ICML training courses > Business writing > Board papers
Our Board Paper writing training helps your people write concise and strategic board papers. Often writers are not clear as to what is appropriate and inappropriate content required by the Board to help them make their decisions. The reports often include too much detail and operational content, which requires significant editing before submitting. It makes decision making harder for board members because relevant strategic information is lost in detail.
This board paper writing training program helps staff members write succinct, strategic and high-level reports. The workshop is tailored to focus on your specific documentation and develops the skills that help to write high level reports attracting minimal editing.
This program is suited for team members who write Board Papers. This Board Paper writing training will be tailor-designed for teams and groups of colleagues. We tailor the program to the level of the participants and the types of documents they write. Ask us how. Receive this Board Paper writing course at your office. We deliver our programs all over Australia, including Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
Learn how to:
We deliver our board paper writing training programs either through:
All our facilitators are certified in COVID-19 Infection Prevention and Control Training by the Australian Department of Health. Therefore, you can rest assured we will deliver safe face-to-face workshops in collaboration with you.
Where relevant, we will use your organisation’s internal formats, templates and style guide.
We will also use anonymised examples of participants’ writing in the workshop. With this material the facilitator:
Ask us how we apply this to your organisation.
We’ll discuss your needs and create a board paper writing course that perfectly suits the audience and the reports they write. We’ll adjust this highly interactive workshop to the level of the participants. Participants will use their own documents to immediately apply their new report writing skills. Ask us how we can tailor a report writing training program to suit your needs:
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Great to review specific examples. Enjoyed the catchphrases to remember key points. Looking forward to using the formatting guide! The session was engaging, used multiple methods to break down the information.
Very engaging and very clear. Learned useful and practical tips that can be applied straight away. It will greatly improve my business writing. Excellent workshop! Using FSO examples made it even more relevant. Thank you so much!
Lynne has clearly had a lot of experience in this field and was able to provide great answers to questions as we went through. The use of real relevant documents made a big difference to the relativity of the course content. Very knowledgeable and well presented.
Lynne is so well versed as well as great at engaging people in conversations. Loved the training session. Thank you for teaching us such valuable lessons.
This course is a great introduction to someone coming into local government where responses may be analysed by the recipient - especially where there is a compliance element. It demonstrates the importance of effective language and phrases.
Lynne was fantastic and so knowledgeable in this area. Thank you for your time and assistance Lynne, one of the most useful and practical courses I have attended!
I think this should be included in the induction process for new staff.
Very inclusive, knowledgeable and authentic in wanting to share knowledge. Highly recommend the training to all levels of the department. A very practical course that we can apply to our writing.
Jill was fantastic. She was engaging, fun and friendly. This training was really great. I got so much out of it and am excited to take my learnings back to my work.
This is the most useful writing course I've completed in over 20 years in the VPS. It's really practical advice with plenty of examples.
Thank you Lynne for sharing your expertise in such an engaging way. Very interesting and valuable workshop with practical and relevant examples. Can’t wait to implement what I’ve learnt! Very professional. Thank you.
Very good course that gave me some great advice on how I can improve my report writing.
Ian was very open and easy to talk with, but kept us on topic. I think my writing prior was pretty good, but this course gave me the reminder of really looking at what I am writing and concentrating some effort in certain areas. Really enjoyed it. I think the work book has some excellent reference material.
A good communicator, clear on the relevant points and information. Very helpful course. So much of what we do is written word, and training to improve and hone written skills is most helpful. Thanks Helen.
Helen was excellent – a very clear facilitator. This course will make an immediate improvement to my writing. The pace was good and the examples were relevant.
Very engaging and what could have been a very dry subject. Engaging and very informative, made relevant by having our own examples of writing used throughout.
Was fantastic to use our own examples. It has highlighted a few things I currently do that are not only easy to change but will make writing a lot quicker. Love the spidergram tool.
Fantastic course. Very valuable training that I can put into use immediately. Well presented at the right level for the audience. Use of real examples was great. Very knowledgeable and assisted understanding with the use of examples.
Great facilitator well versed in good government writing. I took away a number of key tips to enhance my writing and improve efficiencies! Thanks very much Lynne!
This training is amazing and Lynne was wonderful. Lots of practical tips and advice that I can apply straight away in my work. It was delivered well too virtually. Love it.
Very helpful, great trainer. Easy format, worked well.
This course was a great refresher on grammar and excellent for updating our team and aligning our writing styles.
All of it, one of the best training sessions I have attended. Loved that it was a no laptop session which meant no one was distracted doing emails/chats. Supplying our own examples and having a facilitator with council knowledge really helped make it fantastic. Also loved that the tips were short and sharp and easy to do.
Learned a huge amount, and the materials provided will be a handy reference point to keep me on track! The best professional business/Board writing course I’ve ever been on. Thanks Lynne!
Lynne is always so professional, friendly and encouraging. Excellent qualities in a facilitator. The course material was very useful and practical and will be a great resource to reference following completion of this course. Thanks Lynne! I got a lot out of the course and will no doubt stop myself from using cliches and repeating myself in emails now.
Should be compulsory training for anyone expected to draft and submit council reports.
Great way to uplift the organisation outcomes by investing in the business case writing course.
Great overview of minute taking even for someone who has experience in this space.
Loved Lynne's passion and enthusiasm. She's made studying writing skills fun and entertaining. Loved the breakout sessions and the personal examples.
The course was engaging and very relevant to my work. Surprisingly engaging for a virtual workshop, a testament to Lynne’s excellent facilitation.
This was extremely helpful training. To the point, useful, kind in approach. Format was great for online, I liked that it stayed in the larger group setting but had exercises mixed throughout. Was engaged the whole time, time flew past. I would recommend that all staff should be required to do this training when they start as a Wyndham employee.
Breaking down core elements of training using real DRC examples was excellent. Overall, a great session and very useful leading towards the final report.
Ian is a great facilitator. He made taking this course remotely an engaging experience.
Lynne was incredible. Really loved the session today. I feel like this course came at such a fantastic time. I have so much more confidence in preparing board reports and reports for senior management. Good pace and so many fantastic take aways.
Very engaging course, learnt some key points and approaches which I will be able to utilise in future tenders and editing.
Vivienne was highly engaging and kept everyone attentive during the course.
Very useful workshop with lots of practice examples to make it clear what is required. Excellent facilitation, just the right amount of time spent on each area. Highly recommend this for anyone wanting to improve report writing.
I thought the most valuable part of the workshop was providing actual examples of our own work and then editing them for practice at the end of each section. The generic examples were good as well, but I think the attendee specific examples and the pre work by Lynne to understand our reporting and pick it apart really made the workshop. Format worked better than I expected. Lynne kept everyone engaged and the breakout rooms worked really well.
What a vibrant and engaging facilitator. Jam packed info delivered in 3 and a half hours. Thank you so much Lynne, for all the knowledge sharing.
Loved the day and found it all very useful. Lynne is knowledgeable, interesting and effective. I came into the workshop wondering how to write more directly and effectively, and I got exactly that.
Lynne is an accomplished presenter who retains people's attention by keeping things active. I love writing, believe I'm above average, and was happy to pick up a few tips to improve further.
The Report Writing Training delivered by ICML was extremely engaging, professional and highly beneficial for council officers to develop and advance their report writing skills. The training provided staff with not only useful writing techniques and resources, but with a greater confidence and understanding of writing practices. I would highly recommend ICML to anyone wishing to progress their writing skills!
Nailing Council Reports was informative and interesting; the facilitator Lynne was great – really knows the subject matter and presents it in an easy to understand and apply way.
Lynne ran the course extremely well. Kept it informative and interesting without overloading with too much information.
Lynne is a fantastic training facilitator because she made learning simple, interactive & enjoyable. During our virtual Business Case training with Lynne, I noticed a significant difference between self-paced online learning and a personalised training program, like the one delivered by ICML. I have learned and absorbed more information in one day’s worth of training (delivered via 90-minute sessions over multiple weeks) than I have in last 6 months while completing a self-paced online Project Management course.
Vivienne was wonderful. She was engaging and I learnt a lot from her.
The Advanced Business Writing course will allow me to improve all of my communication to clients. I highly recommend this course.
