For today’s class, I asked you to read these two documents about holding meetings and creating meeting minutes:
Eric Matson, “The Seven Sins of Deadly Meetings, “http://www.fastcompany.com/26726/seven-sins-deadly-meetings.
University of Minnesota, Office of Human Resources, “Meeting Minutes,” https://www1.umn.edu/ohr/prod/groups/ohr/@pub/@ohr/documents/asset/ohr_asset_339821.pdf.
Use the first ten minutes of class to write a summary memo of these two documents. I would suggest two paragraphs–one for each reading. Make sure you identify in your memo what it is you are writing about in each respective paragraph. Of course, follow the memo format for your response. After you have written and saved your memo, you may copy-and-paste it into the comment box of this blog post and submit.
To: Professor Jason Ellis
From:Robert Smith
Date:10/19/15
Subject: “The Seven Sins of Deadly Meetings” & “Meeting Minutes”
The article, “The Seven Sins of Deadly Meetings”, starts off by saying that meetings themselves are a drag. The article states that they can be boring and long, and they are viewed as THE most despised part of business life. However, just because everyone hates them, does not mean that they are not essential to a business. As stated previously, it is a PART of business life, and is one of the most important parts of a successful business. But does that mean a company can have a rushed meeting, just to be successful because they have had a meeting? William R. Daniels states that “Bad meetings are a source of negative messages about our company and ourselves.” From this, it could be taken that having a bad meeting, is just as detrimental to a company, than not having any meeting at all. The article then lists 7 sins, or wrongdoings, that could make a meeting a bad one, and 7 salvations, or virtues, that should be instilled to fix these sins. Sin #1 states that people take meetings lightly, and might arrive late, or leave early. They also may not be focusing during the meeting. The salvation for this is to treat the meetings like you would actual work, and take them seriously. Daniels says to that we should view meetings as uptime, instead of downtime. Sin #2 says that meetings are too long. The salvation is that the time of the meetings should be short, and should be done with computers at the same time to find information the company may need. Sin #3 states people tend to digress. The salvation is simply to stick to the agenda of the meeting, and focus on the topic at hand. An agenda should list the meeting’s key topics, who will lead which parts of the discussion, how long each segment will take, what the expected outcomes are, and so on. Sin #4 is that once out of the meeting, people don’t take action on the ideas that were discussed inside the meeting. The salvation for this is to take action on whatever was emphasized, and to focus on common documents. Sin #5 says that people aren’t open about what they have to say in the meeting, and may leave amazing ideas or comments in the air. The salvation is to try and use technology to allow shy or timid people to speak their voice. It sounds weird, however, it has been proven to work. Another way would be for everyone to listen to each other’s ideas. Sin #6 says meetings may leave out important information. To fix this, try to focus on getting data out of the meetings instead of other topics. Sin # states that meetings never get better. Well, practice makes perfect. The more meetings you tend to have, the better the meetings will go. Take note of what works and what doesn’t in a meeting to improve future meetings, and get the best out of each one.
“Meeting Minutes” describes what meeting minutes are and what to do when writing them. Meeting minutes are designed to record highlights of the group discussion, clarify decisions that were made in the meeting, and to track the assignments of the group members or the assignments that need to be done by the group. Before the meeting, you must choose what you’re working with (whether it be pen and paper or computer), create an outline for taking notes and what must be discussed, and the names of those in your group. During the meeting, write a list of who is there, only record main ideas of discussions which could help you write a summary of what was said for later, record decisions as they occur, record motions/votes (who made them, and the results of the votes). After the meeting, you should type them up as soon as possible, while you have the information retained. The meeting’s name, purpose, date, people in attendance, and the times the meeting began and ended must be included. The meeting minutes should include headers and bullets. After it is finished, send copies to those who were in the meeting, and also keep a copy for those who want to review the notes later.
