Elevate your meetings with real-time minutes - A Better Work Tweak!
Updated: Sep 20
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Are you tired of feeling overwhelmed by having to create meeting minutes after each meeting?
At A Better Work, we know going back to create minutes can be painful and time-consuming. Even more so, they are usually delivered long after the meeting, they are often left unread, gathering dust or misrepresenting the decisions or actions after the fact.
Meeting minutes help to keep us all aligned, recording decisions so we don’t keep going backward while taking a record of actions for accountability. That's why we're excited to introduce you to a new way of creating meeting minutes, one that happens in real-time, which will not only save you time but also increases collaboration, real-time agreement, and clarity.
This week's Twork (tweak for better work) - take real-time collaborative minutes
Use whatever online tool you are most comfortable with. We love using either a Miro Board (a type of online, collaborative whiteboard) or Google Docs, both of which allow multiple people to view and input information at the same time, making it a collaborative, efficient, and more accurate way of recording minutes.
To ensure that the process runs smoothly, assign a scribe who will be responsible for recording the minutes. This doesn't mean that they're the only person contributing, but they will take the lead in making sure that everyone's inputs are captured accurately. We recommend this role rotates over time, so everyone understands what’s involved and takes responsibility.
For the Miro Board we recommend using a simple, visual template to create your minutes in real-time, including information about the attendees, agenda, desired outcomes, decisions, actions, notes, and resources. This will ensure that everything you need is captured in one place, making it easy to refer to later.
If you have regular meetings or an ongoing project, you can easily copy the same format and move it down to create an ongoing record of all the outputs, decisions, and actions made. This will ensure that you always have a clear record of what has been agreed upon and what actions need to be taken ahead of the next meeting.
Make the Twork even better - a free Miro template for you to use
Of course, we are here to make work better so we have a simple template that you can duplicate and use for your next meeting
Using a shareable document, such as Google Docs, is another great option for creating meeting minutes in real time. This allows everyone to take responsibility for the minutes and contribute to the document as needed. It ensures that everyone is speaking the same language and that there is timely agreement on what is being recorded.
Whether you choose a Miro Board or Google Docs, this approach to capturing minutes in real-time will ensure you have a clear record of all the outputs, decisions, and actions from your meetings, making it easier to streamline your future meetings and focus on the work that really matters.
Creating meeting minutes in real-time can save you time, increase collaboration and ensure that everyone knows what is happening in actual time.
If you are currently a meeting minute taker (scribe), this means no more rushing to review pages of handwritten notes just before your next meeting, you will now have the minutes ready to go at the end of the meeting. If you are an attendee you can begin planning for your next meeting and carrying out any actions straight away. What’s not to like?
To help you get started, we've created a free meeting minutes template that you can download now. Start creating collaborative meeting minutes in real-time and see how they can transform your meetings and increase productivity.
Let’s make work better together
Note: this blog was written by Michelle Wallace and Stephen Cogan asynchronously (we both got to work on it at times that suited us in a way that helped our copywriting and creativity without the need to meet throughout. (Learn more about asynchronous communication here)
Click to download the "Real-time minutes template" and share it with your team.
Let's make work better, one Twork at a time.
Michelle Wallace
Founder
A Better Work
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