WRITING REPORTS

A report can be managerial, analytical or policy.

The first looks at internal admin decisions which affect only your organisation.
The 2nd type simply tries to understand how a system works.
The final looks at affairs of state which affect citizens and government as a whole. Here the
stakeholders are multiple – and costs and benefits complex to assess.
Our project will have to do all three – but staff will focus on the first two.

1. Be very clear who the report is for; and what you want from it – a decision or a
discussion. If the latter, you will give more options; if the former you need to ensure you give
a strong justification of your recommendation

2. State the purpose of the report in the first paragraph. That will help focus your thoughts.

3. Write clearly and simply – avoid jargon.

4. Managerial reports should not be longer than 2 pages – apart from helping the reader, it
ensures that you identify the key facts (imagine you’re telling a taxi driver about it!). Put the
details in annexes. These two pages are the Executive Summary of the other types of reports.

5. Define the issue being dealt with – give any relevant background (briefly) to ensure the
reader everyone is reminded of previous actions (and can see any lessons from mistakes).

6. List the people you have consulted – and make sure you do the consultation properly.
This will minimise that any errors of fact or interpretation, or any omissions in the report.

7. For the first and third types of reports, identify criteria against which options will be
measured; state them clearly at the beginning of the report. If you can’t think of any, talk to
someone about it. Anyone! The mere fact of talking helps your creative process.
PC competition

8. Clearly list the various ways (options) of dealing with the problem. Talk to those who
know and who will be affected by the decision. Get them on your side. They’ve got to feel
involved.

9. Be careful presenting information. Keep it brief and analyse it critically. Too many
people imagine that the more information included in a report the better it is. Not true –
information does not speak for itself. It has to be related to something – an average; a
criterion, previous performance etc. And information is partial and incomplete. Ask yourself –
how sound is it?

10. If your paper is trying to describe how a system works (eg local municipalities), use
graphics first in your own attempt at understanding - ie map the various actors in the
system and try to list, in bullet points, their actual role 1.

The remaining points are relevant mainly for types one and three-
11. Look at the costs – immediate financial ones if the report is an admin one – social and
political (on the various stakeholders) if it is a policy report.

12. Are there any losers?

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Various books help develop this skill – Tony Buzan “Mind-mapping”; Peter Senge; The Fifth
Discipline

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13. Summarise the analysis in a matrix – with one side listing the criteria and the other the
options.

14. Look at the risks – what assumptions are you making? What are the chances of these
being falsified? Here you need to “imagine”. Let your mind flow forward – and imagine
people are introducing the policy. What could go wrong?2

15. Give a clear recommendation (unless it’s an analytical or discussion paper) – and justify
it. If there are risks, what can be done to minimise them?

16. Most of use writing as an attempt to make sense of things – but the reader of your paper is
not interested in the messiness of your thought process! So look very carefully at what you
think is your final draft and put yourself in the reader’s shoes “is it clear? Is the problem or
system clearly described? Should I not move some of the detail into an Annex?”

17. Indicate the next steps. After such an analysis and paper, you might imagine this is
obvious – but implementation is the big problem of all actions 3. Your boss may want to take a
decision without any discussion or consultation – and this will alienate people who will feel
they should have been consulted. So list and justify the further consultations which may be
needed – and map out an action plan4.

George Orwell

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A new book - by Paul Ormerond - reminds us that most things do in fact go wrong!
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This gets us into the huge field of change management
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this gets us into the field of project management

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