Perspective can be a wonderful thing – the ability for two people to view the same piece of art, and have two completely different reactions is a wonderfully human trait. This ability, however, can lead to disaster in a project manager’s world. The fact that two or more people can sit in a meeting, hear the same words, but come out with completely different views on the information presented leaves a ticking bomb waiting to explode at a future time.
If this situation is left unchecked, then all people will continue with false impressions, until the difference is discovered – usually at a later point in the project.
Therefore, it is vital to document resolutions and determinations made in meetings, as well as actions agreed to. This documentation can take many forms; formal meeting minutes, formal action plans, informal email outlining the main points, informal personal meeting notes. The important point here is not the format of the documentation, but to make sure it is completed and recorded.
Develop the habit of keeping notes at meetings. Not only formal project meetings, but all meetings, discussions & side conversations. You don’t need to keep extensive recordings of who said what, but you do need to capture the most important points.
Also make it a habit to review your notes regularly. The aim here is to ensure any action items required have been followed through.
Here is the current process I use to make sure as much information as is necessary is documented:
- I use a pocket notebook to keep notes. At the top of each note I write the date, eg. 23May12 (I use this format so it’s clear to all what the date is – you can get stuck with different date formats being used in different countries), and a heading to give me context (eg. ABC Team Meet, where ABC is the company name).
- After the meeting I will type my notes into a note taking application – currently I use Evernote for this.
- Highlight actions – if writing formal meeting minutes, you can see how I do this here. If writing notes from an informal meeting, I highlight an action for me with a * character.
- Follow up the actions – so revisit every * and perform whatever activity is required. This might be to add a task to your todo list, or to send an email to a person to clarify a point or ask a question.
- If there are determinations that you’d like to be recorded, it can be useful to send these in an email to yourself. The thing I like about email is that it records the date/time, and is easily searchable.
Don’t ignore this important item, in fact it might be a good idea to make some quick notes for yourself right now – because if it’s not documented, it doesn’t exist <grin>.