To: Professor Jason Ellis
From:Robert Smith
Date:10/19/15
Subject: “The Seven Sins of Deadly Meetings” & “Meeting Minutes”
The article, “The Seven Sins of Deadly Meetings”, starts off by saying that meetings themselves are a drag. The article states that they can be boring and long, and they are viewed as THE most despised part of business life. However, just because everyone hates them, does not mean that they are not essential to a business. As stated previously, it is a PART of business life, and is one of the most important parts of a successful business. But does that mean a company can have a rushed meeting, just to be successful because they have had a meeting? William R. Daniels states that “Bad meetings are a source of negative messages about our company and ourselves.” From this, it could be taken that having a bad meeting, is just as detrimental to a company, than not having any meeting at all. The article then lists 7 sins, or wrongdoings, that could make a meeting a bad one, and 7 salvations, or virtues, that should be instilled to fix these sins. Sin #1 states that people take meetings lightly, and might arrive late, or leave early. They also may not be focusing during the meeting. The salvation for this is to treat the meetings like you would actual work, and take them seriously. Daniels says to that we should view meetings as uptime, instead of downtime. Sin #2 says that meetings are too long. The salvation is that the time of the meetings should be short, and should be done with computers at the same time to find information the company may need. Sin #3 states people tend to digress. The salvation is simply to stick to the agenda of the meeting, and focus on the topic at hand. An agenda should list the meeting’s key topics, who will lead which parts of the discussion, how long each segment will take, what the expected outcomes are, and so on. Sin #4 is that once out of the meeting, people don’t take action on the ideas that were discussed inside the meeting. The salvation for this is to take action on whatever was emphasized, and to focus on common documents. Sin #5 says that people aren’t open about what they have to say in the meeting, and may leave amazing ideas or comments in the air. The salvation is to try and use technology to allow shy or timid people to speak their voice. It sounds weird, however, it has been proven to work. Another way would be for everyone to listen to each other’s ideas. Sin #6 says meetings may leave out important information. To fix this, try to focus on getting data out of the meetings instead of other topics. Sin # states that meetings never get better. Well, practice makes perfect. The more meetings you tend to have, the better the meetings will go. Take note of what works and what doesn’t in a meeting to improve future meetings, and get the best out of each one.
“Meeting Minutes” describes what meeting minutes are and what to do when writing them. Meeting minutes are designed to record highlights of the group discussion, clarify decisions that were made in the meeting, and to track the assignments of the group members or the assignments that need to be done by the group. Before the meeting, you must choose what you’re working with (whether it be pen and paper or computer), create an outline for taking notes and what must be discussed, and the names of those in your group. During the meeting, write a list of who is there, only record main ideas of discussions which could help you write a summary of what was said for later, record decisions as they occur, record motions/votes (who made them, and the results of the votes). After the meeting, you should type them up as soon as possible, while you have the information retained. The meeting’s name, purpose, date, people in attendance, and the times the meeting began and ended must be included. The meeting minutes should include headers and bullets. After it is finished, send copies to those who were in the meeting, and also keep a copy for those who want to review the notes later.
TO: Professor Jason Ellis
FROM: Anika Aarons
DATE: October 14, 2015
SUBJECT: “Meetings and Meeting Minutes”
The first reading “The Seven Sins of Deadly Meetings” by Eric Matson highlights on all the cons of having business meetings and how you can make them better based on these challenges. This reading explains that the purpose of meetings are to discuss ideas, housekeeping issues, all in hopes to bettering the company. The main challenges business companies has issues with dealing with meetings are that most of the time people are late, or don’t consume the information properly during the meetings for example not paying attention, because meetings are usually boring or consumed with too much information Most importantly no change resulting from the meetings, implying that people go right back to what they were doing which was the cause for the meeting in the first place. After discussing the issues of unsuccessful meetings, the reading suggests that people innovate ways to make meetings entertaining, more strict forcing people to take them more serious.
