Meeting minutes are not boring

Most people see this as a bureaucratic habit straight out of Mad Men, where Joan is typing notes at an old typewriter. I disagree completely.  Meeting minutes are a way to shape the conversation, improve your professional brand, and add value.

1. Notes show effort

At the very minimum, it shows good follow-through and commitment.  While others are barely paying attention in the meeting, and promptly forgetting what was said, you are adding some value.

2. Notes emphasize communication

I am convinced that better communication could save most businesses 20-30% of their SG&A costs. Most meetings are not needed. I did a post on bad meetings here. I also also conducted a survey of this blog post’s readers. As of today, 52 people responded to the question:

You can see that 82% of people (44% + 38%) felt that meetings were only useful <50% of the time. That is pretty consistent with my experience as well. Most meetings would not be needed, if people knew the overall mission, their role, and trusted each other.

3. Notes benefits others

This is a huge service for all attendees. It serves as a a summary of topics, agreement and drives accountability on action items. It’s a force-multiplier because your small effort is enjoyed by lots of people, including people who did not even attend the boring meeting. It provides continuity for the next meeting because you can just see what was discussed last time.

4. Notes require thinking, if done well

Good consulting is all about structuring problems, and putting information into buckets. Meeting minutes are a great way to practice this by putting the content into categories, bullets, and making it easy to understand what was said. Synthesize what was said, into something concise and consulting-worthy. You are taking a collection of thoughts and adding structure.

5. Notes define the narrative 

If you write up notes after a meeting, you are crafting the results in your own voice. It also summarizes the story line of the conversation. This is a powerful tool to move the conversation along.  It prevents people from dwelling or wandering off topic.

6. Notes are flexible

You can type up “minutes” after a meeting, client interview, or even a phone call. Call me geeky, but sometimes, I type up a conversation with a peer or my boss, especially if a lot of content was covered. This reduces misunderstanding; give them a chance to give feedback.

7. Notes keeps the conversation going

Meeting minutes are a reason to contact meeting participants, ensure that action items are completed, and driving activity. I am of the belief that 10x the work should be done outside, or before the meetings.

8.  Notes allow you to be different 

Let’s agree, most meeting minutes are boring, useless, and administrative. People write them without thinking. It is just a written transcript of what was said, without any grouping of thoughts. It does not advance the discussion and is a waste of time. It makes the meeting seem even worse. (yes, let’s not do that)

Luckily, after reading this post, you are not like that. Your meeting minutes will be professional, useful, and a way to brand yourself.

So how do you write up great meeting minutes?

• Outline who attended, the date, and the topic
• Put action items at the top; please get confirmation from those people before you put them on the hook
• Be brief and format effectively; use headers, make it easy to skim
• Group the content in logical buckets – not the chronology of he said, she said, he said etc. . .
• Remember that your notes will likely be forwarded to other people
• Don’t be afraid to cut/paste presentation material from the meeting. .into the notes
• Write them up the same day, don’t wait too long or you will forget everything
• Don’t be afraid to add in weblinks to things that were mentioned
• Put 5% of your own voice in the notes. . . what was the purpose of the meeting, and to what extent was this accomplished.  Re-read the notes and add/subtract words that help you to tell the story that needs to be told.  
• Adopt the right “tone” and not be too forceful, or misses the nuance
• Ask a friend or someone else who was there to “proof-read” the notes

Related posts:

• Consulting formula: think + write + communicate + revise
• “Meetings are a symptom of bad organization. The fewer the meetings the better”
• Links