The content was extremely valuable and something that I have never be taught in my 15 years at different councils. It should be compulsory for all staff.
Lynne was an excellent trainer. Content was packed with Substance/tips. It made me feel like I was getting value for time/money, and satisfied my learning objectives. Probably one of the best short training courses that I have been to. Highly recommend for Council personnel to attend.
I liked how this course was practical and used our own writing examples. Really appreciated the relaxed way that Lynne delivered the information and made it fun and interactive.
This course exceeded my expectations. The inclusion of real work via pre course submissions was invaluable.
Lynne, this has by far been the best training I have attended in my professional career. You were able to provide a safe, non-judgemental space where I felt comfortable to make mistakes, and did so with the most positive attitude. I will highly recommend both you and this course to my colleagues.
I thought Ian’s use of illustrations and examples was excellent and concise.
Lynne was very clear, concise and engaging. The interactive exercises were engaging and helpful. I feel I have gained some valuable skills that I can apply immediately. Thank you!
Honestly, when I saw that we were going to have 3 training sessions of 1.5 hours each about writing I thought I couldn’t keep attention during the whole training. But the way Ian delivered the sessions and how the content was structured and prepared, left me with the feeling of wanting more sessions! I think it was one of the workshops/trainings where I’ve learnt the most. I would absolutely recommend it!
Lynne is a very engaging presenter and it’s been the best course I’ve attended in a long time.
Great facilitation, strong examples, engaging facilitation style. A fantastic training session. Has changed the way I approach writing.
Lynne was incredibly knowledgeable and was great at explaining concepts. I am more confident now in being able to write to the audience.
One of the best training modules I have completed for career development so far.
An excellent session and the best I’ve attended on this topic over the years. Worked really well - I’d not seen the breakout tools used on zoom before so a bonus bit of learning there.
Fantastic course. Thank you Lynne!
Highly recommend course. Really kept me engaged.
Lynne was very structured in her presentation and explained everything very clearly and succinctly. She was also a pleasure to listen to with her explanations on writing styles and the little things that can help with your writing of documents and emails.
Really good session to bring the participants up to date with current practices. Lots of good tips on how to keep your report succinct and on point. Lynne was great, very engaging.
A very enlightening course, which was well presented. I thought I was good at writing until I realised I have much to learn and practise. Lynne is very knowledgeable and uses clear messages and examples.
I found the course very informative and look forward to applying all I learnt to my writing.
Using samples from our own drafted documents made all the difference to the learning.
Lynne was very helpful and provided relevant details. Very easy to follow.
Lynne was knowledgeable and engaging and maintained a good pace for the workshops. The live workshop worked well, the breakout rooms were a good substitute for the usual breaking off into groups during a face-to-face workshop.
Lynne is wonderful. Very knowledgeable and easy to listen to. Lynne has a high level of knowledge and is a clear communicator. Fun!
Very worthwhile. Having break out sessions was great and so too was having your own work evaluated as part of group discussions.
The sessions were invaluable. Really easy to follow, engaging, I learned a lot. The perfect amount of conversation and collaboration. I'd recommend to everybody. I thought it was run really well. I appreciated that the need for extra breaks was factored in, so it never felt too tiring or overwhelming.
Another informative session that will be highly encouraged for all management to attend. It was great! Highly engaging.
This is not your average communication training session. If you want some real skills that will help you personally and professionally this is it! Suzanne was brilliant. Highly engaging and brought light to some very interesting thoughts and methods. I thought I had some skills in this are but I’ve been turned on my head. Mindblowing information and learnings. I would have liked another day (I would never normally say this).
Well done Lynne - very interactive, great examples across a range of disciplines and topics. Need to extend the program to as many staff as possible.
Lynne’s session was excellent and I would highly recommend it to others. The program was well-delivered and engaging - could have easily become a very dry subject in someone else's hands.
Loved the real world examples of AITSL content, felt the logic of the workshop was fantastic. Online format worked really well, great interactive elements as a group and in breakout rooms.
Really beneficial to the organisation. Lynne was fantastic and I highly recommend this course to everyone in the organisation.
