Someone's gone to the trouble of producing a report on their terrifically important project or research. It's full of valuable findings (they might even call them learnings, but we'll forgive them that crime), and the importance of the work is refelected in the size of the report: dozens of pages of text or even hundreds of Powerpoint slides.
The trouble is, no-one will read it.
So, we need to summarise. There are several ways to do this, most of them not very helpful. Here are some tips:
Who is the summary for?
If you don't know the answer, you can't summarise. Know who needs to be reading what you're producing and you'll already be most of the way there.
How do I know what to leave out?
It's easy to fall into the public interest trap. Let's be kind and say that everything in the document is interesting to someone (we know that's probably not true, but cut me some slack). That's not the same as saying that everything is in the public interest - or in this case, important to everyone. If you're trying to capture everything that could be interesting, you'll fail. You might as well photocopy the thing.
The question you should ask is: what do I want people to know? Answer this and you'll know what to look for.
Telling the story vs. spotlighting the drama
Any good communication should have a story. We need to know how things fit together and relate to each other. But stories need events, turning points, memorable sequences. A summary needs to bring out the big points, so find them first and then tie them together into a story. That way you'll be sure to include the meaty bits that your readership will remember. And have the confidence to signpost what's important; novelists do it, and so do script-writers. You should too.
Recycling
Reuse is as important in communication as it is in everything else. Look for the points that you want to repeat in future pieces, and make it easy for people to repeat them for you. Short sentences and phrases can be used again and again to get your message across. Paragraphs have much less impact.
Summarising isn't cremation, if you'll forgive the analogy. It's not about keeping everything in a smaller form. Think of it as transplant surgery: finding the most important parts for the people who need them, skillfully and quickly.
