Effective Minute Taking Course: Writing and Editing

Human Resources. Learn expert people management skills.

Minute-taking is an essential way of documenting the decisions made during business meetings. Given that minutes are legal documents, they require a careful balance of stakeholder consensus, subject-matter expertise, and clarity on what each decision means for your organisation.

In this half-day foundational workshop, participants will gain an introduction to managing their minutes across the three distinct stages of minute-taking: planning, drafting and editing.

The content includes discussion of best practices in minute-taking, case studies, and participants’ experiences, along with several hands-on exercises. These are designed to hone participants’ skills in key areas such as active listening, and editing for clarity and conciseness.

The workshop also addresses various issues that can impact the clarity and consistency of minutes, often within the same organisation. These include: 

• ideal length – minutes are not transcripts, so keep them short at 2 to 3 pages
• instructional templates – ensure consistency by embedding instructions into your templates 
• difficult discussions – learn how to manage meeting attendee behaviour with confidence.

The training uses examples drawn from various sectors and different disciplines, including HR, operations and business development.

If your organisation’s work affects large stakeholder groups, budgets, and services, fostering a culture of keeping correct, concise minutes is essential. This workshop will set you and your team on that path.

Aims

This course provides you with an overview of the three main stages of minute-taking. It also shares practical tips, techniques, and frameworks to use in each stage.

Outcomes

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

• know what best practice minutes look like
• plan the questions to ask and topics to clarify ahead of any meeting
• match each meeting discussion item to the meeting agenda
• practice people management techniques that will help keep discussions on track
• refresh your understanding of plain English techniques to use in minutes.

Content

1.     Planning ahead

• Legal considerations of minutes
• What best practice looks like
• Different templates to consider
• The 3 stages of minute-taking

2.     Drafting the minutes

• Typing vs. handwriting – the pros and cons of both
• Managing digressions and disagreements
• Techniques for active listening to help distil the key points
• Minute-taking practice for a 6-minute mock meeting

3.     Editing for structure and style

• Sentence grammar refresh
• Tips for writing in plain English
• Effective list formatting
• Best practice punctuation and formatting

Intended audience

This foundational minute-taking course is aimed at all professionals in any sector who need a practical, clear introduction to minute-taking.   

The course can be taken in conjunction with the Effective Minute Taking Course, or as a standalone course.

Prerequisites

None. However, if you have some prior minute-taking experience, you can be more certain that you’ll finish the workshop with your major questions answered.

Delivery mode

• Face-to-face, presenter-taught training
• Online training via the platform Zoom

Delivery style

Interactive half-day workshop featuring a combination of pair, group and solo work. The facilitator will share best practice techniques in the areas of planning, listening, writing and editing, with various practical exercises where attendees can improve their skills. Participants will receive real time feedback on their work, both for the face-to-face and the online workshops.

Materials

All course materials are provided electronically (via Dropbox). Printing services are not provided.