Meeting notes or minutes are simply a record of what was discussed and the key decisions made in a meeting. And a lot of teams simply don’t do them. It is admittedly a bit boring, especially if you’re in a kind of an ad hoc discussion after which everyone simply gets on with their day.
This always leads to hidden knowledge. Parts of info get scattered, and once you try to piece them together there’s no ends to be found. You get back to square one (or two if you’re lucky) and plan another meeting. Work gets delayed. Team generates muda.
Now that I’ve sold you on the idea of actually recording what’s going on, here’s a short example of how I fight the blank meeting minutes page.
# Running with scissors is dangerous
*24 february 2020*
- Paul Brown
- Lily White
- John Green
1. Why are we running with scissors?
1. Risk management strategies when running with scissors.
1. Alternatives to running with scissors.
## Resolutions
1. We will not run with scissors starting on March 1st.
1.
## Action items
1. @John will prepare a company-wide email about a ban on running with scissors.
1. @Lily will conduct a seminar on our next steps.
Formatting
Google a minute meeting template and you’ll get overwhelmed with formatting cringe. ‘Less is more’, so I skip unnecessary titles and excessive markup.
- A date under the page title — well, that’s probably the date of the meeting, what else can it be?
- A list of names — surely, those are the people who participated.
- A list of questions and suggestions — that’s clearly the agenda.
Agenda? Don’t hesitate to straight up copy from the calendar meeting (you do write the agenda for your meetings, do you?).
Then goes the meat of your document.
Notetaker mindset
You will talk less. And that’s a good thing. Actually this is a great reason to volunteer as a notetaker when you’re coming to the new team. You’ll get a lot of context and have an excuse not to jump in with solutions while you are stil building your understanding of the project.
‘Resolutions’ part is kind of an inbox. Uncovered issues, profound realizations, desired outcomes — all of them go here.
If no one is presenting then it’s a good idea to share your screen while you record. It provides a great tool to make sure the meeting progresses through the agenda and does not to get off track.
Action items
Some of the resolutions aren’t immediately actionable. But most are, and that’s the most important part of the meeting: if we don’t need to do anything, then why are we even getting together?
As you collectively uncover points that have to be done, get names: final version of the document should have a name next to every bullet here. The name of a person who now owns this item. Once you have a name, phrase the item as an action and move it here.
Make it clear that it isn’t somehow you ‘assigning’ the task to them. You’re only recording what was decided during the meeting. Keep it consensual — if you’re recording minutes, you’re probably not the highest level participant here and you most likely don’t have the mandate to assign anyone. So pay attention (and bring it to everyones’s attention if needed) during the meeting: if something needs to be done — who will be responsible for it?
Often all the items in ‘Resolutions’ become ‘Action items’. That’s where you know you can skip ‘Resolutions’ in the final version of the document all together. It’s only there for some pieces of info that aren’t immediately actionable but that you deem worthy of recording for reference later: answers to agenda items, long term plans, nonfunctional requirements.
Sharing
Traditionally meeting minutes is an email that you send out to everyone who was in the meeting. To keep everyone on the same page and ask for people’s feedback.
If your meeting notes are a page in some kind of a collaboration suite (i.e. Confluence) use the opportunity to tag people in your action items. In most cases it’s simply an extra ‘@’ as you start typing the name, but making sure people get notifications and that you aren’t butchering anyone’s name are golden.
And now that I’ve spent a lot of time showing how I think it all should look, let me emphasize here: what you record in your minutes matters much much more than how they look. It pays to spend some time editing the notes after the meeting to make sure they are clear and look presentable. So when you’re the one taking notes make sure you don’t have back-to-back meetings scheduled — you need some time here before you switch context.
Good luck!