Minute Taking For Better Meetings

[Archie David]

"So, how do you do it?" is the question of the day at the very least, if not more often than not.

You see, people keep asking this, but they don't keep listening to the answers. They make quick judgments based on what they hear and what they read, rather than responding to a whole array of information that they have at their disposal.

What are they doing? I'll explain:

First, they're not taking the time to really listen. Second, they're not taking the time to put all the information together in a logical manner. In a nutshell, they're not using "the power of small talk."

So, the first thing to do when someone asks how do you do it? Stop and consider this for a moment: Your answer will be just as bad as any other answer that you could possibly give! Worse yet, your answer will only serve to prove the point that you don't have any idea what you're talking about.

The answer isn't an answer because it doesn't tell them why they should be doing what you are suggesting. It's not an answer, because it doesn't provide a logical, easy-to-understand course of action that you think they can follow. And finally, it's not an answer because it doesn't actually contain any value to the person that you're asking.

When someone asks how do you do it? they're asking you to do something for them that you may not have any desire to do. Instead, what they're really asking you to do is to make them feel good about themselves by telling them they're doing things that will make them look good to you.

Maybe you're wondering why they're asking you to do this. Their question might be: How can I get this group of individuals to take the meeting seriously and not be so self-involved? How can I make sure the meeting isn't as it appears from the outside?

If you were to try to really coach someone in your life how to take the meeting, how could you possibly expect them to pay any attention to what you're saying? That's right - you're not coaching them to take the meeting seriously, you're just making them feel good by telling them they're doing the right thing. Now, you can't make them do it, so what do you do?

Have you ever thought that perhaps you can't really coach anyone, because coaching requires having the ability to communicate with people. So what does it mean to you to ask someone how do you do it? Well, for one thing, it means that you've asked someone to put down their finger and do something that you didn't ask them to do.

So, they've now learned certain behaviors and techniques that they're now willing to perform. It's this behavior that you were attempting to encourage them to display when you said "how do you do it?"

So, this brings up a good point. The real question isn't "how do you do it?" it's "how can you get them to take this meeting seriously and do the right thing instead of doing the wrong thing?"