An executive summary should highlight decisions, risks and next steps, not simply shorten the document. Long documents often contain too much detail for a first management review.
Ask for key message, decision points, figures, risks and open questions in a compact structure.
Start with a narrow boundary: which website, space, file, recipient or decision is affected? This makes the task reviewable instead of turning it into a broad catch-all request.
A useful work order is: “Create an executive summary with key message, decision points, risks, figures, open questions and next-step recommendation.” For important cases, add that uncertainties must be marked visibly instead of being filled in silently.
Pay special attention to files, sources, responsibilities and expected output format. These points decide whether the result is only useful for the moment or can be found, checked and continued by the team later.
Do not remove details that carry cost, deadline or liability impact.
The summary saves reading time while preserving the decision context.