BLUF on briefing in general; “Be seen, be brief, be gone.”

I’m a staff guy currently, so when I put a meeting together the first thing I do is sit down and consider “is this meeting needed,” or can I deal with this one-on-one or via email? I’m a firm believer that 50-75% of the meetings we have aren’t required and are in fact a symptom of something else within the command (but I digress). If a meeting is needed for some reason (mostly because it’s directed from above), I make sure to respect the attendee’s time and efforts, getting as much done and information pulled prior to the meeting. Like @cplenge said, don’t add slides or frivolous information that’s not needed.  In the Guard we have to be extra conscious to the fact that most of these meetings we’re having take place over the phone and after 1800hrs, when people could be spending times with their families. In order to be effective, a couple days prior to any meeting I have, I send out data-pulls of the topic (Nonval Pay, MNDs, LODs, Evaluations, etc.) with whatever issue or question I have highlighted, as well as questions I have, what information I need back and in what format, as well as a briefing order. If the unit answers my questions or has a plan for whatever the issue is, I don’t cover that item in the meeting allowing me to only cover those things that they don’t have answers to, plans for, or the unit has questions about. When they’re done, they’re done and I allow them to drop off the call.  This has allowed me to combine several hour-long meetings, into one telecon that lasts about 45-60 minutes with 7 subordinate companies.

For higher level meetings, please refer to the BLUF above. Nothing is worse than sitting in a briefing and the briefer reads EVERY word off of EVERY slide. Most superiors have seen the slides, know the info, and don’t want to sit there and listen to someone babel.  The purpose of the briefing is to confirm you the briefer have read the slides and know what you’re talking about. The best advice I can offer is look over the information you’re briefing and if you have 2 slides, have 4 worth of answers in front of you. Find out what is important to who you’re briefing and hit those items, simply offering a “Next slide… (pause)… Sir/Ma’am pending your questions, next slide” with those slides there is nothing new or nothing important. However have those answers at the ready just in case the boss throws you a curve-ball. I guarantee a JO will score more points answering any question when asked and not wasting people’s time, than they will talking for 20 minutes and answering every conceivable question the boss doesn’t have.

Brock