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Communicate · Choose, Plan

Board paper

Puts a decision to a board with the reasoning, the options and a recommendation. The commonest failure is presenting information where a decision was required, and finding out in the meeting.

The printable canvas and the handoff into Claude Code are part of a paid plan. See what a plan includes. It needs the Claude desktop app on this machine, and your team and the prompt library already installed in that project — we cannot see your disk, so open it there.

Stage
03 Choose, 04 Plan
Works at
Corporate, Business
Maturity
Scaling → Large organisation
Time
A day to write, plus circulation time

What it is

A document putting a decision to a board, structured so a busy non-executive can understand the situation, the options and the recommendation in under ten minutes and then interrogate it properly.

Decision required
Stated first, in one sentence. What the board is being asked to approve, note or decide.
Recommendation
What management proposes, before the reasoning. Boards read for the conclusion and then test it.
Context and rationale
Why this, why now, what changed. Brief, and assuming intelligence rather than knowledge of the detail.
Options considered
The alternatives and why they were rejected. A single-option paper reads as a decision already made and invites resistance.
Risks and mitigations
Including what would make this the wrong call. Naming your own weaknesses buys more credibility than any amount of confidence.
Financial impact
What it costs, what it returns, over what period, and the assumptions underneath.
Appendices
The detail. Available for those who want it, out of the way for those who do not.
The mistake people makeBoards should not be asked to approve operational decisions — it wastes their time and makes them accountable for things they cannot meaningfully judge. If it does not need their authority, it is a noting item at most.
What it’s forA decision needs to go to a board with the reasoning, options and recommendation laid out.
What it’s not forThe decision is operational. Boards should not approve things they cannot meaningfully judge.

How you run it

  1. Say what you want on the first lineDecision required, and what it is. A board reading three pages to work out what is being asked has already formed a view about the paper.
  2. Give the recommendation before the analysisBoard papers are not detective stories. Recommendation, then reasoning, then supporting detail in appendices.
  3. Show the options you rejectedA single option looks like a decision already taken and invites a board to find a second one themselves. Show two or three and why they lost.
  4. Be explicit about risk and what would change your mindBoards trust papers that name their own weaknesses far more than confident ones that do not.
  5. Keep the body short and use appendicesTwo or three pages of body. Everything else goes behind, where those who want it can find it.

The prompt

Two ways to run it

Run this tool in your own Claude

The short prompt starts your partner against the library on your disk. The long one carries everything with it and needs nothing installed.

🔒 Prompt locked

Everything above is free — what this tool is, what it is for, what it is not for, and how to run it as a workshop. Three tool prompts a month are free with an account; beyond three, and for the printable canvas, it is the paid part.

See plans — from £19 a month

Your playbook

It lands in the earliest stage this tool suits. Move it on the Playbook page.

You’ll need

  • A decision that genuinely needs board authority
  • The analysis already done
  • Knowledge of what this board actually asks about

You’ll end up with

  • A paper that can be read in ten minutes
  • A clear recommendation with the alternatives shown
  • The decision requested, stated explicitly

Runs well with

Acquisition screen and synergy thesisAI operating model optionsAI opportunity mapAI risk classification and governance