The Detailed Brief

 The Detailed Brief

There are oxymorons and oxymorons ... true lies, bug-free code, comfortable bra (this is garnered from responses of uncountable numbers (an oxymoron, itself) of women), considerate boss, elementary calculus (this one is a close second to the detailed brief), friendly fire, ... all of these present a veritable treasure-trove; then there are the rhetorical ones, ...  business ethics, military intelligence, male adult, bureaucratic efficiency, gunboat diplomacy, unbiased journalism, happily married, honest politician, ... but me thinks, the most oxymoronic of oxymorons, is the *Detailed Brief*. By *brief*, am of course referring to a document or report on a specific subject ... and not the other variety, that wraps a man's mystique and mystery ... aka mens' innerwear

A Brief, is supposed to be just that, .... *brief*. During Naval training courses on writing skills, we were taught the ABCLs of writing ... accuracy, brevity, clarity and logic. Then, that profound thinker, Aristotle, gave us the concept of ethos, logos and pathos, as a means of persuasive writing. Btw, I always thought *thinkers* had the world's greatest jobs, ... they just had to, think; I'd give my right arm, and some, to land that job. But then, I digress

Picture this ... you've just moved out of a high-level briefing from the Command Centre (Ops Room, War Room, Conference Room, ... call it what you want), and you're in the business of wolfing down your delayed lunch (delayed by that interminable briefing),  when the boss barges in, asking you for a three-quarter page, detailed brief, on the discussions at the briefing, .... to brief his boss (The sacro-sanctity of that page length is another anecdotal riot worth recounting, but I desist and resist the temptation of launching into it, for the sake of focus, to complete this narrative)

You know, you have your task cut out. You also know that it's impossible to fit in all the details of that  briefing in three-quarters of a page. On the other hand,  you don't dare extend that Lakshman Rekha, since any brief extending beyond that danger zone, is consigned to the garbage bin, or better still, confined to the *pending* tray. What happens to the stuff in the pending tray, is yet another story, well worth a brief on its own ... but, then, I digress again

So here you are, ready to bite the bullet, and attempt, what several others before you have attempted (as will countless others, after you) ... the hopelessly impractical task of sticking to the dead-line (the "line" here refers to that, dividing the page into three-quarters length ... crossing which, would leave you dead for all practical purposes). This calls for unleashing the most out-of-the-box, innovative ideas that one has ever had. That's when all the years of roughing it out in the trenches, case studies, best practices, on-the-job/ hands-on training, experiential learning, etc., come to your rescue ... in the form of Microsoft Word.

First, the font size ... a Times New Roman 12 allows you to fill in far more than what an Ariel 14 would. But, one has to be careful ... if the font size is so small that the boss has to squint, it won't pass his muster ... much less, that of your boss's boss. The instinct and gut feel that you've built up over years of practise, bails you out here. You cross the thin dividing line, of the brief being read or shred, by settling in to the bargain of an unheard of font ... the Garamond 13

Next, margins. Many a career has seen make-and-break, by playing the right or wrong margin. The guys who got it right, made it, ... the unlucky others, were reduced to being *marginal* players. The standard MS Word 2.54 cm (or 1 inch) top-bottom-left-right, can be scientifically (and painstskingly, through trial and error), tweaked, to fit in far more than what Bill Gates (or Satya Nadella) and his crack team of software developers would have imagined

Finally, there's the page format or size. As a vetean, you would know that an A4 is a tad larger than Letter size ... so there you go. If you are the intrepid variety, you may even opt for a Legal size (trust me, you can pack in, in that size, with the right font and margins, far more than what you can in a decent booklet). This, of course, depends on your _sprezzatura_ quotient (look that up, pals, it's worth it), and the extent of your boss's sense of humour

A few words about line spacing, wouldn't be incongruous here; it's another potent and pointed arrow, in the quiver of the authors of detailed briefs. MS Word has the perfect answer for this, too. Space it to 1.15, and you've just about enough for corrections and annotations, while ensuring that the final version remains within that all important bottom line

When all else fails, you've the ultimate weapon,  the brahmastra, as it were ... Enclosures, Appendices, Annexures, ... call them what you may, but it can be put to very effective use, to save your skin, nay, emerge unscathed from that terrible war of wits. Shove everything that's beyond three quarter of a page, into Es, As or As. Nobody will be the wiser

You'll  notice here, that I haven't yet touched upon presumably the most important part of the detailed brief, viz., the content of the brief. But that's the easiest part of the job, since you have it on your finger-tips. It's the bells and whistles that kills

~ AlphaAlpha