The second reading “Taking Meeting Minutes” by the office of Human Resources at the University of Minnesota is a guideline for how to conduct the perfect meeting. First starting with the decisioin and action assignments the meeting should include. What you should do before the meetingsuch as gathering your materials, organizing the procdeure of the meeting , and the direction you want it to follow. During the meeting this guideline suggests that you keep track of the most important attributes that the meeting consists of, such as attendance and participatiins and the information or ideas that were obtained from others. Lastly, after the meeting you should use this time to remind the attendees again the purpose of the meeting making sure a change will come from it .
To: Jason W. Ellis
From: George Gordon
Date: October 19th, 2015
Subject: Beginning of Class Writing
In “The Seven Sins of Deadly Meetings” by Eric Matson, he speaks about how meetings are generally disliked and unproductive. He has some quotes from people working in businesses where they talk about how they are a part of the job but haven’t reached their full potential. He mentions that there are “seven sins” when it comes to meetings and proposes some solutions to them. For example, he mentions that meetings can be too long and not enough work gets done but through computer enabled simultaneity they can become more productive. Another “sin” he mentions is that meetings don’t improve and by monitoring the work that comes from them and holding those who aren’t improving accountable for their work. He even brings up the idea of introducing anonymity into meetings because it would allow of people to tell the truth without worrying about being reprimanded or harming someone else’s status.
In “Taking Meeting Minutes,” it discusses “meeting minutes” which are records you keep of what is said and done in a meeting. They say to make sure everything is working and for you to keep a backup of your work and making sure you know who the participants of the meeting will be. You shouldn’t record everything that is said, only the important details and decisions. As well as, making notes of agenda items and taking account of who is missing or late so they can be briefed at a later time. After the meeting, you can should type up your “minutes,” include the name, purpose, date and times of the meetings. Then, you can proofread the “minutes” and review them with someone else before sending them to other participants. They highlight the tip of numbering pages, being objective and avoiding observations that you make.
TO: Professor Jason Ellis
FROM: Naveeda Akhtar
DATE: October 19, 2015
SUBJECT: “Beginning of Class Writing on Meetings and Meeting Minutes”
The Seven Sins of Deadly Meetings by Eric Matson
Describes the seven deadly sins of meetings which includes but are not limited to making sure meetings do not run on too long, that everybody stays on topic, that meetings are taken seriously, or that effective decisions are made after the meeting. Some more sins include people not being honest during the meeting, some meetings miss important information, and sometimes the same mistakes are made over and over again even though a meeting was conducted. Meetings are tremendously important in the beneficial aspects of the company and it also lets everybody know that the employee is an important member of the company. The meeting is also where a company creates culture and as time goes on, that culture will adapt and change due to the different people coming in and out of the company.
Meeting Minutes by the University of Minnesota, Office of Human Resources
Before the meeting, have a pen and paper, laptop computer, or tape recorder. Also, you should create a meeting agenda as well as see how many participants will be at the meeting. During the meeting, write how many people attended, as well as keep track of who came late or left early, also record any important decisions or action items made. After the meeting, type up the minutes as soon as possible so you do not forget anything, make the format easy to read, proofread everything, ask for any additional notes, and send out final copies to the attendees.
