Eleven million meetings take place around the world every day. Most businesses arrange these meetings to introduce motions, solve problems, or develop business structures and collaborative initiatives.
However, meetings have become unproductive, time-consuming, and costly for the business and employees. One way to add structure to meetings is to ensure a personal or executive assistant takes notes.
Meeting minutes offer structure, transparency, legal protection, and direction to the meeting events. That is, you track what is discussed, the duties and responsibilities of the people in the meeting, and get a follow-up reference point from the said notes.
Every personal and executive assistant needs to know how to take detailed notes. Notwithstanding, here is a how-to guide:
Primarily, minutes legally represent the undertakings of a meeting. More than that, they summarize key ideas or important points individuals discuss in a business meeting, meaning they are vital for any company.
For instance, agreements between two departments or managers happen in a meeting. Suppose one party raises concerns about the contract? In that case, the notes provide proof of discussion and details of the agreement.
They also provide accountability for decisions made for the company. As such, the notes provide an interim solution whenever there is a disagreement. Notes also offer evidence of agreed deadlines and timescales for new or old projects together with the responsible parties and their impact on business processes.
On top of productive meetings, good meeting notes are also crucial for project management. Managers use them to determine actionable steps to take for projects. Accessible meeting notes also show business process progress week to week. Any attendee uses these notes from previous meetings as a reminder of targets or objectives.
The attendee then assesses whether the objectives are met or whether their team needs more time and resources to complete the job.
Now that you know why meeting notes are essential for any business, you need to know your role in minute taking as a personal or executive assistant. Technically, you must record every important detail mentioned throughout the meeting.
You must never leave any detail out or include unnecessary information. This, in turn, requires specific skills and practice to take quality notes for the business. For instance, your listening, emotional intelligence, organization, and critical thinking skills must be astute. Effective meeting notes require you to distinguish important discussions from superfluous ones. Sometimes, you’ll be recording informationword-for-word.
These skills allow you to stay attentive, absorb information, and record notes accurately and in a way that makes sense to another reader. You must also be assertive to ensure every point you note down is understood.
That is, speak up when you need to seek clarification. Don’t forget to work on your grammar and writing skills as well. Only use appropriate words, use excellent punctuation, and avoid jargon. In some organizations, you are responsible for preparing the room for the meeting.
That means organizing and ensuring everyone is present for the virtual meeting by sending invitation links and testing the meeting technology beforehand. In-office, ensure every attendee is aware of the meeting, prep the room by arranging chairs and other equipment like whiteboards, and update and maintain the technology.
In a word, your role is to note the points that are important and objective, like the meeting agenda, decisions, actions, and any additional vital issues.
Different meetings have different agendas. Nonetheless, some of the things to have in meetings notes are universal. These include the meeting’s location, date, and time, the attendees, whether present or absent and the agenda.
Write down:
– The status of the items on the agenda,
– The individuals responsible for these items, and
– The expected delivery date.
– Decisions
– Agenda for the next meeting.
– The best way to figure out what to include in your meeting notes is to determine the things you must do before, during, and after the meeting. Below is a breakdown to follow:
Create a plan to give the meeting structure and your notes an outline to follow. Usually, meeting templates guide you on what to include and what to leave out. However, the notes need to fit the needs of the business and the unique nature of each meeting.
Ask yourself these questions to help determine the nature of the meeting, its significance, and the appropriate structure to follow:
– Does the meeting have an agenda or talking points? If yes, use agenda items to structure your meeting. If not, talk to the person who wants the meeting and discuss the key points and takeaways of the meeting. Also, ask your attendees if they have any agendas for the meeting to help you prepare.
– Who is attending the meeting? As the minute taker, you should know every team member in the meeting before it starts. When introductions wrap up, note any newcomers and get a written record of all meeting participants.
– How confidential is the meeting? Some meetings are more sensitive than others in that it might be illegal to keep a meeting audio recording or even the handwritten notes and drafts you use to make the final edits because of shared information. In that case, ensure you understand the data confidentiality aspect of the meeting.
– Who controls the final meeting notes? This allows you to send the final meeting notes to the right person for approval. In some cases, attendees have the right to change the meeting notes before the final edit. However, this responsibility often rests with a specific person.
Use the agenda to direct your thoughts. Besides, an agenda also guides the attendees, allowing them to prepare for the meeting beforehand. It is an effective way better to manage your time and that of the attendees.
