Presenting a Briefing

The Informative Speech for Business/Professional Settings

Overview of Briefings

• Today’s professional world requires a variety of approaches to present and request information.
• When the United States Army was looking for ways to communicate up and down the chain of command, they looked at how business professionals communicated to their supervisors, employees, and clients.
• What the Army developed was a series of briefings.
• The concise and effective transfer of information is critical for success in business and professional contexts, which is the focus of this presentation.
• Four types of briefings are
• Information
• Decision
• Mission
• Staff Briefing

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Overview of Briefings

• While there are four distinct types of briefing, there are three general elements to each.
• First, there is the idea of BLUF (bottom line up front), which means you start with the main point and cut any and all peripheral and extraneous information. Your presentation should not be a mystery novel where the audience is trying to figure out what is going on.
• Second, a speaker must clearly understand what information is being asked for. You do not want to waste valuable time gathering and reporting information only for the audience (i.e., your boss or client) to say, “This is not what I asked for…”
• Third, each type of briefing requires a follow-up after the speech is done. A follow-up is an action that ensures what was presented or discussed is clearly understood by the speaker(s) and audience. Moreover, the follow-up creates a clear record of what decisions and recommendations, if any, were chosen.

Techniques for Briefings: Information Briefing

• Information Briefing
• The information briefing is a presentation in which the speaker’s purpose is to foster the audience’s understanding of facts relating to the topic.
• The speaker includes only factual information, and no recommendations, decisions, or any hint of an argument are included.
• Information briefings are ideal for situations where the audience requires immediate information, when the information is highly complex, or when information needs to be elaborated upon or explained.
• The information briefing follows the traditional introduction-body-conclusion format in public speaking.

Techniques for Briefings: Information Briefing

• The Information Briefing (outline)
• Introduction
• Offer a greeting
• Mention a confidentiality statement if necessary
• State your purpose (i.e., BLUF)
• Offer a preview of the body
• Body
• State your first main point
• State your second main point
• Etc.
• Conclusion
• Summarize main point

Techniques for Briefings: Information Briefing

• Introduction
• The introduction is very brief, just a few sentences, and includes a greeting, outline of the purpose of the briefing (i.e., the BLUF), and a preview, all in that order.
• In the greeting, you introduce yourself, identify your audience, and, if appropriate, the people or organization you represent.
• For example, Angelina, a worker with a social media company, might present an update to her boss on a client: “Good afternoon, sir/ma’am. My name is Angelina, and I am from the eastern district team.”
• A security investigator at a bank could begin, “Hello, Ms. Beaumont (the regional bank manager), my name is Noriko and I’m a senior investigator from corporate.”

Techniques for Briefings: Information Briefing

• In the military, immediately after you identify yourself, you are supposed to state, “This is an information briefing. It is classified secret” if the information is indeed classified. (Alternatively, the briefing could be top secret or unclassified. This is not included here as a required element, but it is something you should know.) There is a possibility that in your career you might present very sensitive information to people within the business world. In such situations, it might be beneficial to let the audience know they should not be discussing the information with others outside the briefing.”
• A bank investigator, for example, might present a report using this strategy: “After a careful audit of your tellers, we have found that there is theft occurring. We are not sure who it is, but I advise that we keep the information discussed here private as not to tip off whichever teller(s) might be involved.”

Techniques for Briefings: Information Briefing

• Another example is Angelina, the social media advisor, who might be presenting proprietary information, which should not be revealed publicly. After the greeting, she could state, “We have several strategies that rely on proprietary information that is intended only for people in this room.”
• After the greeting, you explain the purpose of the presentation. This is where you state why you are presenting this information to the audience. It is here where you put the bottom line up front (BLUF). Angelina might say, “I am here to report on my work over the past month on the T-D account.” The bank investigator could say, “After reviewing the activity in the bank, we have found that theft is occurring.”
• The last element of the introduction is the preview of what and how you will present the rest of the speech. Angelina’s preview could be “I will tell you what my team has found in their review, which is in a handout I’ll distribute momentarily. I’ll also explain how we are preparing for our meeting with them in March.” The banker could say, “I am going to review the financial losses over the past three months. Then, we will view the video surveillance footage.”

