Minutes matter
If you want to jump straight into the Agenda and Minutes Template:
Minutes are important, and not just how we choose to use the finite amount of time we have in life. Minutes are recordings of decisions and discussions that occurred during a meeting. Done right, they are powerful and meaningful. As a technical writer, I've often used an agenda and minutes to drive decision making, make next steps clear and to manage my own enthusiastic use of workplace chat!
I have two strong opinions (aka hot takes? but is it really hot?). One is that technical writers have a vested interested in good meeting minutes and should just start writing them if the minutes are falling short.
I know some writers resist getting too close to things that might be project management, but at the end of the day we are word nerds who care about process. Where meeting minutes are not attended to it effectively it is to our benefit to make them happen and improve upon them.
My second strong opinion is that meeting minutes are generally poorly done, when they're done at all. Meeting minutes should be a very active part of the process, not a passive summary after the fact.
A transcript of who said what or who had what different opinion doesn’t matter unless it’s tied to an action item (X will investigate Y). One of the most valuable things I learned when doing non-profit governance training back in the day is that when a board makes a decision, it makes the decision. It doesn't matter if someone objected, they are bound by that decision. They may ask for something to be noted, however, that has no legal standing if your board gets sued. If a board makes a decision and you think it's unlawful, you will be held accountable to that decision unless you resign from the board! Saying, "But I said I objected! Look in the minutes!" does not protect you in any way.
There are times when it can be helpful to note an objection, creating a historical record, making sure something important gets heard, but it is just that. While most of us don't live with such extremes of decision making, but it is a helpful to keep in mind if you’re bogged down in who exactly said what.
AI has created new capabilities for transcribing meeting and creating summaries that can supplement to a well governed meeting (if company policy allows it), not stand alone. Minutes are a process as much as a record.
Actively take minutes during a meeting to find out what is meaningful. This will make the meetings more focused and helps to avoid circular conversations. Try:
- I want to get clear for the minutes, is the decision x?
- Shall we record that we've considered y solution but have decided against it? That way we've got it documented? Do we need to stick with this for now, but set a time to re-evaluate in 6 months?
- Shall we have an action item for Z to research the top three options and report back next meeting?
- We've got four more items on the agenda, do we want to defer those items for later? Can we wrap up here?
When emotions get high, it can be helpful to circle back to just needing to document things. You can be a neutral party, just trying to get clarity. It can be a useful way for participants to consider what it is they need to have heard, is it venting? Is it an action item? have we reached a decision but still awkwardly circling it?
I've created a shareable template for how I like to organize 1:1 meetings. I've found this helpful professionally as well as when working with volunteers. In my spare time I'm the co-founder of Ngombor Community Development Alliance. In January it was just Vince Ulargiw and me having a wild dream together and now it's a fully fledged organization. When it comes to the forming, storming, norming, performing stages of organizational development, we're in the forming stage and don't have formalized onboarding processes. Using this 1:1 template has been helpful as its easy to be overwhelmed by all the things we're learning, deciding and could be doing!
Media I'm enjoying
- Jessica Abel, Happiness and Productivity: You need to treat yourself like a dog | Article
- Up For Grabs | Website
- Explore open source projects and jump in!
- malgamves, Paid Community Writer Programs | Opportunities
- A great list of developer community writer programs
- Please help them keep it up to date and add any programs you know about!
- Write the Docs Australia, Jay Stephens - Naming Guidelines, so many naming guidelines | YouTube
- Organisations can be very heterogeneous in their naming conventions and in their naming needs. How do we go about developing naming guidelines in these cases?
- Andrew Eroh, The Portfolio Problem: When You Can’t Show Your Own Work (And AI Writers Can) | YouTube
- Atlassian WorkLife, The agile guide to winning at team development
- Tara McMullen, The Pleasure & Promise of Rereading | Article or Podcast
- I read it in a rush and then enjoyed re-experiencing it as a listen
- During my second encounter I thought about how much it connects to technical writing. In this onwards grinding march of content, a good technical writer is a bastion of revisiting, revising, reworking their most important pages. Tutorials always have to be updated!
- Daniele Procida, My favorite German word | Article
- A delightful bit of thought leadership in the world of technical writing
- After I read it I imagined what it might be like if Daniele and Tara were on a podcast together!
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