It is not unprofessional to have notes. In many situations, if you are running a meeting or briefing someone it is unprofessional not to have notes at the ready.
 
4. Keep it tight

 During the briefing you should present yourself as in control but not bossy. You want to project confidence in the material you have prepared and then defer respectfully to those you are presenting to. Remember- you are presenting and they are the ones deciding. Do not be overly pushy about the option you want.
 
Dress well. What if it is a briefing by teleconference? Dress well. Research shows that how you physically look impacts how you feel. So dress smart, feel smart is the idea.
 
5. Be honest

 If you are dealing with a competent executive who wants to get this decision right, you will be asked tough questions. Do not panic. Take a moment, ask if you can refer to your notes and look at your notes. This will give you some time to take a breath, think and actually see if you were smart enough to write down something useful in your notes. This makes you appear more intelligent and prepared than if you just blurt out “I don’t know.”
 
If you do not know the answer to a question after you have taken a breath, read your notes and thought about it, be honest. Say that you will get back to them and then write down their exact question on the spot so you remember to do so.
 
Lastly be polite but speak the brutal truth about what other people think of the issue. Executives want to know if stakeholders hate one of the options you are presenting or if frontline workers really love option 3. Do not be afraid of hurting their feelings. The executive trusts  you to give them all the information they need and strong opinions of internal and external stakeholders is information they need.

In addition, IPAC supported my studies with a mentor whom I wasn’t lucky to have any fruitful time with, so that ignited my curiosity about IPAC’s role in Canada’s Public Policy/Administration. As a graduate student in Public Policy (Environmental Policy) with little interaction with public administrators unlike in Cameroon where I participated in inter-ministerial meetings, I sought for opportunities to feel the realities of public administration in Canada to compare and draw lessons for Public Administration in Africa, especially after winning the policy competition of NL. I was lucky to participate in the 70th Annual Conference in Quebec, 2018.

Coming from a small city, Corner Brook, in NL, my entry into the big and beautiful Quebec City blew my mind and raised my expectations of the conference although my accommodation wasn’t welcoming. The conference organization, the set up and presentations blended with the great oldest North American city. In fact “l’apparance n’etait pas trompeuse” as the level/magnitude of the conference was complementary with beauty and maturity of the city. The choice of “maturity” likened to age and great comportment to describe the Quebec is as a desire to reveal my take of take of the IPAC Conference.

Key take home lessons from the Quebec conference

The choice of the conference theme, Public Administration Under Pressure, and most of the workshops was on point in this era where things move at a convulsive speed. The frank talks, conviviality and the desire to continuously learn despite years of experience was breath taking. There were good take home lessons with recommendations such as;

• Collaboration between administrators and the public for the sustainability of public projects,
• Cooperation within and between administrative systems for vertical and horizontal co-production with better results,
• Co-management where every stakeholder or actor is motivated through trust to help administrative machinery achieve expected goals.

The above recommendations among other rich capacity building workshops triggered the desire to go and improve on public service delivery with expected testimonies in Winnipeg in 2019, which I encourage all public servants to attend if they can.

Author: Tamufor N. Emmanuel. M.A. Candidate in Environmental Policy, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada (ALT Scholar).
​

​The Pacific Innovation Fair co-hosted by the British Columbia Federal Council (BCFC) and the University of British Columbia (UBC) showcased innovative and transformative initiatives occurring at all levels of government including federal, provincial, municipal and First Nations. Discussion topics included: innovative service delivery; collaborative working; healthy workplace creation; First Nation reconciliation; institutional reform, and; enabling tools and approaches.

​Take away thinking points included:

• The digital transformation of the workplace and the structural configuration of the Canadian federal bureaucracy is no longer a futuristic fantasy. The proliferation of encrypted communications on mobile platforms provides the opportunity to pivot away from a one-size-fits-all approach to a “mass customization” business model. But with no fixed model for innovation labs in Canada, policymakers will have to clearly differentiate policy “innovation” from policy “improvement. 

• The rapid proliferation of government policy labs is driven by a growing demand for strategic agility, organizational learning, and a “diplomacy of knowledge” at all levels of government. Designing collaborative innovation platforms that harness the “wisdom of the crowd” involves more than a sharing of “best practices.” It requires a robust managerial foresight capacity and a strategic culture that not only tolerates, but actively promotes, decentralized decision-making.

• Governments are waking up to the limitations of prescribed planning methodologies, but it is critical for decision-makers to enable multi-scalar processes and to mentor multi-lingual individuals that serve as conduits to external knowledge-sharing systems. “Influencers” or highly connected individuals with access to more than one network can significantly shape the timing, volume, velocity, direction, and quality of knowledge that is either shared with (or withheld from) other knowledge seekers. That is why the sudden or unexpected departure of networked individuals poses a significant long-term risk.

​​​​The respect that Canada enjoys internationally stems largely from the integrity of its public institutions and social policies. The ability to innovate, think creatively, combine new ideas and leverage those insights to create new sources of social and economic value will determine the future of public service delivery in Canada. 

At IPAC Vancouver, we strive to provide you with a platform to share your thoughts and ideas with peers across different sectors. We host as many events as possible throughout the year to make this happen but there's only so much time. In order to continue the discussion in between events, we are offering this blog post to help continue the discussion.

If you have an idea or issue you'd like to explore just leave a comment in this post. Or send us an email with a short piece, or report, to post on the blog.