Meetings are
the lifeblood of any company today in this fast-paced world in which we live
in. However equally important is that action, be taken on items brought up in
such a meeting. In order to do that properly you need to have an accurate
record of what was said, what actions were proposed, and who is charged with
carrying out those actions.
That what
this article is about today, how to record the vital information that is
brought to the table at a meeting.
Recording is
a vital key is gathering the ideas, knowledge, and opinions into a central
point that can be used to monitor progress, make critical decisions and take
action in a timely manner at your firm, large corporation, or even if you are
running small business on a shoestring budget.
We delve
into methods how to record information, format it, and in ways, you might not
have thought of.
At the end
of this article you will be better equipped to have meeting of you own that
actionable items are taken away and progress is made, instead of giving
attendees the feeling that they have wasted their time yet again.
So many options to choose from today:
There are
many ways to record information about a meeting.
- A court stenographer records the proceedings on a Steno type.
- A secretary uses short hand to take dictation from her boss at meeting.
- Speed writer is being used to capture information quickly.
- DVRs make keeping minutes an easy proposition for later transcription. (more about this later)
- Even Post-Its properly used can keep accurate meeting minutes, which can be used to create action plans, scheduling staff, and for updating projects from.
- Nowadays a modern meeting room may have an automatic integrated multimedia system that runs conferencing mikes and audio, controls the presentations, but also a full audiovisual record of the proceedings.
- The new Smart Phones have audio recording and voice to text options that can make a transcript of the meeting as well.
With all
these options to choose from you, need an organizational methodology to make
use of it all to get usable and understandable meeting minutes.
The solution to getting through the
Maze of Meeting Minutes:
To get the
most out of a meeting the minutes must be well written and simple to digest. In
order to do this requires the meeting planners to be proactive and preplan not
only the meeting Agenda but the format of the meeting minutes itself.
So the while
creating the Meeting Agenda (A topic to be covered in a separate article), you
must structure the meeting minutes form to match.
This can be
easily done if you create the minutes at the same time as you are creating the
agenda. Three Steps
To make your Meeting Minutes into a useful tool for action and change.
1. The Meeting form should contain at least the following headers:
- Company
- Topic of meeting
- Chairman/Facilitator
- Scribe - person charged with recording the minutes.
- Time of each agenda item
- Start/Stop time of the meeting
- Meeting attendees
- Agenda items
- Content
- Motions
- Action items
- Personnel assignments
- Status of projects
- Special Reports
- Signature section at the bottom
2. This is simple to create if you have the Agenda to work from as you are creating the template.
3. Creating a Check off list that covers both the Agenda and the meeting template itself is also a voluble tool to insure everything is done in a proper manner.
This also
offers you the meeting facilitator and the attendees the following benefits.
- Everyone is on the same page with regards to know what to expect and they can prepare properly for the meeting.
- Your meeting has structure and flow. The meeting minutes flow with it.
- Your meeting runs quicker and smoother. The meeting minutes then make more sense, then if the meeting is held ad hoc. It is difficult to sort through and make actionable activities, as you are attempting to record off-the-cuff remarks, half-backed ideas, unrelated comments, and the confusion that an unstructured meeting often devolves into.
- The meeting minutes can be turned into action items and disseminated to those persons responsible for them faster and more clearly.
Two other methods that can help take Meeting Methods as well
1. Use of Dragonsoft Naturally
Speaking software along with a DVR.
This
procedure takes the digital recording of the meeting and provides a word for
word transcription.
However, it
requires a lot of editing to
- Correct wording errors
- Delete verbiage to capture only the useful information.
- Formatting to fit the style and format, you have chosen for your meeting minutes and the Agenda itself.
2. Use
Yellow Stickies/Post-Its
A simpler
method uses a notebook prepared with yellow Post-Its on each page.
During the
meeting, you keep notes on the Post-Its and turn the pages to follow the
meetings progress.
After the
meeting in a separate room with one or more whiteboards, you distribute the
Post-Its under various categories and under the names of the various
stakeholders and attendees.
This way the
information appears exactly where it is needed.
When you
step back from the whiteboard, you will have:
- A coherent picture of the meeting
- What action items were agreed to
- Who is responsible carry them out
- Status of various projects
- Future Meeting Agenda items
You can then
write up your meeting minutes as well as plan the Agenda for the followup
meetings to come.
This not
only sorts and organizes the information obtained at the meeting; it makes
future planning possible and allows for monitoring of result later down the
road.
This method
combines Brainstorming, Hierarchical Organization, and Heuristical Problem
Solving, which generates positive results when applied consistently.
In this
article, you've learned various ways you can capture information during a
meeting today.
You have
also learned three methods that if used singularly or in concert provides big
benefits to your organization to actualize meetings and meeting minutes into a
useful adjunct to you business planning.
This turns
your meetings into a useful tool, instead of a meaningless ritual that misuses
time, resources, and accomplishes little.
You can use
these techniques to accomplish more, organize your results and plan. You’ve
gotten information on an Agenda combined with:
- Meeting Minutes template
- Yellow Stickies/Post-Its & Whiteboard(s)
- DVR & Dragonsoft
- A simple to do list template
Using these
simple tools, you can change the face of your business's bottom-line and your
corporate planning quickly and simply as well.
You now,
will never look at meetings and take meeting minutes the same way after today.