TO: Dr. Jason Ellis
FROM: Valentina Pineda
DATE: October 19, 2015
SUBJECT: “Taking Meeting Minutes” and “Seven Sins of Deadly meetings” summaries
In the article “seven Sins of deadly meetings” the main topic is seven reasons why meetings in the workplace can go wrong and not accomplish what they were intended to do.Even though everybody despises meeting it is noted that they are an essential part to having a successful company. However for meetings to help the success of a company they have to be carried out in a proper way, so this article provides us with the problems of bad meetings but it also provides with solutions to this problems to ultimately have a successful meeting. The two sins that stood out to me the most was the first one and fourth one. The first listed sin is that people take meetings lightly and arrive and leave at their own time. The solution provided is that one should always take meetings as part of their job and considered it is an important and crucial part to their individual success in the company as well. “take meetings like uptime and not like downtime” experts say. Come prepared to work and be productive. Sin number four states people often do not take action on the topics discussed in the meeting. This just makes a meeting pointless as everything said is left at the time of meeting. The solution is to turn meetings into doings by taking notes and having meeting minutes to follow up after the meeting is done. Meeting minutes is notes on the meeting and the task that you are expected to perform after the meeting is ended. Always take meetings seriously and work to improve aspects of previous meetings that made ineffective. Overall all the seven sins mentioned can be very helpful to having a successful meeting however as the last sin state’s meetings do not often change, it is up to the company to try each of this tips and see which of them works best for their company’s meetings.
In the article “Taking Meeting Minutes” there is a also a very informative discussion of how to effectively design a successful meeting. the main discussion is about meeting minutes, which is the records/note one takes of important things that are talked about during the meeting. One should always come prepared with either pen and paper or a computer where they could effectively take notes. Most importantly minutes should be reviewed after the meeting with a coworker and notes should be exchanged to ensure that you did not miss any important points during the meeting. Also it is not noted that a meeting successful meeting requires some preparation before it happens, one should create a meaningful agenda of what will be discussed at the meeting and the people who will attend this meeting. also it is noted that during a meeting a person in charge should always reminding attendants the purposes and main points of the gathering and how it is expected to cause change or actions from the attendants.
TO: Jason W. Ellis
FROM: Albert Hemmings
DATE: October 5, 2015
SUBJECT: “The Seven Sins of Deadly Meeting” & “Meeting Minutes”
The seven sins of deadly meeting reveals to us a multitudes of thing that decreases the value of a meeting. One common sin is that many people attend meetings late, some leave early, and some spend the whole meeting doodling or daydream. The way to fix this is to treat meetings as work, not a work break. Another sin is that some meetings are too long. Time is money and the longer the meeting the more money the company loses. A very important sin is that people tend to wander off topic and spend more time arguing than discussing. A way to become efficient in the meetings is to make a agendas so that each meeting the group stays on topic.
In meeting minutes it is important to record highlight of group discussion, clarify decisions, and track assignments. Before the meeting, an important thing to do is use the meeting agenda to create an outline with plenty of space for taking notes. Create a notes template for recurring meetings. During the meeting, an important thing to do is to make a list of attendees. You can pass around an attendance sheet or prepare a checklist in advance. Take a note of those who arrives late or leaves early so these people can be briefed on what they missed. Another thing is to not try to write down every single comment. Record the main ideas of the discussion and enough notes to summarize it later. After the meeting, it is very important to send the final copy to attendees as soon as possible. Keep a copy of the notes in case someone wants to review them later. This way everyone stays on the same page.
To: Dr. Jason W. Ellis
From: Thaer Tayeh
Date: October 19, 2015
Subject: The seven sins of deadly meetings & meeting minutes
The article on seven sins of deadly meetings addresses the issues encountered during meetings and “salvation” from these sins. The first sin is people not taking the meetings seriously and this can be solved by having the right mind set, and having clear goals with paths to follow. The second sin is meetings running too long which wastes company many as “time is money”. With computer-enabled meetings meetings can be more productive and discussions more thorough. Using a meeting meter the leader can also keep track of how long a meeting is running and how much it is costing. The third sin is that people wander off and spend more time disagreeing than discussing. The salvation is structuring the agendas properly; listing key topics and being aware of how long each segment will last and who will lead discussions. The fourth sin is that nothing happens once a meeting ends. By using computer-augmented collaborations attendees of a meeting can create shared documents which opens discussions. Technology can be used in this sense to record comments, outline ideas and create proposals. The fifth sin is that people are not honest with each other during meetings. Through technology we can enter comments into the computer which will remain totally anonymous. The sixth sin is that meetings are always missing important information. A big cause of this is limited work space. Work in an area with a good amount of space for materials. Be sure to fill the flip charts with as much info as possible as well as create some artifacts. The final sin is meetings never get better. This can be solved through practice, trying out different models and holding people accountable.
