At the end of Peter Wright’s webinar on getting more tasks achieved in a hectic work environment participants asked some compelling questions.

The question we’re discussing today is: “Will minutes of meetings always remain an effective way to prioritize?”

Peter said most meeting minutes are actually a waste of time. Instead he’s a strong proponent of only recording critical items.

The critical items

Action items: Write down what your team is working on next. This keeps team members accountable to each other and stops potential miscommunication.

Outcomes: Track the outcomes of actions your team has taken from meeting to meeting. This will prompt high level discussion among team members and has the potential to improve your association’s best practices. This record also allows your team to celebrate their successes or make improvements if they struggled.

Responsibilities: A record of each team member’s responsibilities keeps their workloads manageable. A team member with too much or too little to do will under perform.

Timelines: Assign due dates for projects. It will help meeting attendees manage their time and workload more efficiently. Timelines and due dates also foster a culture of accountability in your association.

Decisions: Record each major decision to keep team members accountable and in sync. This will also prevent potential conflict or confusion at future meetings.

Use a flip chart

Recording notes on a flip chart keeps them public and limits the amount of space they can take up. If you have more than 15 or 20 bullet points on your chart you’ve got too much. Should that happen your team can cross out excess or unimportant items together. By providing your team with a visual reference you ensure everyone is literally staying on the same page.

What about X, Y and Z?

As association managers or members there is no reason to record things that fall outside of the above categories. The discussion that is not recorded has value in the meeting itself. In fact the collaborative discussion making process is what creates the items that are written down. So the process is important but tracking it step by step is not.

Reducing notes from meetings down to critical items will increase your team’s comprehension. Recent studies have shown university students who take copious notes don’t understand the intent of what they are being taught. Similarly meeting attendees who try to remember each detail miss the bigger picture.  

A sharp-eyed association executive must be constantly on the lookout for ways to promote their organization’s brand.

Association Managers Meeting