So thank you, Carolyn. One of the topics that frequently seems to give problems to newly graduated MPH students and junior trainees, is this issue of briefing. So I thought we could spend a little bit of time talking about that now. What is briefing? Okay. So for me a briefing is usually a request, usually via your manager, but from somebody senior so that could be the director of public health, it could be a politician, for example. What it is, is a very brief succinct overview of a particular topic, and it could be to inform a decision, or it could be just to inform an individual about a certain topic. So it is quite open-ended, but that's the main, the key points. So a classic ambiguous public health task there. Exactly. Yeah. So I come to you and I ask for a briefing on public access defibrillators, for example, where do you start? Okay. So a very vague question. So what I would probably do is go back to my desk and just do a bit of research around the topic. So I just upskill myself and get some knowledge about it, and also maybe see if anything similar has been produced elsewhere. Then I start to put together some scoping document, or some ideas for the headings for the different sections of the briefing might look like, and then I'd take it back to you and ask you, "Is this what you're looking for." Okay. Great. So that's a really useful check-in from my point of view. I think one of the things that a lot of our genius staff sometimes get slightly nervous about is going back to the person and seeking those clarifications. Yes. We've certainly had lots of those meetings haven't we in the past, where we have said, so to say I've said, "Well I want this thing, and you've offered something else and we eventually alike." In terms of that structure, what is really going to be in there in this example. What do you say? Okay. So for me a briefing has to have the same structure every time. So remember this is a succinct documents, so don't make it more than two sides of A4. Always have an introduction. So that's going to give a background and a context as to why you're producing this document, and the purpose of the document as well is really key. Then at the end, you're going to have your conclusion, where you can either make balanced overview, or you can make some recommendations. Mine I always use, I usually like to make some recommendations to provide my stare to the most senior person because it's interesting to see if they take that forward. That's always a really interesting and difficult thing to balance, I think sometimes in terms of how far does one push particularly when you're dealing with politicians, who ultimately have the democratic accountability, and the mandate to make those decisions. Level of detail; I think this is always something that I see, is that sometimes we have people who put in every possible detail under the sun, and it becomes this huge long document, other people, it's so scatty and bullet point based that you're not really very clear what you're reading. Where do you go on that? Okay. So I think the briefing needs to be quite high level. So don't go into too much detail because you haven't got a lot of space, and the senior or individuals probably just want to have the key points. So be strict with yourself. If it doesn't had value, don't put it in. A great way to get across a lot more details is all you could always use a table, or chart, or a map, or something like that. Those are really useful visual tools that you can add to your briefing. Now, maps take up a lot of space in your two slides, which is always the risk. This is true. But they're incredibly attractive to politicians and senior decision-makers, I think. Yeah, everybody loves a map and they can be great. So for example, with the defibrillator question, you could have a map which shows across your area where rather poor outcomes in terms of cardiovascular disease, then you could overlay where you're proposing to put the defibrillators, and that would be a really visual tool that you could take forward and inform that decision. I think the really great thing about a map in that situation is is that it really makes it so much more accessible for someone picking it up. My experience has been that there are some politicians and senior decision-makers who read everything meticulously, there were others who may be yell quite so meticulous. What's been your experience on that? Yes, you can get both types. So say if you've developed a briefing and it had been sent off to the audience, and then you were asked maybe to present that briefing to them, you can't assume that they've read it even though you've sent it to them. So be prepared to have to present it back to them. My advice would be think about the three key things that you'd want them to take away from that discussion, and stick with those. Thank you very much, Carolyn. That's been a really helpful introduction to this slightly ambiguous world of writing a briefing. Thank you. Thanks, Richard. Happy to help.
