Summarise the meeting

The most valuable person in a meeting is the one who can summarise the conversation. I have used this throughout my career and it is one of my best secret weapons.

Essentially, what you are doing is creating sense of the random, wandering conversation and turning it into tangible outcomes, decisions, and action items. I have a framework to do this and it all starts with listening.

Active Listening

Active listening is a skill. It takes time, effort and energy to perfect but it is one of the most important skills you can master. Now, listening sounds easy, but its actually incredibly difficult for us to do. Most of the time, people aren’t listening, they are waiting for their turn to speak. They are crafting their points in their head and letting the other person’s words wash around them. This isn’t us. What we do in meetings is listen to learn. We are actively trying to absorb the information or idea that the other person is communicating. We aren’t trying to analyse or criticise, we are attempting to understand the other person’s point of view. You would be amazed at how much you actually retain when you actively focus on it. When you do this, the other person can feel it. They know and appreciate that you are pay attention to them and are likely to speak more. That’s ok! let them speak. We aren’t there to cut them off or interject (unless we have to). As we are listening, we are naturally speaking less. This is by design.

Speak Less

Aim to be the last person to speak if possible. This will make you at least twice as smart. By the time everyone else has spoken, you will know everything they know, as well as everything you know. You will look like a genius! By actively listening and speaking less, when you do speak, people are much more likely to listen to you. We all know people who speak at length just to hear the sound of their voice. Unfortunately for them,

the more you speak, the less people will hear.

Aim to speak as little as possible, until the conversation begins to draw to a close (you will feel it) then it is time for you to go to work!

Succinct Summary

As the conversation or that section of the meeting comes to an end, this is when you come in. My go to opening line is “What I am hearing is….”. This is a mind trick because you aren’t saying “this is what I think”, you are saying “this is what I heard everyone else say”. The difference is small but profound, particularly if there is a lot of big egos in the room (they love validation). The structure of the summary is the same as any copywriting or story.

“What I’m hearing is that the issue we are solving for is x,y,z (problem statement), the constraints we have are a,b,c (considerations) and the outcome we are looking for is d. The proposed actions are this, that and the other thing, (options) with a preference of the other thing, does that sound correct?”

By listing the problem, considerations, goals and proposals you are covering off on the whole conversation very quickly. By validating each person, by using their own wording back to them, they each fell heard and that they are a part of the decision, and by ending on a question statement you are giving people to opportunity to agree or disagree, thereby validating the summary. In doing this you can sneakily add in your own opinion at the end which gives it more weight. Once everyone agrees with the summary, then you can give people jobs.

Action Items

The goal of meetings shouldn’t be just to have a chat, there should be outcomes or action items. Most of the time there will be jobs for people to do. Clearly state what they are and who is doing them. This way everyone is in agreement of the outcome of the meeting and who needs to do what. Circulate the summary and action items in an email afterward and you have a paper trail with a clear summary and action items. This way your co-workers can’t weasel their way out of doing the work.

WARNING

A quick word of caution here is make sure you don’t take on all the action items yourself. This is a trap that people pleasers like me fall into and it sucks. Be sure to delegate the tasks, or get someone else to, but respect yourself and your time. Another trap to fall into is that you may become the minute taker. Don’t do this. You state your opinion in the summary of the conversation. You are an active participant with meaningful thoughts and opinions. This can be tough, but make sure you stand up for yourself (respectfully and tactfully)

Go get ‘em

-ST