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[Patrick Rhone]

In my quest to become a better notetaker, I came across this great post at Lifehacker (that I somehow must have missed), A Beginner's Guide to Mind Mapping Meetings.

What I like most about it is the very concise outline of how to mindmap which I quote here:

To use it for a meeting:

1. Write the main idea in the center box.
2. Write each agenda item in the circles linked to the outside of the main idea.
3. As the meeting progresses, draw lines pointing to sub-thoughts, ideas, facts and figures.
4. Draw pictures and interlink items with or without arrows.

What I love about this is that it boils it down to a simple process that even a complete idiot like me could follow. I have copied it down onto a 3x5 and stuck it in my Circa so it is available for reference.

The rest of the post is great too. Worth the click.

[Michael Ramm]

Most of my meetings, number 1 is the hardest part of the meeting!

1. Write the main idea in the center box.

Maybe that will change if we have a change in the leadership of the city in 45 days. At least, I hope that there is a leadership change.

Otherwise, this is a great article. I, too, may try it at my next meeting.

Michael

[Scott Elias]

Most of my meetings, number 1 is the hardest part of the meeting!

Amen to that! I love my job and I enjoy working on such a great leadership team, but for the love of all things holy we can not end a meeting in under 2 or 3 hours. Sometimes there's an agenda, sometimes not. But it doesn't matter. Things just wander aimlessly and I find myself stressed out about the actual work that is not being done because I'm sitting here spit balling for hours in a meeting that should have taken 45 minutes.

Not being the head honcho, I'm stumped at how to broach this tactfully. Any ideas?

There are 5 of us on the team and I think three of the five could literally sit there all day and just pontificate.

[Patrick Rhone]

Amen to that! I love my job and I enjoy working on such a great leadership team, but for the love of all things holy we can not end a meeting in under 2 or 3 hours. Sometimes there's an agenda, sometimes not. But it doesn't matter. Things just wander aimlessly and I find myself stressed out about the actual work that is not being done because I'm sitting here spit balling for hours in a meeting that should have taken 45 minutes.

Not being the head honcho, I'm stumped at how to broach this tactfully. Any ideas?

There are 5 of us on the team and I think three of the five could literally sit there all day and just pontificate.

Here is how I would approach it...

First, I would stop adding by the number of hours in the meeting because that is not a realistic cost estimate. I would add it by the number of lost manhours in the meeting. Therefore, 5x3 hours = 15 hours. That means that each meeting is actually taking 10-15 hours, not 2-3, because that is actually what your team is loosing when you are sitting in those meetings.

Second, now that we have the real cost in lost time, lets start counting what your company really cares about... Money. Let's pretend that everyone makes exactly the same amount of money in the meeting. Let's say that, once broken down that figure is 30.00 per hour. Then, 15x30 = The dollar amount you should write on a piece of paper and hand to whomever is in charge at the end of the next meeting.

Hopefully once they see that number they will find more creative ways to save some money. If not, I would suggest them.

[Jamie Phelps]

Thanks for mentioning this! I just took notes in a meeting and it worked out great. It allowed me a lot of flexibility in connecting ideas. Next time, though, I want to use bigger paper and pencil instead of pen. I used my Pilot G2 .07mm and Levenger junior sized paper this time and it got a little messy.

[Patrick Rhone]

Good to know it works out. I am waiting for my chance to give it a shot. I have some blank Circa paper on order for this very purpose.

[Jason Echols]

Hmmm.  So using that logic...22 employees X 1.5 hours...every staff meeting we lose 33 man-hours.

[Patrick Rhone]

Hmmm.  So using that logic...22 employees X 1.5 hours...every staff meeting we lose 33 man-hours.

That is correct. Crazy huh? I mean, what would it mean for your company to hire another person for 33 hours a week? How much stress and workload would that relieve? More than a staff meeting does I bet.

Now, don't get me wrong - there is sometimes a need to get everyone together in the same room to get them on the same page or to discuss items that you want everyone to participate in. But if your staff meeting (or any meeting for that matter) could be more easily handled in an e-mail, then it is wasting time and time, as you can see here, can equal a lot of money.

I wish more companies thought of meetings this way.

[Scott Elias]

Hopefully once they see that number they will find more creative ways to save some money. If not, I would suggest them.

Remember, I work in public education so there is no real concept of "money" being lost or squandered. I try to focus on coaching time with new teachers and quality time counseling and working with students.

Now back to your regularly scheduled thread...

[Patrick Rhone]

Speaking of which... As Moderator for this category I am compelled to say that this thread has strayed from it's original topic. Perhaps we should start a "Meetings Suck" thread in another category.

[Jamie Phelps]

I'm committing to this as my default notetaking system for work. I bought one of the full-size, soft cover plain Moleskine notebooks that I am going to use exclusively for notetaking at work. Larger writing space and no lines.

[Patrick Rhone]

I would really be interested in hearing your experience with this after a meeting or two. Please come back and post how it works for you.

[Jack]

I don't have meetings (in fact I don't think I've ever been in one!) but this method popped into my mind while I was taking notes in a gallery, and it worked incredibly well. When I came to write my review of the show, the stuff about individual works pretty much wrote itself, as I'd made two interlinked mind maps for each piece - one for physical characteristics, one for my thoughts/interpretation - on facing pages of my notebook.

Definitely a good way to get a lot of complex, related bits of information on to a page quickly in a way that's clear to read afterwards.

[rroossinck]

Well, y'all have sold me.  I've tried it a couple of times with limited success, but I think it might be worth one more go.

Great point, by the way, about the meetings/man-hours correlation.  Just be careful when you swing that stick, b/c it's a big one - especially if the group you're working with is anti-meeting.  Suddenly, your meeting will be deemed un-necessary, and like that, communication streams may dry up (vital ones - like staff meetings).  That's the way it is with my team now, and for those of us who are telecommuting, it's hard enough to keep in touch with the people on your team.  Caveat emptor, so to speak. 

[Tim Glinatsis]

Actually, this is a fascinating approach to meeting notes. I'm going to give it a shot.

Off the cuff, and knowing what my meeting notes tend to look like, I'd be a little concerned that sticking the salient notes in the right section of the map might be more trying than I could keep up with.

I find the notion of "mind mapping as a note taking approach" to be intriguing, while quite a bit different than what I've understood them to be for. If the mind map is a tool to help you open up the ol' brain, drum up ideas, and just sort of "let things flow," then a traditional meeting doesn't really seem to be the place for that...at least, not in my original cut on this. This appears to be more of a visual outline usage...

Huh. We'll see how it works out.