One Page Outline

One of the tactics I’m a fan of is putting together a one page outline as a basis for a conversation or partnership. The general idea is to just jot down ideas in a bulleted, outline format so that one or more parties are prepared for a discussion, and to use it as a basis for future discussions and accountability. Of course I use Google Docs, making it is easy for everyone to work from the same content and centralize changes.

Some benefits of the one page outline:

  • Forces the people involved to think through ideas in advance of the conversation
  • Easy to change and update — bullet points are more manageable when compared to paragraphs
  • Requires everything to be less than a page making for a more focused conversation

One page outlines work for me and I recommend them.

Comments

2 responses to “One Page Outline”

  1. Joe Colopy Avatar

    100% Agree. Brevity forces folks to boil things down to the key points.

    Procter & Gamble was famous for this with their one-page memos:
    http://perspres.blogspot.com/2005/01/pg-1-page-memo.html

    1. davidcummings Avatar
      davidcummings

      Thanks Joe. That’s a great P&G link.

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