Lynne is a great presenter and very engaging with everyone. Lots of tips Lynne showed us when writing emails I would have never picked up prior to the session.
A course that takes your personal input and uses it to improve your professional skills in an enjoyable and effective way. Facilitation was enjoyable, engaging and effective in communication.
Lynne was engaging the whole time – no moments of nodding off or inattention. Plus working on real life examples made the practice very relevant. The best one day course I have attended in quite some time. The skill and experience of the facilitator is evident.
We have been utilising Lynne’s skills over the years. Lynne is our ‘go-to’ person for writing, editing, writing for government courses every 2-3 years. We will continue to do so.
Jill was very personable and concise with her approach. The day flowed extremely well because of her styles and organisation. Very beneficial. It’s been refreshing to understand contemporary ways of writing.
Excellent delivery. Lynne is engaging and very knowledgeable. I now have a much better understanding of how business writing is different to other forms eg. academic.
Great course! Lynne was a charismatic facilitator and great teacher. Great, interactive and well balanced between activities and learning. Great learning tools. Looking forward to reflecting and implementing the key points.
Highly recommended! Thanks, Lynne. The workshop was very useful and practical. Lynne was easy to connect with, experienced and responsive.
Lynne was very engaging and enjoyable to learn from. I write a lot of emails and diary notes and the course has helped me identify where I can improve on my writing. I actually have no suggestions for improvement – the program was fantastic, especially the use of our own examples.
Lynne is knowledgeable and an excellent presenter. The content was concise and at just the right pace. Had fun!
Lynne was fantastic and presented in a very informative style! Her delivery was excellent – very interesting. This program is very beneficial, as I am required to write business cases and reports in my role.
Suzanne was fantastic, lovely, very entertaining and extremely knowledgeable. I found the program very beneficial. Will help me become more confident when presenting at workshops and addressing landholders, peers and industry bodies. Fantastic couple of days. Very constructive. Would highly recommend to others wishing to build on or improve their written and communication skills
The most useful and productive training I have ever attended.
Lynne was engaging and brought us out of our protective shells to access our own work constructively. Lynne was very thorough, entertaining, succinct and used relevant examples.
Lynne is an excellent coach who knows the subject extremely well and ran the course in an interactive and very enjoyable manner.
Fabulous day spent with Lynne. Really engaging and informative.
Very practical, good to use real-life examples. Communication is important to your business, that’s why you should take this course.
Good fun, ideal level of participation. Could be a dry subject it was delivered in an interesting way. Loved it, thanks. Excellent course and Lynne is a very professional facilitator. Great tools that were relevant to activities and which I’ll be using in the immediate future.
I would highly recommend this program to anyone, even if you think your writing skills do not need improving.
The training was very informative and engaging. Zoom was also an effective platform for remote training.
Lynne knows her stuff and can work a crowd! Lynne has a way of making writing fun and interesting. Great critiques and insight into writing styles.
Lynne was an engaging and energetic presenter who addressed the subject matter succinctly and effectively. Lynne has a very persuasive way of engaging her audience and challenging them in a positive way to reflect on their work. Great platform for me to engage with colleagues further on this important topic.
Andrea was well prepared, smart and humorous. What I learned will not only benefit my work but also my life. Andrea is a very experienced and considerate instructor.
Lynne is wonderful. She made the training fun and interactive. I could easily do days of this! Lynne is excellent, knowledgeable, interactive and inclusive. We learnt things I thought I was doing right for some years that I can now rectify.
Lynne was a fantastic facilitator who delivered a great program. It was an engaging and interesting use of examples to illustrate some of the issues within the organisation.
Lynne is clear, concise and great communicator. Excellent at transferring knowledge. Provides feedback without causing embarrassment. Excellent training. Worth a full day out of the office due to the outcomes. Practical and results orientated.
Loved it! I thought my writing skills were already high but I’ve learned there is lots of room for polishing and improvement!
Very informative, one of the best training sessions I have undertaken since joining local government.
This is a fantastic course for anyone looking to improve their writing skills. Examples were relatable and highlighted areas for improvement. Lynne is enthusiastic and full of knowledge. A great course – never a dull moment!
