Meetings

I spend a lot of time in meetings. Some things I've learned:

• Every meeting needs notes. Writing things down means something. It implies purpose, commitment and shared understanding. The absence of notes doesn't prove that e.g. the meeting was useless, of course–but it's definitely suspicious in my book

  • For 1:1s: I'll note down links shared in the chat, tasks / patches we discussed, and any statement where someone says "I will do…" to show up as an action item
  • For meetings with 3+ people: transcript-style notes with initials of who said what are useful in capturing 1) major points of agreement / disagreement 2) documenting decisions, 3) refining otherwise unclear statements. Thinking and speaking in real-time is hard; prompting someone to restate their views to be written down in notes is helpful for clarifying a position
• Every meeting needs note takers. The notes don't write themselves. (Not yet anyway. I'm vaguely familiar with the AI transcriber tools but I'm skeptical they would do the important parts of clarifying, documenting decisions, action items etc.) It's helpful to call out and assign this at the start. It's also nice if note the same people do this each time, and that people (men especially) who otherwise take up a lot of space, take on note taking as a counter balance

• Every meeting should have a purpose documented in a pre-shared agenda. If I receive an invite to a 3+ person meeting without notes, my first move is to ask for an agenda and the goal of the meeting. Time is precious. Sharing the agenda in advance also helps people prepare

  • For 1:1s: a shared agenda is rarely needed, although I do try to have a few things to bring up. My goal here is to get to know the other person better and go more deeply into issues that otherwise we did not or could not go into in group discussions
• Most meetings need recognized facilitators. Maybe with a few people it's manageable without one. Larger than that, or if there are controversial subjects, having someone whose purpose it is to guide the discussion (and not necessarilly to participate in it) is essential. Like note-taking: call out the need for this role and assign someone at the start of the meeting. This position also holds a fair amount of power so it's important to think about this dynamic too