Written Article:

As teachers, we teach students to take notes for classroom information, group work and assessments and this works well for academic work. However we don’t teach students to take notes and gather information for the workplace, we don’t teach students how to take notes in meetings or group settings in the work place. Whether our students are in college or the workplace they will need to gather information in actionable forms that can effectively be used to get tasks done as opposed to gathering information for purely informational purposes. When students get into the business world they will take notes using an academic style since that is what they know, they will often take too much information and include details that are irrelevant, but also takes way longer than the process should. When they are taking in a work setting, they need to be able discern information that is relevant to the project and tasks they need to complete quickly and easily. Additionally, as they learn what information is necessary and that others are interested in they will be able to communicate information more effectively.

Meeting Notes:

One way to begin the organization process of work notes is to begin by taking some basic information about the meeting before it starts. Information such as the meeting name and topic, date and time of the meeting, attendees (both those present and absent) so that emails or follow-up questions can be addressed to those co-workers that need it. One aspect of notes that I take from the academic world is the use of outline or bulleted list notes. Taking a meeting agenda, if one is sent out ahead of time is the first level of meeting notes that I use. As the meeting is going on, I then use this to fill in information as needed or that I will need to go back and follow-up on. When teaching students to do this, we must remind them the information should be short and to the point, such as Project XYZ and then the tasks or dates or keywords that are mentioned. They can often go back to other members of the meeting and share notes to fill in the blanks.

Agenda Items:

Agendas should be a part of every meeting and should be sent out at least the day before a meeting. This should become an expectation that when you are going to be asking someone to attend a meeting, that the person hosting the meeting is sharing a meeting agenda with those attending. Sending a meeting agenda ahead of time for a meeting is just a good practice. The agenda items also give those attending a meeting the basic outline of what they can take notes and questions to ask during the meeting or to follow-up with.

Discussion/Key Points:

One often overlooked aspect of meeting notes is discussion and key points. Key points are those points during a meeting that are of critical importance. Discussion refers to the general conversation around a topic. These are often not noted because they move very quickly or are hard to note. If you are working on a time, it can be useful to designate a two people to take notes on these aspects. After the meeting they can combine what they have to build a bigger or fuller picture of the what took place in the meeting.

Action Items:

These are items that require some type of action by and individual or party, they should be clearly defined and noted in a specific portion of your notes. These will become checklists for the individual or team to work on after the meeting. Building a list of action items can be tricky while you are learning to break tasks down, but through practice teams and individuals will become more adept at this.

Resources: