If you are a member of the "meeting business," chances are that you know how important it is for you to be able to take minutes during meetings. You want to be able to be organized, and you need to be able to deliver. If you are a manager or a business owner, you know how much good it feels when you can get your point across without having to raise your voice or even blink. The ability to speak clearly and concisely can be invaluable to you. Fortunately, there are plenty of options out there for you.
Of course, sometimes taking your minutes is not an option. Perhaps you have to speak to a client, or you are the host on a group meeting, and you must speak to everyone. In these instances, you may need to take a few moments to decide what you are going to say. Then, you have two choices:
First, you can give up taking minutes and just do what you have to say. You will have accomplished nothing and your message will never be delivered in full. Second, you can pause, take some deep breaths, and make eye contact with those around you. With this approach, you will get your point across in a way that will cause people to pay attention to you, and you will then be able to follow up with your next message.
The key with pausing and taking minutes during a meeting is to know when to do so. Some people just don't realize when they are done speaking, and they can waste all kinds of time looking at their notes to figure out what they need to say. So, if you find yourself at a meeting where you just can't take anymore minutes, here are some tips that can help.
- When you find yourself running out of time during a discussion, ask other members of the meeting if they have time for a brief review of the previous speakers' comments. Most speakers come with a few minutes that they would like to spend on a topic before they conclude, so ask them if they want to briefly review what everyone learned. By pausing, taking a few extra seconds, or asking others to stand up and interject, you can move the discussion forward without wasting time. People tend to listen more when their ideas are not wasted, so by asking others to stand up, you can increase your chances of getting your minutes taken care of.
- If you have questions that weren't addressed during the main portion of the speech, ask the speaker to repeat them. Sometimes people get caught up in the flow of the conversation and don't think about what they're really talking about. When you run out of time, it's okay to bring up something that wasn't necessarily mentioned in the original presentation. Sometimes, the speaker will forget that he or she said something important. In order to remember it, simply cross-reference the printed speech with the audio. This will help to ensure that the entire idea was covered and that new points were not missed.
