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Despite the obvious value of capturing project meeting minutes, it can be a time-consuming, often inefficient, chore that most project managers would just as soon avoid. Mind-mapping tools and techniques, attuned to the non-linear nature of conversation and brainstorming, can help. When running a project status meeting — or any other type of meeting, be it a project kick-off, change control board or portfolio review — meeting minutes are the standard for documenting attendees, action items, decisions and topics for further discussion or action. Meeting minutes are an excellent tool for recording past decisions, and providing input into future decisions.
Despite the utility found in documenting discussions, however, many project managers, including myself, cringe at the thought of capturing meeting minutes. Transcribing handwritten notes into an email or Word document, distributing them, receiving critiques, making updates and resending them again — the entire process becomes an administrative drag. But there is a better way.
Standard note taking has the inherent problem that it assumes meetings and agendas are linear in nature. In structured project meetings, an agenda is typically produced and flexibly followed. Discussions in a meeting often jump to different topics not covered on the agenda. Additional tangents are created and after a period of time the original agenda item is discussed. This iterative process continues until all agenda items are covered or the meeting runs out of time.
For project managers keeping track of the discussion, the meeting minutes and supplemental notes are typically scattered across several sheets of paper. Since discussions are often non-linear, the approach to capturing thoughts and comments needs to accommodate non-linear thinking. Manual note taking also needs to be transcribed and communicated. And if your handwriting is similar to the scrawling notes found on a doctor’s prescription script, the risk of inaccuracies increases.
Project managers have a variety of choices to capture meeting minutes, including printed forms such as Microsoft Word Agenda Meeting Minute templates, electronic solutions using Word or Excel, or mind maps. MS-Word provides a standard meeting agenda wizard and related meeting minute template that can be edited manually or electronically. The problem with using Word is the linear nature of the tool. Conversations jump around, and it takes time to scroll up and down, cut and paste, and align the meeting minutes template to relevant notes. Excel is often used as a pseudo-word processor to track comments against open issues, risks, or action items. However, Excel or any other spreadsheet application is a poor solution for a word processor. Have you ever tried to enter a carriage return into the formula field? I have a computer science degree and still don’t know how to enter the line feed character.
In light of these marginally acceptable solutions, mind mapping stands out as a superior choice when capture meeting minutes. Mind maps are simply a network diagram with nodes, branches, color, and icons to help convey an idea. Figure 1 below depicts a simple mind map used for meeting minutes.
Figure 1 For a project status meeting, three colors are used to describe the content in the mind map. Facts are highlighted in black; questions are formatted in blue; and issues or action items are displayed in red. The color scheme is helpful since it quickly identifies open questions, issues and related facts. Icons such as red flags or smiley faces can be added to the map for additional meaning. Lines can also be drawn to connect related topics.
I prefer using a software package such as Mindjet’s MindManager Pro or Freemind. However, mind maps can be created with paper and a few pens. When I don’t have a laptop available, I have a 6x9 steno notebook and a red, blue and black pen to apply my mind mapping techniques. Anything in hardcopy still suffers from the transcribing challenges mentioned above, of course, but the mind mapping technique makes it easier to track and recall meeting minutes.
The major benefit of mind mapping over traditional minute-taking tools is improved accuracy, organization and communication. Mind mapping allows project managers to track non-linear conversations easier. If conversations take off on a tangent and later return to the agenda topic, both the tangent and original topics will show up as additional branches in the mind map. Using the traditional approach, notes would be all over the notepad. Using the mind mapping approach, the new comments are simply added to an existing branch. If you use a software package for mind mapping, individual branches and topics can also be collapsed or expanded. This allows easier note management as the meeting progress. At the end of the meeting, it only takes a few minutes to realign braches with agenda topics or follow-ups.
Since the meeting minutes are captured visually using different colors and icons, it is also easier to remember key facts. Problems can be marked with red flag icons and important facts or ideas can be flagged with exclamation points, a gold star icon, green flags, and so on. To recall these important facts, you can simply flip through the mind maps and look for the relevant icon or graphic you drew.
Mind maps can be easily organized. When stored in an electronic format, each meeting minute file can be stored with the meeting title and a date. Using the steno notebook, I have all my meeting notes dated and maintained graphically to allow me to quickly recall past decisions and discussion points.
Overall communication is better facilitated with a mind-mapping tool. Mindjet and Freemind allow you to export to different file formats including image files, HTML or word processing formats. Mindjet also supports the MS-Office suite. With a click of a button, I can export my mind map and convert it into a word document to share with others. Often I will convert the mind map into a picture or a PDF file and share it with team members. The communication is faster because the notes are captured using a tool that can quickly convert the information into readable formats. For the project manager, exporting to Microsoft PowerPoint, Outlook and even Project are attractive features.
The basic format of a meeting minutes mind map uses the following structure:
1. Central Topic with date a. Meeting Purpose b. Attendees c. Agenda Topics d. Parking Lot e. Follow-ups
These five outline elements branch off from the central topic. Facts, issues and questions are captured against each agenda topic and can be later summarized or referred to in the Follow-ups section. Action items are assigned to the follow up branch as well as any other activities. Finally, a Parking Lot section is added to capture any specific topics that the project manager chooses to postpone for future discussion. Mind mapping software obviously requires a laptop or PC. If your organization hasn’t invested in this technology, the manual mind mapping technique can still be applied. Once you start mind mapping your meeting minutes, a tedious task might even become fun. Give it a try! This article was written by Andy Makar and originally published at Projects@Work
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