Techniques for Briefings: Information Briefing

• Body
• The body of the information briefing includes all the details about the information the audience needs to know.
• What information you include here is completely dependent on the topic you are presenting.
• If your audience needs to know what social media strategies work best for a certain type of business, you would explain that.
• If the audience requested information on agricultural stocks, you would present that.
• If the audience wants to know the history of an idea or business, that is what you would explain.

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Techniques for Briefings: Information Briefing

• Regardless of the information being presented, it should be presented in such a way that best reflects the nature of the information and needs of the audience.
• For the social media example, you might list information in a pro-con list in which you explain the strengths and weaknesses of various strategies. Or Angelina could explain what she has done and what she is going to do for the client.
• For an agricultural stock briefing, you might explain the various types of agricultural stocks (e.g., animal, vegetation, etc.).
• For the history of a business briefing, a chronological account might be best.

Techniques for Briefings: Information Briefing

• Conclusion
• In the conclusion of the information briefing, you bring together everything you said and summarize the main points.
• This is where you give the bottom line, which you also gave in the introduction.
• At the very end, you ask the audience if they have any questions or require further clarification on any of the information you presented.
• For example, “I’ve covered our review of the T-D account and our plans moving forward. With that, if there is anything that needs to be clarified or if you have any questions, please let me know.”
• The bank investigator could close his speech with “I’ve shown you that there is theft going on and that the perpetrators are adept at covering their actions. If there are any questions, I would be happy to answer them.”

Techniques for Briefings: Decision Briefing

• Decision Briefing
• The decision briefing is when a speaker presents a series of ideas, plans, or recommendations to an audience, who would then decide on what to do.
• In the business world, you might pitch several ideas or recommendations to your supervisor or boss, who would then decide on which idea they like the best.
• The decision briefing can be used to present options to a customer or client who would pick what they wanted.
• The decision briefing also uses the traditional introduction-body-conclusion format but includes some essential elements to help the audience better understand the decision they must make.
• Those elements are the greeting, request for decision, the problem, and the recommendation.
• These last three elements make up the BLUF.
• In essence, you are stating, “I need a decision (or your approval) about a solution to a problem, and here is what I recommend you decide.”

Techniques for Briefings: Decision Briefing

• The Decision Briefing (outline)
• Introduction
• Offer a greeting
• Request a decision
• State the problem/question to be answered
• Offer your recommendation
• Body
• State the facts
• State your assumptions
• Offer some solutions
• First solution
• Second solution
• Etc.
• Outline the criteria for analysis
• Criteria (like ‘cost’)
• Criteria (like ‘time’)

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• Explain your analysis
• Solution 1
• Apply first criteria
• Apply second criteria
• Solution 2
• Apply first criteria
• Apply second criteria
• Restate your recommendation
• Conclusion
• Ask for questions
• Ask for approval of your recommendation and/or request decision

Techniques for Briefings: Decision Briefing

• Like the information briefing, the introduction begins with a greeting and, if necessary, a statement about the confidentiality of the information. While the greeting is necessary, a statement about confidentiality or secrecy is not necessarily something required or even expected in most business presentations.
• Here's an example of a greeting, which is similar to the one above: "Good afternoon, Mr. Stults and the management team of T-D. I'm Angelina, a representative of Adams social media."
• Next, you request a decision, which is when you explain to the audience that you are seeking their approval or input. 
• Angelina, for example, could say, "Today I'm going to let you know of several options open to you so that you can build your social media presence. At the end of this presentation, you can let us know which ideas you like the best, and we can begin working to implement them for you." Alternatively, she could say, "We have a number of ideas that we think can help you, and we're looking for your feedback on what you would like to do."

Techniques for Briefings: Decision Briefing

• After letting the audience know that you need a decision from them, you state the problem. 
• The problem is the question or situation that needs to be answered or decided upon. Here is an example where the audience already understands their problem or need: " We understand that you are seeking to gain more clients and engagement from the local community in order to grow your business."
• Sometimes, however, you may request a decision regarding an issue that the audience does not already know about. In this situation, you would need to tell the audience what their problem is. Returning to the bank example, Noriko could say, "After reviewing the evidence, there is an obvious problem. That problem is theft among the employees."
• After you state the problem, comes the recommendation, in which you tell the audience what you think they should decide. The recommendation should be clearly and unambiguously stated so that the audience can fully understand what is being suggested.
• Angelina, for example, could say, "Based on our review of your situation, we recommend a strategy of relying on regular and consistent social media postings."

