As human beings, we’re selective about what we remember. And in a global workplace, our interpretations vary about what’s been said or agreed on due to different backgrounds, beliefs, and values. This makes meeting notes mighty important to avoid inefficiency and unnecessary tension from misunderstandings.
Once client told me, “The manager of another department didn’t say anything against a proposal in the meeting, but after we started the project, he raised objections in every meeting.”
Asking for more information, I learned that employees at that company weren’t in the habit of creating, sharing, and confirming meeting notes.
Even when minutes are part of the organization’s culture, people often write notes by hand or type them on an electronic device. But then the first time everyone sees the minutes might be when they’re sent out several days after the meeting. People read them and say, “That’s not what I meant,” “I don’t remember agreeing to that,” “That’s wrong.”
Or they don’t read them at all. 🙁
How can I reduce misunderstandings?
Make notes visible to everyone during the meeting. Here are two approaches:
1. Project what you’re typing onto a screen or wall. The downside is that this can be difficult for participants to read and may distract them from contributing fully to the meeting.
So if you do project what you’re typing, use a big font that’s easy to read and keep sentences short.
2. Handwrite notes on a whiteboard, flip chart, or easel pad. This is my preferred approach.
I love flip charts and easel pads because you can stick the paper up around the room – very useful if you have lots of content to cover.
You can also bring what you wrote to subsequent related meetings to help everyone remember what was said and agreed on and build on that.
Should the facilitator take notes?
When the number of meeting participants is small, the facilitator may also serve as the note taker by writing on a whiteboard, flip chart, or easel pad while keeping everyone engaged.
But with a larger number, I recommend having a separate facilitator and note taker. Instead of giving attention to writing, the facilitator can focus on facilitation – making it easier for everyone to achieve the meeting objectives.
Even though the note taker writes, the facilitator should guide the note taker in what to write.
As well as helping the note taker, this has the added benefit of encouraging the facilitator to be more disciplined in confirming agreement on each point, so that the note taker knows what to write.
If you’re the facilitator and someone else is the note taker, don’t forget to encourage the note taker to contribute ideas or questions to the meeting.
What’s the best way to share meeting notes with colleagues?
After writing the notes on a whiteboard, flip chart, or easel pad, so that they’re visible to everyone and confirming agreement, it’s easy to capture them by using the printer function (if your whiteboard has one) or taking a photo.
Then simply send a scan of the printed notes or a photo to the meeting participants rather than spending time typing them up. Not only is this more efficient, but seeing the notes as they were written in the meeting helps people to recall the meeting and its content.
If I add any additional comments when I send meeting notes (or when I don’t have a scan or photo, such as after a telephone conference), I usually write at the top, “If I’ve misunderstood anything, please let me know.” This gives people the opportunity to contact me if they disagree with anything in the minutes.
Then, if someone disagrees in the next meeting, it’s easier to say, “My understanding was that everyone agreed since no one questioned the minutes from the last meeting.”
What if people don’t read the minutes?
If people aren’t in the habit of reading meeting minutes, help to create that habit.
Get agreement at the end of the meeting: “Can we all agree to review the minutes by this Friday and let me know if I misunderstood anything? This will help us to confirm that we’re aligned and help to avoid inefficiency or unnecessary tension from misunderstandings.”
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Test out these note taking techniques in your next meeting. Start with smaller meetings with close colleagues. Then gradually introduce them in larger meetings as you’re more comfortable with the techniques. This will help you to create good communication habits for the global workplace. You can also improve communication between colleagues in meetings by asking any of these 25 questions.
Thanks, TopTia, for the blog photo.