You have collected all this great information. Now how can you present it in a way that moves it from just a lot of great information to action? One tool is creating an effective “visual” executive summary that quickly summarizes your key finding or messages to engage your audience and get the conversation started.
You may be thinking, okay this is not a rocket science idea. I already write executive summaries for my reports. If you do, you are already off to a great start. By taking your current executive summary just one step further and making it a “visual” executive summary, you will be more likely to clarify your key points, engage audiences, and actually use the information that you spent a good deal of time collecting.
So what is a “visual” executive summary? A “visual” executive summary is a tool that integrates visual aids and design to highlight your key findings or messages.
Where to start?
Always start with determining your key findings or messages. All the other items on the page will be support these items.
Keep the text to a minimum. Save your descriptive writing and analysis for the full report. You just want to provide enough information to engage your audience and get the conversation started.
Once you have determined your key findings or messages, here is a list of a few visuals you will want to consider including in your summary. Not all items are necessary to include in every summary. Only include items that directly support your main points.
- Graphs or charts: Typically you will want to include a graph or a chart if you have strong data to support your main message. Many times people will look at the graphs or charts and not read the text. Just make sure they are easy to understand (more on this topic in other blog posting).
- Infographics: Graphs and charts are a form of infographics, but many times I like to think of using infographcs as a visual that helps to explain a complex process, activity, procedure or organization. This may be helpful if you are introducing a new way of doing something or your findings are based on a particular process.
- Maps: Maps are also a form of infographic, but felt they were worth mentioning separately. Maps can be used to not only show location reference, but are very useful in quickly explaining geographic distribution of information. They are great to include if you want to show how particular pieces of data compare across a region.
- Photos: Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words. Just make sure you are not including photos for the sake of including photos. Make sure they relate to your main message and are large enough to see for the highest impact.
- Quotes: Quotes are not necessarily thought of as a visual, but they can be used as a graphic element. Quotes can personalize findings and further emphasize key messages.
- Logo(s): Lastly, you will most likely want to consider including your logo. Although the primary purpose of the “visual” executive summary is to clarify findings and messages, it also serves as a marketing piece for your organization.
Once you have determined what items will best support your message it is time to package the information into a format that successfully pulls it all together. But I’ll save my tips for doing that for next week’s blog topic.
-Elissa Schloesser