Techniques for Briefings: Decision Briefing

• Body
• The body includes six elements that focus on the known and the unknown information related to the decision, the potential solutions, the relevant criteria for the best solution, evaluation of those solutions, and the reason for the specific recommendation to the audience.
• The first element is a presentation of the positive and negative facts, which is the information that is related to the problem and that will influence the decision. The information presented here must be factual and proven - not conjecture.
• In her presentation to her client, Angelina could state, "Your company has been in business for 45 years, passed down through three generations. During that time, your revenue has gone down consistently. We also know from research that your local competition is increasing at an exponential rate, especially in the last five years. Also, from talking to your marketing department, we know that you've been using the same marketing strategies for well over 15 years." In this example, Angelina states the facts - which are related to the problem - that she absolutely knows.

Techniques for Briefings: Decision Briefing

• The second element is the assumptions, which is a discussion of assumed information that fills in for missing facts or unavailable data.
•  Here, for example, Angelina could state, "We believe you are looking to change strategies dramatically so that you can continue his family business. We also assume that you want to get the maximum results with minimal expense." 
• Here, Angelina is stating what she believes to be facts, but she cannot verify them. Now, if she were to ask the owners, "Do you want to have the maximum results for the minimal expense?" and the owners said yes, then that would be a verified fact. In that case, that information would be in the facts section

Techniques for Briefings: Decision Briefing

• The third element is a presentation of the viable solutions to the problem. Here, you outline the various potential answers to the problem you identified in the introduction. This, obviously, should include your recommended solution but should include other potential solutions as well. 
• When you list the solutions, do not list them as option number one, option #2, and so on, which might confuse the audience if there are a lot of options. Instead, you should create a short name for each solution that reflects that solution. This strategy makes it easier for the audience to remember the various solutions.
• Angelina, for example, could list the following solutions: " There are three potential solutions. First, is frequency where you would post two to three times a day, every day. Second, is the use of brand , which are representatives of your company whose primary goal is communicating the benefits of your company to various audiences. Third, we can develop and enact a social media campaign that would last for three months.

Techniques for Briefings: Decision Briefing

• The fourth element is the criteria for analysis of the various solutions. 
• In this section, you explain the criteria that will be used to evaluate the solutions. 
• For example, Angelina can explain, "The best option for T-D is one that meets the following criteria. First, cost. The solution must cost less than your budget of $1500. Second, implementation. The solution must be one that can be implemented within two weeks. Third, effectiveness. The best solution is one that actually will address the problem without causing more problems."

Techniques for Briefings: Decision Briefing

• The fifth element is the analysis. In this section, you evaluate the various solutions against the criteria for analysis. In doing so, be sure to use the criteria in the same exact order as they were presented in the criteria for analysis section.
• Angelina would explain, "The frequency solution is extremely cost effective and would require your current marketing employees to spend some of their time developing and posting content. While this would increase their workload, it would not cost the company any more money, unless the company wanted to compensate the workers for the additional workload. If so, they could be done easily under the $1500 budget. The frequency solution is easily implementable. We can train your marketing department in under 2 hours. We would charge $400 for that training, which still falls under your budget. Also, the frequency solution would get you more recognition in the community, as we can target audiences within the local community on social media." 
• Here, Angelina examined the solution in terms of all the criteria, and she would need to do that with each of the other solutions

Techniques for Briefings: Decision Briefing

• Lastly, you state your recommendation, in which you restate what you think the audience should decide. 
• Your recommendation should be based on your analysis. This is the bottom line. 
• Angelina could conclude the body of the decision briefing by stating the recommendation, "Based on the analysis here, we believe the best option for T-D is regular and consistent social media postings."

