Meetings are an inevitable reality at every company, and they frequently include discussions about important projects, decisions, and strategies. As such, concise meeting minutes are crucial. They ensure an official written record of each meeting's key points, keep everyone on the same page - including those who might have missed a meeting, and allow for future reference to the details of meetings past.
The more accurate and concise a meeting's minutes are, the more useful they will be as an official record. Anyone reading previous meeting minutes should be able to easily understand what was covered during the meeting, even if they were absent.
In this article, we will discuss three key techniques for recording meeting minutes, that will help professionals hone their note-taking skills!
1: Craft a Systematic Approach
Human speech moves at a much faster pace than our fingers do, so it's essential to have a systematic approach to taking minutes to avoid missing key points. If you have been assigned as your team's minute taker, come up with a systematic framework to make your minute-taking process as smooth as possible.
First, you should start off with the meeting agenda. Depending on your team's style, the meeting agenda may be followed closely or simply used as a jumping off point. Either way, having the meeting agenda on hand will give you a broad outline to base your minutes on. Knowing the meeting's objectives will also be helpful to your minute-taking.
Next, use a standard format for your minutes. This will reduce the amount of thought you have to put into how to organise your notes, and it will keep your minutes consistent across different meetings. In addition to making your minute-taking more efficient, sticking to the same format will make it easier for your team members to navigate the minutes when reading them back later.
The typical format for meeting minutes looks something like this:
Adjust the format in a way that works best for your team. Make sure to ask clarifying questions during the meeting if you are unsure of anything that is mentioned.
2: Learn Note-taking Techniques
By learning specific methods for noting down the information you need, the process of taking minutes will be sped up and made more efficient. There are many note-taking strategies out there, and you should choose the one that helps you most.
One note-taking strategy is the Outline Method. It is a systematic and visually-organised style of note-taking. In this style, the note-taker writes their main ideas down as bullet points and elaborates on the main idea in sub-points below each bullet point. The idea is to keep all your points and sub-points brief. The Outline Method is perfect for situations in which you need to capture information rapidly. Its straightforward structure allows you to clearly see the information hierarchy and how ideas are grouped together.
Another popular note-taking style is the Cornell Method. This method works especially well with pen and paper. Divide your piece of paper into a left column, a right column, and a small bottom section. The main ideas from the meeting will go into the left column while the details of these ideas will go into the right column. The section at the bottom is where you'll summarise the entire meeting. The Cornell Method keeps your notes logically organised, and writing a summary will give you a good overview of the meeting's highlights.
3: Present Information Clearly
Once the meeting has ended and the pertinent information has been gathered, you must develop a clear way to present this information to readers. The best time to organise your notes into official meeting minutes is immediately following the meeting, while all of the details are still fresh in your mind.
Check your notes to ensure that no critical details have been left out, then type them up in a clear, coherent manner. Begin a new paragraph for each significant point that was brought up. Number the pages as needed, and attach any external materials that were referred to during the meeting. Keep your wording clear and straightforward, and ensure the tone of your writing remains objective throughout. Meeting minutes should concentrate on vital details, so avoid repetition or including any unnecessary information.
Become a Meeting Minutes Expert with Aventis Learning
Impress everyone at your next meeting by having a systematic approach to writing your meeting minutes, applying gold-standard note-taking techniques, and presenting all the information you've gathered clearly and concisely.
If you're eager to put these techniques into practice and learn more about taking outstanding meeting minutes, Aventis Learning Group's 'Expert Tips on How to Write Meeting Minutes Quickly and Easily’ course can provide valuable lessons. In this course, our expert lecturers will share their experience and cover the process of minute-taking. Pick up strategies for improving your listening skills, learn how to best make use of a meeting agenda, and understand how to construct accurate notes on the fly.
