Adding a bit of formality has the potential to improve your meetings – but you have to do it in the right way. It needs a really good chair. Don’t be put off by the nay sayers. Formality on your meetings can be biggest productivity boost you could apply.
Meeting minutes are not just a record. They are a management tool. They contain decisions that people need to act on, actions that are assigned to specific individuals with specific timeframes, and information that participants need to take forward into their other work. It should be a policy to send the minutes out within 48 hours
Here’s a confession: most meeting minutes are written the wrong way. Not because the minute-taker is incompetent — quite the contrary, many are remarkably capable people who work incredibly hard. But they’re using the wrong system for modern minutes.