Free tools from the book
The appendices in What I Know Now contain six practical templates.
Two more come from elsewhere in the book: Your Three Things from the closing pages, and the board scoring tool from Chapter Four.
They’re a starting point rather than a prescription. Every business is different, and what works in one boardroom won’t work the same way in another. Adapt them rather than adopt them.
They’re all here, free, and you don’t need the book to use them.
The tools
All PDFs, no sign-up required. They’ll open in a new tab, where you can download them.
Your Three Things
Choose the three actions that matter most, give each one a date, and improve the chances of getting them done.
A board agenda that works
A practical agenda that keeps the board focused on decisions, the future and improving the business, rather than simply working through reports.
A board report that gets read
A straightforward structure for reporting what the board needs to know, what has changed and where attention or a decision is required.
Three questions, every board meeting
Three simple questions to help the board look beyond the papers, test what it may be missing and leave the business better than it found it.
A strategy process
A practical process for moving from discussion to a clear strategy, agreed priorities and action.
Structuring a strategy session
A suggested structure for a strategy day that keeps people involved, gets the important issues into the room and ends with clear priorities.
The board scoring tool
A quick way to assess how well your board is working and identify the weaker areas. So you know where to start improving.
If you remember nothing else
A one-page summary of the main lessons from the book, for those moments when you need the reminder more than the explanation.
Where the thinking behind these came from
Every one of these came from something that wasn’t working right, or took me far longer to work out than it should have. The templates are the shortcut. The book is why they look the way they do.
If you find one useful, pass it on to someone who’d find it useful too.