Meeting minutes record discussions and decisions during meetings. The article breaks up how meeting minutes are to be used in three categories; before the meeting, during the meeting and after the meeting. Before the meeting it is advised to have some form of to to record information such as paper, a laptop or a tape recorder. You should create an outline for taking notes and be aware who is participating in the meeting. During the meeting make a list of attendees to know who is there and who may be missing and may be in need of notes on the meeting. During the meeting do not try to write everything down, only note important ideas. Be sure to jot down motions and who made them. After a meeting is over type up the minutes as soon as possible while they are still fresh in your head. Use a format that is clear and easy to understand and be sure to note the meeting’s name, date, purpose and attendance list. Lastly, keep a copy of your notes for anyone who may need them later.
TO: Dr. Jason W. Ellis
FROM: Yulduz Saidinova
DATE: October 19, 2015
SUBJECT:”Seven Sins of Deadly Meeting” and “Meetings and Meeting minutes”
The Seven Sins of Deadly Meetings by Eric Matson
In this article Eric Matson brought up some comments about meeting in companies. All of the examples where how the meeting was boring, disliked or unproductive. But he think meetings are important.There can be specific tools that and techniques for better and productive meetings. Then he talks about 7 sins that can ruin meetings and solutions for them. Those sins are that most of the people don’t take meetings seriously, it can be way too long timewise, people can start digressing that discussing, after the meeting nobody will stay to take some actions, people lie, they miss important information and meeting won’t change and repeat same mistakes over and over. Solution for these problems are to come to the meeting prepared, with computer or notebooks to take a note. Make sure to talk about in meeting important things related to work, start discussing with your colleagues and argue. Also to follow up after meetings with important informations. These ideas will give you important ideas to have better meetings.
Article “Taking Meeting Minutes” is also about how to prepare yourself for meetings. Main important takeaways are that we should always come to meetings prepared, with pen and paper or computer so we can write down important information about meeting. Also exchanging with notes will help you, sometimes you may miss some information or your coworker might be better note taker that you. It also allows you to talk about meeting on your extra free time so you can discuss with your colleague. Also person that will give the meeting should come prepared, knowing the important aspects of the meeting or information that they giving out. That person should have agenda about what will be discussed and what people should know that are attending to a meeting. Most importantly person should know the purpose of the meeting and should hold the meeting without going off the topic.
TO: Jason W. Ellis
FROM: Christopher Navarrete
DATE: October 19, 2015
SUBJECT: Class Writing on Meetings and Meeting Minutes
The University of Minnesota’s document titled “Taking Meeting Minutes” discusses what to do before, during, and after meetings. First, before a meeting, the document suggests to review who are participating. It is important to know who exactly will be appearing as not knowing may cause trouble within peers. Another thing to note is that an outline of the meeting agenda should have enough enough space to create notes. Then, during the meeting, it is suggested to record every important decisions and actions that occur. This includes votes and main ideas. The notes taken should be enough notes to summarize what happened in the meeting. Finally, after the meeting, it is important to write the meeting minutes as soon as possible. The format of this document should be easy to read and proofread. Once completed, the final copy must be sent to all of the meeting attendees.
Eric Matson’s article, “The Seven Sins of Deadly Meetings” explains the seven ways meeting should not be accomplished as well as the seven ways they can be saved. Several important “sins” in meetings that Matson points out are that people make the same mistakes, meetings are too long, and that people don’t take meetings seriously. The article suggests these sins can be saved by monitoring what works and what doesn’t, track the cost of meetings, and to “adopt Intel’s mind-set that meetings are real work” (Matson) respectively.