Also, check with your attendees on due dates for specific assignments or projects when applicable. Identify the issues in your agenda that require more attention and prioritize them for the meeting.
The first thing to do when in the meeting is to identify and record every present attendee and those who are absent. Then pay attention and record every critical information given and the amount spent on each agenda.
If an argument occurs, record the essential points from each side and the conclusion or agreed solution. Use audio technology to record the entire meeting as well. This acts as a backup in case you need clarification after the meeting.
Please note that the audio recording is for your use only, meaning, don’t store it or use it for anything else.
Make your notes clear and straightforward using formats and edits. Make the notes short and easy to read and understand. Only include facts on the notes: verify any information from your audio recording. Once everything is complete, send the minutes for approval and file and share them with attendees.
Why not find ways to substitute outdated and unproductive minute-taking tasks with technology? As part of the job, developing shorthand to make your work easier is almost a rite of passage. With technology, continuously scribbling information for an hour is easy.
For instance, minute-taking technology takes notes electronically when prompted with a button. An excellent program has a board book to include necessary information like the attendees, date, time, and location of the meeting in the meeting notes template.
Some software features automatically add folder tabs to each meeting topic, allowing you to click on a folder and add notes by topic of discussion. This type of convenience, organization and accessibility allows communication about meeting notes, edits, and approvals to happen in real-time.
You also monitor tasks easily using the notification prompts, which is helpful in case one of the meeting attendees sends a message, reminder, or inquiry. The other advantage of using technology to take meeting notes is the ease of transferring the minutes into word or PDF documents.
So, do you need technology to take better meeting notes? Not necessarily, but it sure helps make your note-taking method easier and more efficient.
If you decide to use technology to take meeting notes, these are the features to look for in your tool of choice:
– The ease of use
– Automation of transcribing, recording, and playing back meetings
– The ability to customize meeting templates
– The ability to customize meeting action items
– The flexibility of sending meeting notes to and from the company portal
– Accessibility of meeting notes to business teams
– Ability to privatize certain meetings to specific business members
– Ability to integrate the meeting software with business processes seamlessly
– The best meeting notes technology is useful before, during, and after the meeting. It should help you cover the basic meeting necessities from beginning to end. In a word, technology should make the meetings in your organization more effective, including getting the one that facilitates meeting notes as a single source of truth for the company.
Understand that your role requires you to listen more than anyone else in the meeting. After all, you are the person everyone depends on to get everything said and to get it right. Therefore, organize yourself by reading the agenda before you enter the meeting.
Ensure you have everything you need to take the notes ready, be it stationery or technology devices like a laptop. Technology is a great tool to enhance your minute-taking capabilities since it automates some processes and makes your work easier.
Consider using a minute-taking template to help create the agenda and the structure of your meeting. Because executive assistant vs. personal assistant: it doesn’t matter. At some point in your career, you’ll have to take minutes.
A template gives you a straightforward way of ensuring you get everything down accurately. Most templates have a three-point system that prompts you to include what was decided, accomplished, and agreed. It also asks for the attendee’s actions.
If your company doesn’t have a meeting template, make it your responsibility to create and suggest one.
Before the meeting, take note of descriptive words to use when taking notes. This ensures you don’t use certain words repetitively. Have some words next to your keyboard to ease the process and change them weekly.
Once the meeting wraps up, don’t push your edits or create the final draft on a future date. Instead, finalize your notes immediately after the meeting is over. This allows you to work on the final draft while your mind is fresh from the meeting and actively remembers every discussion. Besides, waiting will enable you to forget important information said in the meeting.
Send the final approved meeting notes to every attendee immediately. This acts as their reminder to finish assigned tasks and responsibilities. It also reduces the time you otherwise spend following up on attendees before the next meeting ensues.
Now that you know your role as an executive or personal assistant in minute-taking looking at available job lists shouldn’t be daunting. Remember, you are the key to accurately recording all the information in the meeting.
Knowing the implications meeting notes have on a business, this isn’t a task to take lightly. Therefore, let this guide help you take meeting notes effectively, efficiently, and precisely.
Sources:
Shocking Meeting Statistics In 2021 That Will Take You By Surprise | Otter.ai
Dear Manager, You’re Holding Too Many Meetings | HBR
Speed-Writing: How to Write Shorthand, A Skill Worth Knowing | UOPEOPLE