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How to take meeting notes

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Re: How to take meeting notes

#61

Post by Rochus »

mongol wrote: post #52
Rochus wrote: post #40

I have experienced so many meetings where nobody took notes, and the next day hardly anyone was able to say exactly what was discussed, that I don't think this is reasonable. In my opinion, meetings are not effective in most cases anyway, because people hardly ever prepare themselves. If people don't even write anything down, time is completely wasted. Since I am a consultant and do not want to waste my clients' time…

Can you take the real time notes also if you lead the meeting? I think that is often challenging, to request input, try to problem solve, making sure the meeting is constructive. Taking accurate notes requires myself often to be more passive than I can be if I am responsible for good progress. But depends on the meeting scope.

Yes; I even write down what I say, not only what the other people say; it is challenging when several people sometimes talk at the same time. Ultimately it is a question of practice. I have benefited from the fact that I have been programming for many years before that and write very fast with the ten-finger system.

Re: How to take meeting notes

#62

Post by grugagag »

InitialLastName wrote: post #16
DoofusOfDeath wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably not in a business setting. But often I wish I'd taken better notes during doctor visits.

Situations I wish I had taken better notes (both before and after): - Doctor visits - Lawyer visits - Pre-purchase home inspections - Financial advisor meetings

If you don't have the possibility of taking notes and it is important pop up a recorder on your phone and use it. When you get the chance get over the recording and take notes this time. You will know what you want to write down in retrospective. You can skip through the parts that are not important.

Re: How to take meeting notes

#63

Post by jabroni_salad »

corobo wrote: post #26

Is substack the new medium? I saw a link to it for the first time a couple weeks back (at least the first time I registered the name) and now it seems to be everywhere. Yes I'm aware of the phenomenon that makes you notice things more after you notice them once. Not that.

I'm not really happy with Medium but I'm not a huge fan of substack either. Not sure why mailing lists with a blog on the side is seen as superior to a blog with a mailing list on the side.

Coming from somebody who still uses rss, mind you...

Re: How to take meeting notes

#64

Post by jlarcombe »

bluedino wrote: post #39
ckastner wrote: post #7

A long time ago, my boss at the time taught me a valuable lesson: every meeting needs an official record(/log/minutes/whatever) documenting all noteworthy decisions (D), tasks (T, with deadline and responsible person), and information communicated (I), with that record being sent to all participants by end-of-day. The reasoning being simple: If anything of consequence was discussed in the meeting, then the official r…

I once worked somewhere that had an employee who took notes during every meeting, to what seemed like an annoying level. After every meeting, he emailed everyone who attended the meeting a copy of his notes. A couple jobs later, we were discussing changing where some images were hosted. It seemed very strange to have them in their current location, and the process that copied new images to that location was clunky. M…

I find taking notes helps me to stay focused on what is being discussed especially if it's not a topic I have a particular personal interest or "stake" in. I have found this doubly important in remote meetings as it's easier for your mind to wander slightly when you're physically distant from those who are doing most of the talking.

It's less easy to do if it's a meeting you're deeply involved with yourself as it's hard to note and talk at the same time.

Re: How to take meeting notes

#65

Post by flreln »

danpalmer wrote: post #18

There’s some good stuff here but I can’t help but feel it’s 10x more effort than I want to put in post meeting. If a 1 hour meeting takes 2 hours to write up the notes for, perhaps there was a better way to spend that 3 hours to get the same value? Alternatively, if I’ve got 1 hour to allocate to this meeting, maybe 10 mins of pre-meeting research and notes, 30 mins of focused meeting time, and 20 mins of summarising…

That's right; the process is for long personal meetings with people I know and respect, where we discuss ideas and things we’re curious about.

Re: How to take meeting notes

#66

Post by flreln »

ravenstine wrote: post #38

Why bother? You're filling your brain with junk when you do that. Most formal meetings are totally worthless.

You're right that most formal meetings are a waste of time. My process is for long personal conversations with people I know and respect, where we discuss ideas and things we’re curious about.

Re: How to take meeting notes

#68

Post by flreln »

sAbakumoff wrote: post #41

I think that f2f meetings with real people are in the past and any self-respect online meetings software allows recordings. So, what on the mother earth are u talking about

I disagree. Our perception system tracks dozens of parameters during f2f meetings that are simply impossible online because it's a different medium. It's way, way harder to build rapport with someone online.

Re: How to take meeting notes

#69

Post by tchalla »

dragontamer wrote: post #57
tchalla wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, I prefer to pre-empt this situation by an explicit agreement on Action Items (Who does What by When) during the meeting itself. I have a dedicated note taker who has been coached to ensure this takes place.

Ideally, no one makes mistakes and everything is well understood the first time around. But in my experience: humans have errors (Ex: Notetaker writes down 1/2/2021 instead of 2/1/2021). Having a formal "last call" for record-changes is useful for catching these mistakes.

The aim of the prevention measure is to minimise mistakes or errors. I am not against a "last call", I don't want to get to the last call. Generally, we write a clear Action Item live on the screen - "Who does hat by When". The Action Items are locked during the meeting itself. If there are syntactic errors, these are corrected without a follow-up meeting as the intent during the meeting was clear.

In my entire management experience over multiple years, the "not well understood" part has never happened. If I were to guess, it could be due to the goal setting exercise at the beginning of a project. I, as a lead, sit down with the team and clearly outline "Roles and Responsibilities" and "Decision Making Processes". In addition, "Success Criteria" are set beforehand and are strongly linked to organisational goals (business or otherwise). Just to let you know, I work with domain experts across different unrelated industries including technology.

Re: How to take meeting notes

#70

Post by InitialLastName »

grugagag wrote: post #62
InitialLastName wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Situations I wish I had taken better notes (both before and after): - Doctor visits - Lawyer visits - Pre-purchase home inspections - Financial advisor meetings

If you don't have the possibility of taking notes and it is important pop up a recorder on your phone and use it. When you get the chance get over the recording and take notes this time. You will know what you want to write down in retrospective. You can skip through the parts that are not important.

To add to that, having a notes app on my phone where I can, in advance of one of these consequential (but infrequent) meetings, accumulate my concerns and questions ahead of time is a lifesaver.

Given that my brain is very happy to erase itself while in conversation, I've found pre-notes to be an important tool in making sure that I come out of those (expensive) conversations with all of my questions answered.

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