That sounds too easy, right? One should take notes during a discussion, meeting, conference, call, right? Let’s be honest this is not always the case in an office setting. In my view, this simple task done wrong can be the most harmful to progress and order. If done right, this can be a major value-added. But what does it mean doing it right???
My story on this
Taking notes is one of the first things I’ve learned in my professional career. My first real job after internship was to be a professional assistant to CFO and CEO. One of my tasks was to take part in executive meetings and take notes. Not for my own pleasure but to have a record of what was discussed, what was decided, what tasks were given to whom, and with what deadline. My notes, therefore, were an important record both internally and externally as these notes were shared with our mother company as well. If something was not in the notes it didn’t happen and if something was in there it was binding for all.
This is an example of my notes from one of the executive meetings:
The replacement of a production unit was discussed. Mr. Smith commented that the replacement is a must, in order to maintain production capacity at the current level. The economic benefits and potential risks were presented as per the document attached.
The board unanimously decided to approve the investment with a budget of 1,5 MUSD and a forecasted completion date of 31st December 2020.
Mr. Smith was nominated responsible for this project and was requested to present a detailed execution plan with completion milestones and budget for the next meeting to be held in 14 days. Mr. Smith was also requested to present a progress update on this bi-weekly executive meeting.
That’s it. This was first drafted, circulated to all participants giving them one day to review and comment. When there was a minor modification request or somebody wanted to add an element not really important, I simply changed the note and recirculated the draft. When there was a contradiction, the issue was discussed again and clarifications were made, a new draft note prepared. This happened rarely though.
After the final version was circulated, it was a good record to us and to headquarter. More importantly, it was binding for all, and action items could be put into action right away. It could also be consulted later, nobody could claim “well, I remembered 2,5 MUSD for this project”.
I have then prepared a list of tasks in Excel (this was back in 2008) with deadlines and a responsible person, which was shared with everybody. I then sent out reminders when it was needed. Today there are tools much better suited for task monitoring than an excel file. Nevertheless, also these require meeting notes. Unfortunately, this is the part that is missing in today’s world.
Let’s have a bad example now
The above was an example of a good meeting, with notes taken and shared afterwards. Let’s have a look at an example way more frequent.
Imagine you have a meeting and you request John the finance guy and Steve the business guy to prepare a business case for a new initiative and come back to you when ready. Both Steve and John are senior colleagues and are quite good at their job. Both are present at this meeting, but nobody takes notes (including you).
A few weeks later you ask if there was any development, and you will get an answer similar to this: “Sorry, I forgot about it. Let me touch base on this right now and come back to you asap”.
Another week passes. You had a lot of other things to care about, so you kind of forgot about your request. On a Saturday afternoon, it just pops into your mind and so you send out a reminder e-mail to both Steve and John. Their response is: “Right, I’ll do it right now” (but it is Saturday and monthly closing is coming up, so little chance to see that happen).
A short while later you get angry and ask what is going on. The answer might be “Can you remind me what was the question? I’m not entirely sure what exactly needs to be done. Is this urgent?”. This is when you realize you wasted important weeks of your time and the whole process needs to restart. I see this happening way too often. This fuels two things. One is a continuous waste of time, the other is a lot of quick and dirty work done.
To make things worse, if somebody has continuous meetings throughout the day, he/she will not remember 20% of what was discussed in any particular meeting, unless there is a written record of it. For example, you discuss a contractual setup for 2 hours. The end result is a note with a simple graph with all contractual parties listed and connections mapped out. Next time you want to remember the structure discussed, you just have to have a look at this graph and you will remember the result of those 2 hours and don’t have to repeat the meeting.
A few easy steps to follow
Some of you might think it is difficult to introduce such a thing in the company’s culture and you are actually right about that. If the company was operating for 10-15 years without a structured approach to conduct meetings and follow up tasks, it will take a while to change that. There is one thing you can do. Lead by example! Once you start, some will shortly follow the path, and sooner than you think many others will. I have seen this happening before, so trust me on this.
Let me give you a few practical steps you should take:
- When you have a meeting, before jumping into a discussion, ask who will take notes. If nobody volunteers (nobody will initially…) or everybody remains shocked, it is you. Take it as a privilege, as in some way you just became the leader of the meeting. There should be one single person who takes the “official” notes of the meeting. It doesn’t mean others cannot, but there should be one document which gathers the common understanding and that should be distributed as the chronicle of what was discussed.
- Try to write down everything you can. Imagine you are taking part in a meeting between world leaders. Every single word matters! Pay attention continuously! In case you don’t understand something, ask. If something is not 100% clear for you, chances are good it is not for others either.
- Never end the meeting without summarizing what was discussed in a few bullet points. If it is a long meeting or a complex one where many issues are discussed, try to break it down and summarize after every topic or 30 minutes or so.
- Say it out loud what you have noted down as responsibilities and responsible people. Make it clear who has to do what, by when, and what is expected exactly. It doesn’t mean you have to assign tasks to others. Say something like “Is my understanding clear that Emily will send the actual figures for last year’s profit for ABC business segment by next Friday?”. If the person is responsible for that anyways, it is kind of obvious that she should do that. Try to avoid saying something like “Emily has to present this data by next Friday!”
What tool should I use?
That’s a question I don’t even attempt to answer. This really depends on you. I personally like to take notes on a piece of paper, without any lines, and use a pencil. That comes from my consultancy times, we always used a pencil instead of a pen. The reason is simple. When you were young and learned to write you always used a pencil. In case you’ve made a mistake, you could cancel it. Once you write something down with a pen, it is permanent. One of the Office tools (Word, Excel, Powerpoint) are great as well, but could be slower and takes away the creativity of a pen in my view. You can use Brainmap too, but that’s a tough attempt. OneNote is a great tool as well and lets you organize much better than any other software, but again, can be slow and cumbersome.
I recommend you try a few of those and see how you feel about them. When in a meeting, I prefer a pencil and paper. It helps me be quick, not to lose track of the meeting. Then once finalized, I transfer the notes to OneNote to keep them organized.
Conclusion
The difference between having a good meeting and a fruitful one is the afterlife. If you do not take proper notes, the majority of the ideas and undertakings will vanish and the good meeting turns into nothing.
If taking notes during meetings is not in the culture of your company, don’t worry. You can change it slowly by showing a good example. Just start asking on meetings who is taking notes. In the beginning, it will be you. Then at the end circulate the notes and make them official by sending it out as final. Besides the notable improvement in efficiency, you will also be viewed as the guide/lead of the meetings, and the person who knows what to do.
Useful links
Microsoft OneNote tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E3eC2HfQJ0
Best note-taking apps in 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay2GvqVH4SM