It was our absolute pleasure to recently have ICML deliver the Writing Powerful Emails course at our premises. The facilitator, Lynne, was both an informative and engaging presenter and held our interest through the half day session, with even a few laughs along the way. Already what I have learned is proving valuable in my work and will make a difference to the professionalism of my team. Thank you to the ICML team for making the process of organising the course easy and everything went without glitch. Highly recommend this course for even those who consider themselves competent email writers. We never stop learning.
Lynne is extremely knowledgeable and up to date with all tips and tricks for professional writing. Thanks for everything!
The programme was excellent, content was personalised and allowed opportunity to edit our own work. Lynne tailored the programme, kept it engaging and taught us a lot.
Excellent program!! All aspects were very helpful, even after years of writing. It’s nice to have an experienced facilitator making the trick of good writing explicit. Lynne was excellent – very good pace (not too slow) and not going down rabbit holes. Very engaging.
I thoroughly enjoyed the course and would recommend it to others, Very enjoyable.
A great combination of basic writing principles with application options and examples.
I liked how the course covered various types of writing (documents, emails etc). The small group was perfect and a good environment to learn in.
Peter was a great and informative facilitator who made us feel comfortable from the beginning and working as a team at the end.
The course was practical, interactive, informative and action oriented. With little background in business writing – it was useful to learn new and practical skills.
Peter was engaging, funny and very knowledgeable on the Effective Business Writing course. Course materials were well structured and easy to navigate with exercises that were fun, varied and perfectly timed to avoid “post lunch dip”. The course more than paid for itself in re-invigorating my writing.
A well organised and facilitated course of excellent, contemporary, meaningful content which was well structured and delivered.
Peter was a great facilitator with fun material to learn. Interactive learning and engaging environment.
Many takeaways and actions/skills I can apply and use in my day to day work. Small group – extremely beneficial to ask questions off topic. Much appreciated.
Fantastic program - very rarely do we host training that participants want to extend or wish lasted longer, but that's the response this writing, presenting and communicating with influence course received.
Brilliant workshop. Wish I attended years ago. Will assist in everything I do in the office. Thank you.
I am already using the skills by referring to the quick reference guides and participant manual. I am now writing in the active voice and am clearly including my main message first. I have booked for the Advanced Business Writing workshop – I can’t wait.
Lynne was great – delivered really well and kept it interesting. I learned skills and tips that will really easy to apply to my writing.
Peter was very engaging and inclusive. Honed skills, particularly around making my writing more concise and effective. I write so many emails, I can already see how this will help me tomorrow.
Peter is a great trainer/facilitator. Very clear and engaging in his presentation. Very helpful in my every day email correspondence and program report writing.
Lynne was fantastic! Valid examples and real-life experience. Really fun learning and unlearning!
A significant period of change in our organisation resulted in the identification of a broad range of training requirements. We contacted ICML who meet our immediate needs, but have also continued to work with us to further develop our employees. Training has been delivered at our business site, tailored to our objectives, with a personalised and practical focus. I don’t think I have ever received such positive and strong feedback from participants on the courses we have held – even our CE has heard the ‘buzz’ about the recent session, Advanced Business Writing, and the Executive team are participating in a further session. I would recommend ICML for any customised training to help your employees learn practical tips and reach their potential!!
Lynne was very talented at engaging the group and facilitating active learning. I was alert and interested throughout the day.
Thanks Lynne – really enjoyed the session. Logical structure and great range of topics covered.
Great presentation skills. Kept the course flowing well. Peter was a great facilitator.
The course was excellent. I would recommend the course for someone like myself because you gained a lot that you would not know.
Fantastic! Lynne had done great research and prepared relevant documents that were presented well. Lynne was fantastic. She gave great tips that will make a huge difference to our business both externally and internally.
A fantastic trainer and great session. I can’t wait for Lynne’s next course!
Great balance of theory and practical application to improving my business writing skills.
I really enjoyed this course and can immediately deploy tactics I’ve learnt today, in my work. Lynne was a fantastic presenter, knowledgeable, funny and professional.
Peter was an excellent facilitator that engaged well with the course participants and was able to communicate the content in a relevant way.
