So, your phone buzzes..it is a message from your boss. You are to be in a staff meeting in one hour. You wonder if you should take notes. Odds are, if the staff meeting is called by your boss for discussing a specific topic there there is probably a a good chance there will be a need to take notes…but do you use your ruled pad or your tablet?
This seems to be where the debate on the options to take notes begins.
To be or Not to Be
Some misguided bosses do not like to see old school paper pads in meetings where other bosses see the electronic device as a distraction. Even others see both as not being good for the environment..
The big question now is.. do you really need to take notes?
Art of Note Taking
If you need to take notes..here are some other options:
There are several rules of thumb business people use to determine when there is a need to take notes during a meeting. The image of them looking interested in the possibility that there maybe something said they need to remember drivers most people to grab their paper and pen. Many will default to there always being a need to take notes.
Then, there are those who take their iPads or Tablets into meetings in an effort to take notes. But every meeting I have attended where the room was filled people using their laptops, and other devices on the meeting table that was not the real reason they take their personal electronic device to a meeting?
Reality Trip
I use to hate it when someone would come to my staff meeting and they would seemingly take down every word I said. Then there was always someone with their phone, or now a iPad, tapping away like they were trying to keep up with the person writing down every word I have to say.
What I did like was the few people in my meeting who used their intelligence..they brought a copy of the email I sent them..which usually had the agenda for the meeting in the subject line. They would take notes next to the bullet points I provided in the email on what we were going to talk about. This made for easy filing in their project binders
Yet, I was even more impressed with those few who would use their smartphones to record my meeting then would immediately after the meeting would run the audio file into a text converter and send me a copy of the transcript. It was always fun to see how soem of the ways I say a word would be translated.
Then, of course, there usually was always someone..or in some cases..several people who did not take any notes from the meeting. These were the people I would ask why they did not take notes. What I found was amazing. They mentally captured every point I had to say and every bit of data I provided without writing down a single note.
The Art of Note Taking
This kinda proves that everyone is truly different and the way they go about things will always be different from others. But the bottonline is..if they get the job done who cares if they took notes are not..if they didn’t get the job done..well..blame it on the lack of taking notes, but is that the real reason?
Let me know how I can help.
Good info Scott. I usually take the agenda or email sent approach. It does make project filing easier. At other times I’ve taken my steno pad. May rethink that one now.