Whether it is a management consulting project or an SAP implementation project, there are many types of documents, such as schedules, proposals, flowcharts, etc. Every stage will produce, but this humble thing, meeting minutes, will run through the whole process and affect the direction of the project more or less.
These documents belong to the category of business writing, and their purposes are "informing" and "influencing". Consulting projects have time constraints and delivery pressures, and meetings are the most frequent activities in the project process. The writing level of meeting minutes is the performance of consultant's ability, and it is also a powerful weapon to reduce project risk.
Looking back many years ago, when I first entered the workplace, the first task I received was to write meeting minutes. At that time, the enterprise adopted a tutorial system for new employees, and I was specially guided by lawyers in the Legal Department. To this day, I can clearly remember that my meeting minutes were rejected eleven times, and I wrote for nearly fifteen hours. I don't know how many times I've listened to the dialogue in the recorder.
Since then, all written meeting minutes have been successful. The experience of writing minutes all night deeply influenced me. Eleven reasons for refusing even revised my inductive method and logical expression during listening.
After the enterprise came out, I worked in the consulting industry for many years and once brought a young consultant.
When he first came to the project team, I told him, "taking minutes of meetings is a shortcut for young consultants to grow up quickly." Because you can observe and summarize the communication methods and ways of doing things between customers and senior consultants, and you can also exercise your ability of summarizing and summarizing.
He agreed and tried to record the records of various investigations and meetings. But to my surprise, this very effective trick for my growth has no effect on him.
He made a meeting for more than 10 minutes, and the feedback he got was basically nothing but faster typing.
I didn't know what the problem was at that time. Through careful communication with him, I found that I didn't help him point out the problems in the minutes of each meeting and give feedback for improvement, so that he could do targeted exercises and improvements in the minutes of the next meeting, like my introductory tutor.
Therefore, it is a terrible thing that consultants can't get effective feedback. Repeated marking time for countless times will only kill your precious time and will, leading to confusion and no progress.
In the conversation with him, I analyzed his 65,438+00 minutes. I passed on what my tutor gave me to him, which should have a positive impact on his future career.
Then, how to write the summary of the consulting project?
1. Only when the purpose of the meeting is determined can the direction of recording be determined. Many people will focus on the recording process and details rather than the results, so too much information will bury the most important information. The results of the discussion should be recorded according to the objectives, and there is no need to list everything mentioned at the meeting.
2. A good meeting record should be short, and accurately record the topics, conclusions, who is responsible, how to do it and when to finish it with the least words, so that the next meeting, and then take out the meeting record, will know what everyone agreed at the last meeting and what everyone has accomplished during this time.
No matter what position or class people are, they may need to write meeting minutes. Meeting minutes are the transmission of professional quality. Many senior consultant projects have given this job to small consultants or client members at the beginning. Personally, I think this is not good.
4. Many excellent consultants will finish the ten-minute meeting as soon as possible, and everyone will receive an excellent meeting record document, which is great. Even if you can't, try not to exceed 24 hours.
Most meetings are about understanding. The author can first send the minutes of the meeting to the participants and ask them to see if the contents are correct. If they are wrong, they should correct them quickly. If everyone has no objection to the record, then this meeting record can represent everyone's understanding of the meeting results.
6. As a follow-up reminder, if something unexpected happens, the direction or progress of the project will change, sometimes not because the project members make mistakes, but because of external factors. When in doubt, just take out the minutes of the meeting and compare them, and you can have a basis. It is easier to find the reason for the change and the risk control will be more accurate.
7. Do a good job of naming files for easy search. The elements that should be included are: time, summary and version. Now the operating system is more and more powerful, and the file content can also be used as the search scope. This paper summarizes several keywords into tags, which will also improve the search efficiency.
What abilities should be paid attention to in the process of writing meeting minutes for a long time?
1. Generalization and inductive ability
2. Ability to grasp key points
3. The ability to control the pace of the meeting
4. Ability to understand and decompose tasks
5. Predictability of task completion
6. Refine accurate expression ability
I hope this article can be helpful to newcomers in the consulting industry or consultants who don't pay much attention to meeting minutes. If you have other good suggestions, please leave a message to share.
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