Had a valuable day with Peter developing skills that will be of great benefit professionally and personally. Was a good learning environment for me. Exactly what I needed. It has given me renewed confidence and an ability to more effectively plan and write with purpose and direction. It was great.
Peter was an engaging trainer. Best training day I have ever had! The training day with Peter was insightful and enjoyable. This course and day exceeded my expectations – I can’t recommend this enough!
I gained valuable information on audience, structure writing and the correct use of grammar and punctuation
Lynne is fantastic and very knowledgeable. Thank you. I would recommend all businesses to participate in this course. I really enjoyed how it was done, how we got to correct our errors and the examples related to our line of work.
This has been an eye opening experience and will definitely change my old habits. This program will definitely get you thinking about changing old writing habits and help you to develop a new set of writing skills to communication to high level executives, managers and board members.
I feel ten-fold more confident after completing today’s workshop. Thank you Peter!
The pace and class size were spot on and the facilitator Lynne was clearly very knowledgeable. Lynne is easily one of the best presenters I’ve seen.
Very good facilitator. Peter had a warm and inviting manner and was very inclusive of all participants.
The workshop gave me the skills to write more persuasively and I have a better understanding as to how I should structure my writing. ICML's organisation was excellent; I had a reminder several times about my attendance including email, text message.
Do you have any questions about writing board papers you’d like to ask? Do it here. One of our trainers will answer on the page and we’ll let you know by email when we post the response. We aim to come back to you within a few business days. If you need more urgent advice, try our chat at the bottom of the page.
Vinesh M
Posted at 11:45h, 02 JulyHi, I have had my board papers rejected several times but I’m not sure why. I think I put in all the necessary hard work and detail. What can you recommend?
Brinda Bajaj ICML
Posted at 15:57h, 06 JulyHi Vinesh
That’s an interesting question and one that we come across all the time in our Board Paper writing training workshops. I haven’t seen your written work but I suspect your issue has to do with the level of detail. I’ll tell you about a real case study:
Nailing appropriate content when writing Board Papers
A year ago I was conducting a Writing Board Papers training course and all participants were required to send me copies of their reports beforehand to use within the program.
I received an impeccably presented paper requesting Board sign off on $500,000 for an IT upgrade. It was visually perfect, grammatically correct and easy to read – but it was 16 pages long. I enquired whether it was approved, but the answer was no. The author said, “I don’t know why it wasn’t approved. I’ve been told to rework it but I don’t know why; all the information is there.”
This is a common problem of including too much detail when writing Board Papers. We must get into the brain of the reader to determine what information they need in order to make their decisions at their level. That will govern the depth of content.
An operational manager – requires all the detail on how the solution will work, options considered, functionality and costs. Their responsibility is to find the right solution.
A Board Member – requires return on investment information or decisions which helps the business achieve their strategic plan. All their decisions are at a strategic level and based on how the business will benefit if they spend this money. Will they save labour hours, get data faster or get more data?
The Board’s job is to keep the business functioning and viable. It will be a shorter report simply focusing on business benefits, costs, any risks and may be a high level implementation plan. When the operational manager signs off on the solution’s functionality, all the operational detail should be extracted from the report with the Board Paper focusing only on return on investment.
It is never a simple case of ‘one report suits all’. Different levels of management bring different scrutinies to the proposal. Our job when writing Board Papers is to understand the scrutinies at different levels and present the right information to help the reader make their decisions.
What happens if we put in too much detail when writing a Board Paper?
I met with considerable author pushback in the Board Paper writing course when we took all the operational detail out. He said, “But surely the Board Members can find the information in the report? They are clever people and need to know the detail and the whole story.” The answer is ‘no’ – Board Members get agitated sifting through useless information because it:
• wastes their time (and they have another 40 reports to read by the Board meeting tomorrow night)
• hides the relevant decision-making points
• can distract them into operational issues.
Lesson for all writers
Understand the reader and why they are reading it. Transition from your brain into theirs and give them the information they need to make their decisions. The mark of a good business writer is not necessarily what you put into a report, but what you leave out. Don’t do a brain dump on a topic – select, select, select for the reader.
I hope that helps you with your own Board papers. Please let us know if you have any further questions.
Lynne
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