Mastering the One-Pager: The CEO’s Secret Weapon for Faster Decisions
If your leadership team is still relying on verbal updates and bloated decks, you’re burning time and losing clarity. One-pagers are the single most effective tool to compress decision cycles and elevate executive alignment.
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Today’s Insight: High-functioning executive teams standardize one-pagers to cut decision-making time by up to 50% and reclaim strategic bandwidth. One-pagers streamline communication, reduce meeting fatigue, and drive better decisions by focusing attention on what matters most.
Summary
In fast-paced organizations, clarity is currency. One-pagers—concise documents that summarize complex topics—help CEOs and senior leaders absorb information quickly, make better decisions, and keep teams aligned. They’re not just a tool—they’re a habit that scales leadership. Decision drag kills momentum. One-pagers solve for clarity at scale by forcing structured thinking and asynchronous alignment. When done right, they replace status meetings, increase transparency, and accelerate high-quality decisions.
Drives 30–50% reduction in meeting time
Enables asynchronous executive decisions
Forces precision on problem, data, recommendation
Boosts visibility across cross-functional initiatives
Scales leadership alignment across levels
Leadership Lens
One-pagers expose weak thinking and fragmented execution. Senior leaders who embrace them are signaling a culture of clarity, accountability, and speed. Those who resist are choosing chaos over control.
Key Points:
Codifies strategic clarity on problem, solution, data, and decisions into a single, repeatable format
Reduces reliance on live updates or vague Slack threads
Improves documentation for audits, board reviews, and investor comms
Works across functions—from product to ops to finance
Supports executive time leverage by enabling quicker reads, faster yes/no calls
Cuts meeting time by 30–50% by reducing verbal rambling
Enables async decision-making and documentation
Ideal for product pitches, project updates, and strategy overviews
Tools to Use: Google Docs, Notion, Confluence templates, AI summarizers (like ChatGPT)
Do, Decide, Delegate, Delete:
Do:
Create a one-pager template with sections for context, goals, data, recommendations, and next steps.
Decide:
When a one-pager is required: e.g., for proposals >$10K, any cross-functional initiative, or board-level topics.
Delegate:
Assign one-pager ownership to project leads or department heads.
Delete:
Cancel meetings that exist solely to “bring people up to speed” without prior documentation.
5 W’s & A How Checklist
Who: Project leads, team managers, department heads
What: Create, use, and review one-pagers to guide decision-making
Why: Improve decision quality, reduce time waste, scale clarity
When: Begin this week; full adoption within 21 days
Where: Shared team drive, Notion, Confluence, or company wiki
How: Build templates, train teams, review weekly during ops or staff meetings
Actionable Steps:
Design the Template – Build a one-pager layout with 5 headings: Objective, Context, Key Data, Recommendation, Action Required.
Pilot With 3 Projects – Have 3 ongoing initiatives submit weekly one-pagers instead of weekly syncs (1 month trial).
Review & Adjust – After a month, gather feedback, refine the template, and decide which types of work now require one-pagers.
Roll Out Company-Wide – Train managers on how to use and review one-pagers during weekly team meetings.
Track Usage – Monitor usage rate and decision velocity monthly.
Metrics and Measurement
One-Pager Adoption Rate – % of teams using it regularly
Time Saved in Meetings – Before/after meeting length data
Decision Velocity – Time from proposal to decision
Clarity Scores – Leader feedback on quality of information (survey-based)
FAQs
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Start with high-impact projects and show time savings. Most resistance disappears once leaders experience the clarity and speed.
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No. Use one-pagers to drive decision-making. Decks are better suited for storytelling or external presentations.
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Standardize format, offer examples, and create a 5-minute training video or checklist. Hold leads accountable for submission and review.
Start using one-pagers this week to accelerate clarity and reduce meeting fatigue. Need to create them quickly and consistently? Use AI—try our Business Writing GPT to develop your one-pagers. Gain access through our free Resource Library.
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Lauren Carter, founder of Lauren Ashley Consulting, drives business transformation through strategic and operational excellence. She has partnered with high-growth firms, elite athletes, and global organizations to enhance growth, performance, and profitability. LAC’s clients and the organizations we have worked with or alongside include the Sodexo, USPS, NerdWallet, NBA, NFL, United Nations, World Economic Forum, IMF, HubSpot, Zipcar, IronMan, and more.
Explore our services: laconsulting.co/services | Follow LAC Founder, Lauren Carter, on LinkedIn for insights on leadership and strategy.
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