Links to Other Web Pages With Guidance About Briefings
- Guidelines for Effective Briefings, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
- Speaking Effectively: A Guide for Air Force Speakers.
- Briefing Guide, U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy.
- Effective Army Breifings.
- Military Breifing, U.S. Marine Corps.
- Tongue and Quill, Air Force guidance about speaking and writing.
- Foundations of Leadership II, a textbook used by the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program of the U.S. Army.
- Briefing Techniques, from U.S. Army Field Manual 34-80: Brigade and Battalion Intelligence and Electronic Warfare Operations, appendix B.
- Army Field Manual 101-5: Staff Organization and Operations. See appendix E on briefings. In addition, this publication is very valuable for understanding the role briefings play in military decision making.
- Military Briefings.
- Collection of Sample Army PowerPoint Presentations (some good, some not so good).
- Template for Army Informative Briefings.
- Template for Army Decision-Making Briefing.
- Military Briefings, from “Military Requirements for Chief Petty Officer.”. See page 103.
- Army Field Manual 5-0: Operations Process. See appendix A about military decision making and appendix J about briefings.
The links on this page are probably toward military briefings, but civilian employees of the Federal Government need to keep in mind that the military's practices are good guidance for how to conduct briefings in civilian agencies. More important, Government contractors, especially defense contractors, are well advised to know how the military does things. When they make briefings in the “military way” to the military, contractors are likely to create a more favorable impression.
Those in Business and Industry also make briefings to decision makers within their organization, as well as to those outside. Again, much of the advice provided about briefings in the military are applicable to those situations—especially the advice about the two most distinguishing characteristics of a briefing (as opposed to a mere presentation):
- Using audiovisual aids.
- Fielding questions and handling interruptions from the audience.