Board Narrative Scqa

Board Narrative (SCQA)

When to use

Use this skill before you build any individual board page, when you have a pile of updates, numbers, and asks but no spine connecting them. It is also the right skill when a draft pack reads like a stack of department reports rather than a single argument the board can follow and act on.

What it does

It produces the narrative skeleton for the whole board pack: a one-line governing thought, an SCQA frame for the opening, and a Pyramid Principle tree that orders every downstream page under that governing thought. The output tells you what each page must say in one sentence and in what order, so the pack reads as one argument from cover to appendix.

Method

The skill runs the Minto Pyramid Principle on top of an SCQA opening. Work the steps in order.

1. Fix the audience and the decision. A board pack exists to inform oversight and to extract specific decisions. Write down who is in the room (full board, a committee, the chair) and the one or two decisions you need from them. If there is no decision, the pack is a read-ahead, and you say so.

2. Build the SCQA opening.

   • Situation: the stable, agreed context the board already accepts. No surprises, no argument. One or two sentences.
   • Complication: what changed or what is now at stake. This is the tension that justifies the meeting.
   • Question: the single question the complication forces. Phrase it as the board would ask it.
   • Answer: your governing thought. This is the one-sentence answer to the question and the apex of the pyramid.

3. Write the governing thought as a full sentence with a verb and a so-what. "Performance update" is not a governing thought. "The plan is on track on revenue but margin recovery is one quarter behind, so we ask the board to approve a reallocation of 8 of the 24 initiatives" is.

4. Build the supporting line under the governing thought. Find the three to five key-line messages that, taken together, prove the governing thought. Each key-line message is itself a full sentence with a so-what. These become your section dividers.

5. Test the pyramid for MECE. The key-line messages must be mutually exclusive (no overlap) and collectively exhaustive (nothing material missing). If two messages restate each other, merge them. If the board would ask "but what about X" and X is not covered, add it.

6. Order the key lines. Use deductive order when the argument builds (because A, and because B, therefore C) or grouping order when the messages are parallel (three independent reasons). Most board packs use grouping order: performance, strategy, risk, ask.

7. Map each downstream page to exactly one key-line message and write its one-sentence action title now, before any page is built. A page that does not ladder up to a key line does not belong in the body. Send it to the appendix or cut it.

8. Pressure-test the close. The last page should restate the governing thought and the specific ask, not trail off into "next steps."

Inputs

• The audience and the one or two decisions sought.
• The raw material: the latest results, the strategy updates, the risks, and any asks.
• The prior pack, if one exists, so the narrative shows movement rather than starting fresh.
• Any board questions or actions carried over from the last meeting.

Output format

Return the narrative skeleton as prose, in this order:

• Governing thought: one sentence.
• SCQA opening: four short labeled lines (Situation, Complication, Question, Answer).
• Key-line messages: a numbered list of three to five full-sentence messages.
• Page map: under each key line, the list of body pages that ladder up to it, each with its one-sentence action title.
• The ask: the specific decision or decisions, restated as the board would vote on them.
• A short note on any gaps where evidence is missing for a key-line message.

Example

Inputs: Q2 results in, margin behind plan, one large reallocation decision needed.

Governing thought: We are on plan for revenue and customers but a quarter behind on margin recovery, so we ask the board to approve moving capital from three lagging initiatives into the two that are driving the recovery.

SCQA opening:

• Situation: At the start of the year the board approved a plan to grow revenue 12 percent and lift operating margin by two points over eighteen months.
• Complication: Revenue and customer growth are on plan, but margin recovery is tracking one quarter behind because three of the cost initiatives have stalled.
• Question: Should we hold the current plan or reallocate to protect the margin commitment.
• Answer: Reallocate now. Move capital from the three stalled initiatives into the two that are working.

Key-line messages:

1. Revenue and customer growth are on or ahead of plan, so the top line is not the problem.
2. Margin recovery is one quarter behind, driven by three stalled cost initiatives.
3. Two initiatives are over-delivering and can absorb more capital with high confidence.
4. We ask the board to approve a reallocation of capital across the initiative portfolio.

Page map (abbreviated):

• Under key line 1: KPI scorecard page, market and competitive update.
• Under key line 2: financial summary page, strategic initiatives tracker.
• Under key line 3: capital allocation summary.
• Under key line 4: decision and ask page.

This skeleton is then handed to the page-level skills, each of which builds its page to the one-sentence action title fixed here.