Attending meeting is one of the many daily tasks of a manger or leader in any organization. I love this one quote about meeting , “ A Meeting is an event at which the minutes are kept and the hours are lost”. Isn’t that right? We spend hours in meeting and no real results achieve! Having a productive meeting is one thing and making ourselves excited to come for a meeting is a real big issue. In this article, we are going to talk about how you to be excited in going for a meeting, be able to play active role and also learn several ways of taking good notes during any meeting.
Be excited for a meeting
First, list out three benefits that you and your team will get after completing the meeting. Perhaps you will be able to come out with solutions on issue that you are facing. Maybe there is a project that you need to start but you are stuck with. What about if just an attendee? Being invited and not the one who will conduct the meeting. How to get excited about the meeting? Same thing, list down three benefits that you can gain from this meeting .
May be it is good time to show appreciation to your boss or teammates by giving some suggestions during the meeting. Make sure you write down three benefits of attending the meeting.
Get your ideas heard.
Getting your ideas or point of views heard in a meeting can be challenging. Get to know the agenda in advance. Get ready with two to three points that you can contribute. Expect the matter that will be discussed. The points can be in the form of questions. If you not well in speaking in a group; practice. Write the script clearly and rehearse several time. it is not stupid thing to do. Even you are well experience executive, writing down your points is crucial as it will give clarity and people will appreciate you for that. Most importantly, be passionate and confident about your point of view. “ Prepared means confident “ wrote Dr Jason Selk and Tom Bartow in their great book “ Organize Tomorrow Today”. Active involvement in a meeting saying a lot about you; you care and can be relied on.
Taking good notes.
Look back at the notes that you take from the past meetings you had attended for past two weeks. Can you understand what are they all about? What are the key points? What actions need to be done? Any new ideas or aha moment? Or was it full of scathes of cartoons or drawings?
First, make sure you have a device; note book or any digital device. Make sure you use the same device / note book for all your meetings. It for better organizing of your notes and future reference. I saw executive go to a meeting with just piece of paper…not good. By the time you back to workstation, that piece of paper gone! Worst still, come to meeting empty handed. If you are a leader that lead the meeting…make sure make note book ready and take note of ideas given by your team. They will be more engage when they see the leaders are taking their views seriously. If you are note taking down, they may not interested to give any feedbacks.
Ok, in your note book, put the date, time and title of the meeting. Divide them into 4 parts; notes, call for actions / to be done, Aha moments (any ideas that just come up during the meeting worth doing) and section for questions (any questions / issue that you want to clarify. Make sure you notes are clean and do not do any unnecessary sketch; sometimes our hands so “itchy” during the meeting.
There is a great book by Harvard Business Review, in its Guide Series, entitled “ Making Every Meeting Matter”. Read this book if you are serious in making the most in every meeting.
Call For Action
Look at you calendar…any meeting to attend tomorrow? Get your note book and do the three things mentioned above.
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