NotebookLM Ate My Board Report (And Made It Better)

The Board Report From Hell

The setup: Every quarter, same drill. The board wants a concise update on enrollment, finances, program developments, and strategic initiatives. Sounds simple. Except the information lives in:

• Google Drive folders nested three levels deep
• A finance spreadsheet that gets updated weekly
• Meeting notes from leadership team sessions
• Email threads where actual decisions got made
• That one Slack conversation where we changed direction on the capital campaign

The old way: I'd spend a full day just gathering. Then another day synthesizing. Then a third day actually writing something coherent. Three days for a two-page document.

What broke me: Last quarter, I missed a key decision we'd made in a staff meeting because I couldn't find my notes. The board asked about it. I looked unprepared. I was unprepared.

Enter NotebookLM

What it actually is: Google's AI notebook that lets you upload sources and have conversations with them. Think of it as ChatGPT that can only reference documents you've given it - no hallucination from random internet training data.

Why it's different for this use case:

• Everything is grounded in your actual documents
• Citations point to specific passages
• It handles multiple sources simultaneously
• Audio overview feature creates a "podcast" summary (surprisingly useful for review)

The Workflow I've Landed On

Phase 1: The Source Dump (30 minutes)

Upload everything remotely relevant:

• Previous board report
• Current enrollment data
• Financial summary
• Strategic plan document
• Meeting notes from the quarter
• Any significant email threads (copy/paste into a doc)

Don't curate too carefully. Let the AI do the filtering. Your job is completeness.

Phase 2: The Interrogation (45 minutes)

Ask structured questions:

"What were the major enrollment changes this quarter compared to last?"

"Summarize all decisions made about the capital campaign across these sources."

"What strategic plan goals showed progress this quarter? What showed setbacks?"

"Are there any contradictions between what we planned and what we discussed in meetings?"

Phase 3: The Draft (60 minutes)

Ask NotebookLM to generate a first draft:

"Based on all sources, draft a 2-page board report covering:
1. Enrollment update (one paragraph)
2. Financial position (one paragraph) 
3. Program highlights (3-4 bullet points)
4. Strategic initiative progress (one paragraph per initiative)
5. Challenges and decisions needed (one paragraph)

Keep the tone professional but direct. Flag anywhere you're uncertain about the data."

Phase 4: The Human Pass (45 minutes)

This is where you earn your salary:

• Verify the numbers match your spreadsheets
• Add context the documents don't capture
• Adjust tone for your specific board
• Remove anything you're not ready to discuss

What NotebookLM Gets Wrong

It's not magic. Real limitations:

• Numbers can be misread - Always verify financial figures against source
• Nuance gets flattened - A "we're considering" in meeting notes becomes "we decided" in the summary
• Recent context wins - If you uploaded an old strategic plan and new meeting notes, it might weight the old plan too heavily
• No emotional intelligence - It won't flag that "we should discuss timeline" means "the board chair is worried"

The podcast feature is fun but weird - Creates a surprisingly engaging audio summary, but the AI "hosts" sometimes make things up. Use it for review, not as a source.

The Time Math

That's not 16 hours of sitting around. That's 16 hours you can spend on the actual strategic thinking your board expects from you.

The Bigger Question

This workflow works because board reports are synthesis tasks - pulling together existing information into a coherent narrative. The AI handles the gathering and first-pass organization. You handle the judgment and relationships.

Not every leadership task fits that pattern. Some things should stay manual, even if they're tedious.

Start Here

Next board report:

1. Create a NotebookLM notebook for Q2 (or whenever your next report is due)
2. Start uploading sources now, as they're created
3. Ask it questions weekly, not just at deadline time
4. Use it as a running research assistant, not just a last-minute summarizer

The tool gets better the more complete your sources are. Start early.