Techniques for Briefings: Decision Briefing

• Conclusion
• The conclusion begins by asking the audience if they have any questions. If they do, obviously, you should address them. Once you have answered the audience's questions (or if there are not any questions), you then restate that you are asking for approval for your recommendation and restate your recommendation. At the very end of the presentation, you request a decision. 
• Angelita could conclude, "If there are any questions or you need more explanation, please ask or let me know. If there are no further questions, we are curious what you would like to do, and, again, we think regular and consistent posting is the best solution for you. Is our recommendation one you would like to accept?" Once the solution has been agreed to you can make it official with a follow up, which would likely include a second meeting or a quick summary.

Techniques for Briefings: Mission Briefing

• Mission Briefing
• Although the term mission carries military connotations, remember that these briefings can be used in any professional context. Specifically, the mission briefing is quite beneficial to anyone who is a manager or supervisor in professional contexts. 
• The mission briefing is ideal for giving information or instructions for a specific assignment, task, or mission. 
• A manager can use the mission briefing to 
• give general instructions relating to an upcoming task or job,
• emphasize the requirements and what is expected from the audience who will carry out the job, 
• provide additional details and specific instructions that come up during that task,
• review key aspects of the job or mission, and 
• warn workers of possible issues or areas of concern that might be expected.

Techniques for Briefings: Mission Briefing

• The Mission Briefing (outline)
• Situation: Explaining the context surrounding the job
• Mission/Task: Stating what the exact job is
• Execution: Assigning people to specific parts of the job
• Support: Describing what resources are available to get the job done
• Command: Stating where the supervisor/manager will be

Techniques for Briefings: Mission Briefing

• Unlike the previous two types of briefings, the mission briefing has no formal introduction or conclusion. As such, it is considered to be rather informal. 
• There are five elements that provide some guidance as to what to include in the mission briefing. The first element is a discussion of the situation, which is an explanation of the current conditions relating to the job to be done.
• For example, a manager at a grocery store might begin a mission briefing to their employees with "The fruit and vegetable sections are not looking good. After this weekend, the shelves are pretty bare, and the place just looks messy."
• The second element is stating the mission which is the job or task to be done. The grocer, for example, could say, "We need to restock the shelves and clear out all damaged or spoiled fruits and vegetables."
• Third element is the execution, which means the speaker outlines who is responsible for each part of the mission. In other words, the speaker described specifically who is going to do what.

Techniques for Briefings: Mission Briefing

• The fourth element is a review of the support available to the audience. Here, a speaker explains what resources are open to the workers to help them get the job done. The grocer might tell his crew "There are large garbage cans in the stockroom for the discarded stock and mops by the sink to clean up any messes or spills."
• The final element is called the command. This is basically the speaker informing the audience/ workers where the supervisor or manager will be. This way the workers, if need be, can seek out additional information, instructions, or guidance. The grocer could say "I will be over in the dairy section if you need me."

Techniques for Briefings: Staff Briefing

• Staff Briefing
• The staff briefing is when a group of individuals come together to report to a superior, the person in charge (e.g., employees who report to a manager or a number of vice presidents who report to the president of a business).
• The value of this type of briefing is that the superior can ensure that activities within the organization are proceeding as they should and that everyone is on the same page. Each individual reports on the specific areas and responsibilities to the superior, who can better understand the situation and coordinate activities within the organization.
• It is often routine for the person in charge, who is the primary audience for the staff briefing, to interject and issue instructions, decisions, and information throughout the staff briefing. Because of this, the staff briefing can become a combination of the information briefing, decision briefing, or mission briefing.

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Techniques for Briefings: SUMMARY

• When speaking to inform, there are a number of options to open to a speaker. Remember, there are four types of briefing:
• Information
• Decision
• Mission
• Staff
• Each have their own distinct purposes and elements to help exchange information between the speaker and the audience. While these briefings are used in the military, they can serve speakers in any personal, professional, or public situation.
• As with any speech, be sure you are clear in the material you are communicating or requesting.
• There are two common errors you should avoid. First, do not present one-sided information. Always strive to be as objective as possible. Second, recommendations should be based on information and not on someone's authority. Furthermore, reasons should be given for why something needs to be done, not just because someone says so.

Techniques for Briefings: Staff Briefing