I remember my supervisor corrected my first meeting minute with a red sharpie until the paper dyed in red and she had to use a post-it to keep noting. I was sweating when she told me “We need to talk”. “This is just my second day at work, I don’t want to get fired, please” I talked to myself, following her to the room. Lucky me, I had a great boss who was patient enough to walk me through the process of writing a meeting minute, a contact report, whatever you call it without any scolding or blaming. I then understood the report is not a “who says what” document but a carefully written one with clear directions for future actions.
Now let me show you how to get it done without sweating by this imaginative Q&A, which I did just to keep you reading a little longer.
Q: What is a meeting minute? It should be named meeting hours.
A: Despite the name, the meeting minute does not record every “minute” of the meeting. It only covers the critical points considered the outcome of the conference, leading to a series of actions of relevant parties. Casually explained, it is the document to save your butt. “According to the contact report, we agreed to…”, we say when someone is about to be creative with their memory.
Q: Why do we need to write the meeting minute? Everyone in the room is senior and professional enough to remember what they said, right?
A: Nope! You have no idea how a data – driven guy turns to be a creative writer when you ask him to recall an event happened 2 weeks ago. Don’t put your client or your team into the spot. No one, including you, should rely merely on memory to recall the crucial decisions that took a meeting to make.
Q: So when should I sent it out? Why my boss always push me to share asap? Come on, I’ve got a bunch of tasks to do.
A: It should be emailed within 24 hours after leaving the meeting room. The longer it takes you to send it out, the more likely the memory will fade away along with attendees’ eagerness to follow up with the next steps. If you miss one or two points in the recap, there will be someone willing to correct and constructively input when you share it early.
Q: So how to write an appropriate meeting minute?
A: There are several dos and don’ts for you to remember in this infographic.
DO’S:
1. Understand the purpose of the meeting and the agenda.
2. Be positive and use constructive wording.
Even if the meeting is a complete disaster, stay positive in the minute.
Say, for example, we brought 3 storyboards for the presentation, only 1 is sold with hundreds of feedback we hardly say it is original. Our creatives were desperate and the clients insisted on their idea. This is how you should start the report:
“Client approved the overarching communication strategy (by this we mean the 1st slide that explains the idea conceptually) of idea A with some revisions to improve the relevancy to the target audience.
1. Revision 1
2. Revision 2
3. Consider adding revision 3 if it fits with the flow of the story (use the word “consider” if the point was not locked down in the meeting, or your creatives politically agreed to try.)
Idea B and C are promising (capture the words that the client usually says trying to be polite when they start commenting) but they are more suitable when the awareness is established.”
3. Use bullet points or a short paragraph for each point.
4. Ask for clarification if you are unsure.
This is way more effective than running around and poking people after leaving the meeting room.
5. Listen carefully, pay attention to the discussion while synthesizing key points at the same time.
If you are not capable of that skill, divide the note into 3 columns: Concern, discussion and conclusion. Keep filling the discussion (this is the who says what) and highlight one that everyone agreed on as the conclusion. Remember this note is for personal use only.
6. Be specific with tasks, persons in charge and deadlines.
Ensure there is no confusion of who does what and when. If not, you may have to hold a meeting to clarify what happened in the last meeting and prepare for the next meeting. Ugh!
DON’TS
1. Put your emotion in the report. No one cares.
Ex: I found it's sad that every idea was killed just because we did not highlight the logo enough.
2. Put your bias or your own opinion in the report, it should be impartial.
Ex: We like the idea but the client did not want to move forward with it. What a waste!
3. Do not report every point chronologically. Otherwise, it would look like a play script.
Ex:
- Client: I don’t like idea A because it doesn’t feel right
- Account manager: what do you mean by “not right”? Can you explain further so we can improve it?
- Client: it’s just the color too bright
- Art director: Should I bring you a shade
4. Don’t delay!
Send the minute as soon as possible after the meeting. You don’t want your project to slip away from people’s minds.
5. Don’t assume.
Ask your senior or colleagues to check the paper before sending it out. Ending the email with a call to action: please have a look and let me know if there are any missing points.
6. Don’t be careless.
Check your grammar and wording
You now understand the value of an effective meeting minute. Now let’s start to write a good one that is not filled with corrections like mine by downloading this free template.
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