# How do I produce a board paper in ninety minutes?

> A ninety-minute procedure that turns a framed decision question and traceable evidence into a decision-ready board paper, drafted with the decision-memo skill file and checked so no caveat is lost.

## The trigger

A board or executive committee paper is due and the item is a genuine decision with more than one live option. Boards are expected to ask [where the numbers came from and what residual risk remains](/grc/board-ai-literacy-as-control-expectation); a paper that cannot answer fails before it is tabled.

## The inputs

- The decision question in one sentence, with the named decision-maker and deadline
- The options considered so far, including doing nothing
- The evidence: reports, register extracts and figures, each with its source named
- Constraints (budget, headcount, policy, timing) and stakeholders affected
- [The decision-memo skill file](/leadership/the-decision-memo-skill-file) installed in the approved AI workspace
- [ORGANISATION]'s board paper template and AI-use disclosure norm

## The steps

1. Restate the decision as one sharp question with the deadline attached; split anything that is really two decisions.
2. Assemble the evidence pack to register discipline: every figure [traceable to a named source, current, with an accountable owner](/grc/ai-use-case-register-board-evidence). Anything failing that test stays out and the gap is named.
3. Run the first prompt against the skill file, supplying only the framed question, options, constraints and sourced evidence.
4. Rework the returned memo into [ORGANISATION]'s board paper template, keeping each figure's source beside it and the decision-sought line intact.
5. Run the caveat-preservation pass with the second prompt, comparing the paper against the source material.
6. Restore each missing qualifier, or record its omission as a deliberate authorial choice.
7. Finalise the decision-sought line, naming [DECISION_MAKER] and the date, and submit the paper to the pack.

## The prompts

Run the skill file first, then the QA pass on the reworked paper.

```text
Follow the Decision Memo skill file exactly as written. Inputs:
- Decision to be made: [DECISION_QUESTION]
- Decision-maker and deadline: [DECISION_MAKER], [DEADLINE]
- Options considered so far, including doing nothing: [OPTIONS]
- Constraints: [CONSTRAINTS]
- Stakeholders affected: [STAKEHOLDERS]
- Evidence, pasted with its source named per item; use nothing
  else: [EVIDENCE]
Where evidence is missing, write "no evidence supplied". Open the
recommendation with "Draft recommendation for the decision-maker to
test:". Do not state a final decision.
```

```text
Below are a draft board paper and the source material it was built
from. List every caveat, limitation, confidence qualifier,
dissenting view and date range that appears in the sources but not
in the paper. For each, quote the source line and say where it
belongs. Then list any figure not present in the sources, or whose
source is not named in the paper. Do not rewrite the paper.

[PASTE THE DRAFT PAPER]

[PASTE THE SOURCE MATERIAL]
```

## The checks

- Every figure appears in the supplied evidence with its source named; nothing was invented to fill a gap.
- The do-nothing option is present with consequences, and evidence gaps are stated plainly.
- Every caveat-list item is restored or recorded as deliberate, because [a summary that keeps the number and drops the qualifier changes the decision](/leadership/the-summary-lost-the-caveat).
- The recommendation still reads as a draft to test; the decision-sought line names who decides and by when.
- Dates and figures are re-confirmed against the source records.

## Governance controls

- The author owns every sentence and answers the board's questions without the tool; the paper supports the decision, [DECISION_MAKER] makes it.
- Nothing board-confidential enters a tool [ORGANISATION] has not approved; if material appears sensitive, stop and confirm the workspace first.
- AI-assisted drafting is disclosed per [ORGANISATION]'s norms for board material.
- Any caveat deliberately dropped is a recorded authorial choice, never a silent compression.
- Accountability never moves to the model: the tool never states the final decision.

## The output

A decision-ready board paper in [ORGANISATION]'s template, with options including doing nothing, every source named, surviving caveats, a draft recommendation and a decision-sought line, filed to the board pack with its source material.

## Time it takes

About two hours the first run, mostly installing the skill file and assembling evidence. A practised run fits ninety minutes, with evidence assembly and the caveat pass taking the largest shares.

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Source: https://theaicommand.com/recipes/produce-a-board-paper-in-ninety-minutes
Publisher: TheAICommand (theaicommand.com)
Licence: see https://theaicommand.com/terms