Minutes – the written record of a meeting – are they necessary (excluding meetings where minutes are mandatory, such as government cabinet meetings) or can they be counterproductive? Either way a number of factors are worth considering:
- Why do you want minutes taken?
- Who takes them?
- Are they literal, abbreviated or censored?
- Are they contemporaneous: constructed at the same time as the meeting or produced afterwards?
- What method should be used: longhand, taped, typed?
- Who gets these minutes and why?
- Who is excluded from getting these minutes and why?
The above, although comprehensive, is not exhaustive and a practical answer to all of them is beyond the scope of this article, but I intend to discuss them in future articles. A point I believe not often considered but worth consideration is what impact taking minutes will have on the participants.
Some argue that the taking of minutes is a disincentive for shy people to contribute. Possibly this is true, but should this be a valid reason for not taking them? I don’t think so. Firstly, unless all individual behaviours of the delegates are known to the chairperson, how can the chairperson be certain that “shyness’ is indeed the issue? Is there an alternative motivator at work, such as insufficient investment in preparation by that individual prior to the meeting, by that I mean a failure to fully and properly do their ‘homework’?
Maybe they have no real interest in being at the meeting and are merely there because they were told to go? Alternatively, and most frequently in my own experience as a participant and observer in innumerable SME meetings thoughout the UK, the reluctant delegate does indeed have a valid contribution, but they lack true confidence in their idea?
In this instance, clearly the taking of minutes is an impediment and arguably the meeting (presumably for decision-making) has been called under false albeit benign pretences. It’s a brainstorming meeting that’s needed.
My view is that to get the best out of a brainstorming meeting, minute-taking is counterproductive. Anyone demonstrating nervousness about minute taking is unlikely to make any worthwhile contribution to such a meeting. As a corollary to this, it’s incumbent on the person calling a decision-making meeting to make it clear that minutes will be taken.
