Crafting Compelling Executive Summaries for Health Programs

Welcome to Episode 27 of the CHM Micro-Credential Podcast! I'm your host, Dr. Tami Moser, and today we're diving into the art of crafting compelling executive summaries for health programs. These summaries are often the first—and sometimes only—thing stakeholders read about your program, making it critical to create a strong first impression. We'll revisit key elements from our previous discussion, dive deeper into problem statements, solution overviews, goals, objectives, and much more. Additionally, we'll explore common pitfalls and pro tips for polishing your summaries. Stick around as we equip you with the tools to distill your comprehensive programs into impactful, concise summaries tailored to various audiences. Let's get started!

Tami Moser [00:00:01]:
Welcome to today's podcast where we're going to work on a tutorial for crafting compelling executive summarize for health programs. I'm doctor Tami Moser, and we're gonna dive into the art of distilling your entire program into a powerful concise summary. Now we've already talked about this to some extent last week, but this is an opportunity for you to revisit it and revisit the work you did on it. So an executive summary is often the first and sometimes only thing a stakeholder will read about your program. It's your chance to make a strong first impression and entice the reader to learn more. So let's break down the key elements and strategies for creating summarize that a punch. And just in case what we covered last week didn't really resonate with you, this perhaps will will and give you another opportunity to kinda craft, revisit, and edit as necessary. 1 is our problem statement.

Tami Moser [00:01:00]:
We clearly articulate the health issue your program addresses. The second thing that should be covered is your solution overview. So briefly describe your program and what it what makes it unique. Goals and objectives. Now this is your opportunity too where you can outline your program specific measurable aims. Could also include some key performance indicators if you feel like that's important in the in a goals and objectives kind of outline. Implementation highlights. So touch on key aspects of how your program will be rolled out.

Tami Moser [00:01:27]:
Are you going to do a pilot study? Are you gonna roll it out in phases? Are you going to use cohorts? This gives you an opportunity to kind of highlight some of that. Expected outcomes. Now, this is where you describe the anticipated impact your program will have on the community that you're serving. Resource needs, briefly mention the resources required to implement your program, and then that call to action we've talked about where you clearly state what you're asking of the reader. So that's kind of a revisit on the different things that need to be covered in the executive summary. Remember, your executive summary should be no more than a page. 2 pages is stretching it. Although you can do that, you can add that second page, but you wanna be very careful.

Tami Moser [00:02:17]:
Remember, every word must earn its place, and if you're gonna take this to a 2 page executive summary, you really need to be sure that it's necessary to communicate what needs to be communicated, and that you've eliminated all of the fluff in terms of the extra words that are there that might not be necessary. If you've done that and you need to go to a second page, go to a second page. Do not go to a 3rd. Then you really are being too wordy for an executive summary. But if you can keep it to a page and still communicate everything you need to in a clear and concise manner, that's ideal. So keep that in mind. So now let's talk about tailoring your summary for different audiences, which we outlined for broad categories of audiences that you might see and some of the things that they would wanna focus on and find important in terms of measurement. So you already have that to work with.

Tami Moser [00:03:11]:
And something to keep in mind is the core information remains the same, but the emphasis might shift. So this is taking it a step further from the stakeholder matrix that you were really using last week to finalize some of this these components. This week, I want you to think about how your executive summary may shift. So remember, core information stays the same, but the emphasis might shift. So some of the goals and objectives might be outlined or highlighted differently. Some of the implementation might not might need to be highlighted differently. Think through that phase now, and you may need to edit and have multiple executive summarize that will go on the top of the same program design for different audiences to review. For example, for funders, emphasis office often you will want to emphasize things like the return on investment and alignment with their funding priorities.

Tami Moser [00:04:13]:
Right? Because you're trying to get funding from them. You need to make sure that the way you're presenting it, the emphasis is on that return on investment and alignment with their goals and objectives as an organization or your organization. If you're asking for funding from your boss in your organization, then same thing. You need to align it with the funding priorities of your organization. For community leaders, focus on community impact and engagement strategies that you're gonna use. For health care providers, highlight clinical outcomes and integration with existing health systems. So remember the core of the executive summary stays the same, but this is that communication piece that has to be aligned with who you're sending the executive summary to. And keep in mind that that executive summary is the executive summary for the same program regardless of who you're sending it to.

Tami Moser [00:05:13]:
That's why the core elements in the executive summary would remain the same. And it really does come down to what you're emphasizing and kind of the the lens you're choosing to use to look at data and outcomes and So, this is how this might be phrased differently for these different funders. For a potential funder, we might lead with the Millbrook diabetes prevention program offers a cost effective solution to reduce diabetes rates in our community, projecting $3 in health care savings for every $1 invested. Okay? So that's focusing on the return on investment and what the goal is for our community so a funder can see what that return would look like. For community members, I might have this as part of the executive summary. Our program will engage 500 at risk community members in the 1st year, fostering a culture of health that extends beyond program participants. Again, that's going back to community leaders. We need to focus on community impact and engagement strategies.

Tami Moser [00:06:35]:
Now, for health care providers, I might write about it in this way. By reducing a one c levels in prediabetic patients, our program aims to decrease diabetes related hospital admissions by 30% over 5 years. Now all of this information will be in my overall program because there it's all facts and information that's a part of how the program is designed. But in the executive summary, where it's focused on that program design, I still can shift my lens a little bit based on how I lead the discussion and expand on what the program is and does and who it's for in that executive summary. So that's three examples of how that might shift my writing a little bit for different stakeholder groups. Now let's address some common pitfall pitfalls. Oh, goodness gracious. In the executive summary writing.

Tami Moser [00:07:38]:
Information overload. Remember, this is a summary. Save the details for the full proposal. You'll notice that I have offered some details, but not details in, for instance, our program will engage 500 at risk community members in the 1st year. That is what I plan on doing. I'm not getting into the details of how we're going to engage those 500 at risk community members right now. This is the overview tailored for the audience it's going to, so you don't wanna overload them with too much information in the summary. You want the summary to make them interested to read the full program design in order to get the details.

Tami Moser [00:08:20]:
So keep that in mind. Lack of specificity. Use concrete nbers and facts where possible. Each of those three examples I provided to you have concrete information, concrete nbers, and what we actually plan on doing and the facts around that. So when you eliminate facts and concrete nbers, people are left asking questions about what you really mean and what you really plan on doing. So you wanna make sure that you're specific, and lack of specificity really leads to a lot of questions and failure to wet the appetite of the audience you're aiming that at so that they'll read more of the proposal. 3rd would be failing to differentiate. You've gotta clearly state what makes your program unique.

Tami Moser [00:09:09]:
That value proposition that we visited a few different times throughout this design process is crucial to you really explaining the importance of what you're doing and why I should fund you versus some other program. Right? You've got to highlight that unique value proposition. And then the 4th is just neglecting the call to action. You've gotta always end with a clear ask that you're triggering them to take another step. And when you don't add that in there, then they've read it, and they're like, okay. Well, I guess I'm done. They're not necessarily gonna say, hey. What do you want me to do about this? Or what do you want me to do next? They may never ask you that information.

Tami Moser [00:09:58]:
And if you fail to provide them with what you need, then they just move on somewhere else. So don't forget the call to action. I know it can be very uncomfortable, and people really struggle. I mean, you can design this can happen. Right? You sit down. You may work with a team. You may do this independently, and you design a program. It is a great program, but you can't get it funded.

Tami Moser [00:10:26]:
And you don't understand why you send it to people. You've handed it to your boss, and you get back positive feedback, but then nothing happens. I would venture to guess it's because there's no clear ask. You haven't asked them to take another step, and so they didn't. You asked them to read it, they did, and then they're done. So as uncomfortable as you might be with this, it's a critical part of what you're doing. And if you fail to just and it doesn't have to be long. It can be a couple of sentences.

Tami Moser [00:11:00]:
It could be one small paragraph at the end of the executive summary. This is the step I want you to take as a stakeholder with these concerns and these objectives, and this program will help. But here's what you need to do in order for us to get to that point. All I could do is say no. I mean, that's the other thing. People don't like to be told no, but the bottom line is some people are gonna say no. Some people are gonna get exposed to your program and not wanna fund it. They're not gonna wanna engage in it.

Tami Moser [00:11:31]:
They're not gonna wanna participate. That's okay because there are others who will fund it, who do wanna participate, who participate, who will engage. You just have to find them. In sales, you know, we have some commonalities across all different kinds of sales. And this really is true too because you're trying to sell this program to somebody, sell them on the need to fund. Sell them on the need to fund. And in sales, it's a nbers game. That's all it is.

Tami Moser [00:11:57]:
Right? And kind of a rule of thb in sales is for every 10 you contact, one will purchase. Now, the challenge with that is you may have to to contact a 100 people before you find your 10 that will purchase. So, it is just a nbers game. You've got to be willing to engage with the nber necessary. Sometimes you luck out and your first ask is a yes, and it really builds confidence. And maybe that's the only yes you need. And so, you're good to go. But oftentimes, just just think about it.

Tami Moser [00:12:30]:
It's a nbers game. I have to get to the nbers that will allow me to get the yeses I need to do this. So here are some pro tips for polishing your summary. Use active compelling language. Start with a hook, a striking statistic or compelling question to drive people's interest in learning more. Use bullet points for easy scanning. This is totally acceptable to have some now you don't want just your executive summary to be a sheet full of bullet points. Let me throw that in there.

Tami Moser [00:13:02]:
But you can use bullet points, nbered lists in the executive summary. Just don't go overboard. But that does make it easier for people to read certain things. And so if a bulleted list would help readability more than a paragraph, use the bulleted list. Have someone unfamiliar with your program read it. If they can't summarize it back to you, it needs work. So you can start with having them read that executive summary and then sit down and explain to you what the executive summary told them. If they can't summarize that back or they get key points wrong because they misunderstood what they read, then you need to do a little investigation and question them.

Tami Moser [00:13:52]:
It's an interview about why they interpreted it in the way they summarize it back to you. So if they get a point wrong, ask them, ask them, why did you interpret it that way? Now, it could just be that they had already forgotten part of what they had read, which that's not great when you're just talking about a page or a 2 page summary. But, other times, they'll explain why they interpret it that way, and part of it just comes down to the way you phrased it. And so that gives you an opportunity to change that phrasing to be more clear. Right? So your assignment at this last week is to create 3 versions of your executive summary. Each tailored to a different audience. Keep each to 1 page maxim, and then ask a colleague to read and provide feedback. Use the can they summarize it back to you function, if you will.

Tami Moser [00:14:53]:
In our next podcast, we'll discuss how to integrate your executive summary into a compelling overall presentation of your program. So I wanna thank you for joining me on this journey of talking about how to craft compelling executive summarize for health programs. I'm doctor Tami Moser, wishing you success in distilling your amazing programs into powerful, impactable summarize.