5 ms·

I'm not expert in meetings, but increasingly I feel like the modern approach of "everyone invited to the meeting is there to say something" doesn't work. Someo

I'm not expert in meetings, but increasingly I feel like the modern approach of "everyone invited to the meeting is there to say something" doesn't work. Someone who has nothing to directly contribute to the meeting needs to be present to keep the goal of the meeting in focus and ensure a single shared outcome at the end. Yes it's slower, sometimes less efficient and sometimes deep subject matter knowledge is important, but six people leaving a meeting with their own accounts of what happened is almost worse than no account. Wherefore art thou minute takers? Once that is in place, then many of the comments in this thread about needing personal notes to remind them about what to do and when, or what the team agreed to do next, surely are no longer necessary? When everyone can rely on that, then by all means keep personal meta-meeting notes about emotional response, etc. for reflection. I think that's something I would like to work on.

prepend 6y ago
I’ve tried that but find the minutes have too much and too little. They do help me mix in my own notes. I’ve experimented with having a meeting wiki where everyone keeps notes in a single file, that was pretty good. But suffers from “open laptop syndrome.” I heard someone suggest, and want to try, assigning the note taker at the end of the meeting. I’m not sure if it’s cruelty:effectiveness ratio may be too high.
- dragontamer 6y ago
  For now, I simply email my notes to everyone each meeting. According to Roberts Rules, the #1 order of every meeting is everyone agreeing that the previous meeting notes are correct. Only after the previous meeting's minutes are finalized do you proceed with the current meeting. ---------- A surprising number of people do not know how to run meetings. As such, most meetings wander off unfocused. And since most people fail to solidify meeting notes, action items from previous meetings are "lost". It takes work to ensure that meetings are worthwhile. And very, very few people seem to know the secrets (despite them being very obvious and well documented).
alexpotato 6y ago
This has the added benefit of: - creating a short recap of what happened - the above recap can also be shared with team members who couldn't attend (e.g. home sick or APAC based) The latter has been incredibly useful during COVID specifically and for remote management in general.
KineticLensman 6y ago
An approach that I've used in stakeholder meetings (e.g. a project review with external customers) is to have a designated note-taker who creates a record of decisions and actions. They can add additional content as they so wish. At the end of the meeting they quickly summarise the decisions / actions. This helps to ensure that sure everyone leaves the meeting on the same page and also allows people to comment if they thing something has been omitted. This record can be distributed almost immediately including to people who couldn't make it or who have an interest. If everyone keeps track themselves it is easy with the best will in the world for actions to get forgotten or misinterpreted. If the meeting is complex and the chair has to get involved (e.g. to adjudicate) then they often will be too busy to take the notes themselves; I for one cannot steer a discussion and take notes at the same time. This is also a good way to introduce competent juniors to meetings - make them the record taker (they need to be be briefed first on what is expected). Even tracking who people are can be quite challenging. If there are lots of new faces (e.g. external reviewers) the chair may need to get people to introduce themselves (name and role only, not a bio), and the meeting recorder can concentrate on matching faces with the names on the invite list. If the meeting is in a conference room, writing names around a little picture representing the table can help with this. Finally, in the sense that history is written by the victors, owning the minutes can be quite a powerful position.
Thorentis 6y ago
This is why secretaries were so great. I remember a thread a few months ago here talking about it, and how most senior professionals had a secretary decades ago. Now, people are expected to type their own notes, make their own meetings, AND produce the same amount of work. Half the time I see people talking about "productivity tips" I laugh imagining what engineers decades ago would think of it. Other than a lab notebook, why do you care about what format you take your meeting notes in? That's the secretaries' job! Seriously, a good secretary, even one shared amongst a team, could be a huge time saver. Meeting minutes, meeting invites, catering, visitors, errands. Why did this role disappear?

prepend 6y ago

I’ve tried that but find the minutes have too much and too little. They do help me mix in my own notes. I’ve experimented with having a meeting wiki where everyone keeps notes in a single file, that was pretty good. But suffers from “open laptop syndrome.” I heard someone suggest, and want to try, assigning the note taker at the end of the meeting. I’m not sure if it’s cruelty:effectiveness ratio may be too high.

dragontamer 6y ago
For now, I simply email my notes to everyone each meeting. According to Roberts Rules, the #1 order of every meeting is everyone agreeing that the previous meeting notes are correct. Only after the previous meeting's minutes are finalized do you proceed with the current meeting. ---------- A surprising number of people do not know how to run meetings. As such, most meetings wander off unfocused. And since most people fail to solidify meeting notes, action items from previous meetings are "lost". It takes work to ensure that meetings are worthwhile. And very, very few people seem to know the secrets (despite them being very obvious and well documented).

alexpotato 6y ago

This has the added benefit of: - creating a short recap of what happened - the above recap can also be shared with team members who couldn't attend (e.g. home sick or APAC based) The latter has been incredibly useful during COVID specifically and for remote management in general.

KineticLensman 6y ago

An approach that I've used in stakeholder meetings (e.g. a project review with external customers) is to have a designated note-taker who creates a record of decisions and actions. They can add additional content as they so wish. At the end of the meeting they quickly summarise the decisions / actions. This helps to ensure that sure everyone leaves the meeting on the same page and also allows people to comment if they thing something has been omitted. This record can be distributed almost immediately including to people who couldn't make it or who have an interest. If everyone keeps track themselves it is easy with the best will in the world for actions to get forgotten or misinterpreted. If the meeting is complex and the chair has to get involved (e.g. to adjudicate) then they often will be too busy to take the notes themselves; I for one cannot steer a discussion and take notes at the same time. This is also a good way to introduce competent juniors to meetings - make them the record taker (they need to be be briefed first on what is expected). Even tracking who people are can be quite challenging. If there are lots of new faces (e.g. external reviewers) the chair may need to get people to introduce themselves (name and role only, not a bio), and the meeting recorder can concentrate on matching faces with the names on the invite list. If the meeting is in a conference room, writing names around a little picture representing the table can help with this. Finally, in the sense that history is written by the victors, owning the minutes can be quite a powerful position.

Thorentis 6y ago

This is why secretaries were so great. I remember a thread a few months ago here talking about it, and how most senior professionals had a secretary decades ago. Now, people are expected to type their own notes, make their own meetings, AND produce the same amount of work. Half the time I see people talking about "productivity tips" I laugh imagining what engineers decades ago would think of it. Other than a lab notebook, why do you care about what format you take your meeting notes in? That's the secretaries' job! Seriously, a good secretary, even one shared amongst a team, could be a huge time saver. Meeting minutes, meeting invites, catering, visitors, errands. Why did this role disappear?