communicate / writing effective submissions and briefings
Training on writing submissions and briefings for senior decision-makers
For teams writing submissions and briefings for ministers, senior leaders and other decision-makers. Helps you get to the point fast, writing with clarity, precision and authority, and adapting to your reader’s preferred style and format so your advice gets read, understood and acted on.
Writing for senior leadership means presenting complex issues in a way that busy decision-makers can act on quickly. Whether the audience is a minister, senior leader or committee, submissions and briefings need to be precise, accessible and consistent. This programme is designed for teams who prepare written materials for leaders under tight deadlines and high scrutiny.
We starts with a leadership consultation and a confidential survey of the people who’ll attend, to find out what’s actually getting in the way of their writing, rather than assuming. The workshop is then built around your team’s own casework, using tools designed to work whatever the specific issue turns out to be. Participants leave with a redrafted version of one of their own real submissions.
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Strengthen your team’s ability to write with clarity, brevity and impact.
Shape writing around what the reader needs to know, not just what the team wants to say.
Structure submissions so the main point and recommendation are impossible to miss.
Adapt content to match the communication and presentation style your organisation prefers.
Build shared standards for tone, structure and professional language across the team.
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Faster and sharper submissions that support confident decision-making.
A unified style and voice across documents, improving credibility and saving leaders’ time.
Greater confidence in handling word and time constraints without losing substance.
A shared drafting-and-review process, the same one built in the workshop, that the team can run on every submission.
A structured review habit, checking that every submission’s recommendation, timing and evidence line up before it goes to a decision-maker.
A programme built around what’s actually slowing your team down, not a generic curriculum.
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Pre-workshop consultation and confidential survey, to diagnose what’s actually getting in the way for your team
Full-day core workshop, 09:30-16:30 (in-person or virtual), built around your team’s own casework
Follow-up session (2 hours, one month later / OPTIONAL) - built into every programme to reinforce what’s learned on the day
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09:30-09:45 Welcome, introductions and review of pre-workshop survey findings. Participants share expectations and team goals.
09:45-10:30 Knowing your reader - writing for decision-making
Identifying the priorities of a minister, senior leader or committee, and writing so the critical message is understood and trusted on first read.10:30-11:15 Structuring with the six-box planning grid
Putting the decision and recommendation at the front of a document, before anything else gets written.11:15-11:30 Break
11:30-12:15 Closing your team’s specific gap
Built around what the pre-workshop survey finds is actually getting in the way - for one client, that turned out to be agreeing a shared definition of risk, so everyone used the word the same way.12:15-13:00 Lunch
13:00-13:45 The compression drill - balancing brevity with depth
Cutting a full-length submission to under 100 words in ten minutes, then rebuilding it to the right length for your team’s standard.13:45-14:30 Live drafting against your own casework
Applying the grid and the compression technique to real material from the team’s own work.14:30-14:45 Break
14:45-15:30 Team standards and a shared review process
Agreeing shared tone, structure and feedback standards based on your organisation’s guidance, not individual preference, and building a QA checklist to confirm every submission’s recommendation matches its options and evidence.15:30-16:15 Applying it - redrafting one of your own submissions
Participants leave with a reworked version of a real submission, built using the day’s tools.16:15-16:30 Commitments and close
Review key takeaways and set team commitments.
