What I would change about the first gap report we took to our board

I would add: send a two-page primer a week ahead and offer the committee chair a half-hour call. Our remuneration committee chair read it, asked her questions privately, and then did half the explaining for us in the meeting. Board members do not like learning vocabulary in front of each other.

Slight disagreement on putting the asks on page two. Our board wants the decision required on the cover page, always. Ours read: approve 0.4% of paybill for corrections, note the representation plan, agree annual reporting to this committee. The analysis followed as support. Nobody got lost in definitions because they knew what they were being asked to decide.

The other thing I learned the hard way is to bring the number of people, not just percentages. Saying 212 employees sit more than 5% below where the model expects them, 141 of them women, landed far harder than any coefficient.