5.1 Introduction
Anybody can take some form of notes from a meeting.
However, it takes skill, practice and, in many cases, courage to step outside your comfort zone and reach your fullest potential and become expert in this or any other new skill. Those who seek challenge and change will naturally be rewarded with beneficial skills and strengths which will help them progress through their desired career and ultimately their personal and professional success.
Choosing to refine and practise specific skills will empower you by highlighting improvements and helping you focus on areas of growth. Rational but kind self-reflection is needed for you to identify where you need to focus effort and attention for your own personal development: the responsibility lies with you.
5.2 Listening Skills
Listening is one of the most vital skills in minute taking. Listening is much more than the passive act of simply hearing the sounds going on in the room. Truly listening requires active concentration and focus to assimilate, analyse and interpret the wide variety of verbal and non-verbal communications used in quick succession.
Fact
In a spoken message, 55% of the meaning is translated non-verbally, 38% is indicated by the tone of voice, while only 7% is conveyed by the words used.
Source: Listen.
Listening can be categorised in four different levels and three distinct modes. The three modes (or manners) are: attentive, responsive and active listening. The four levels are: factual, emotional, perceptive and mixed. We will briefly look at each of these to see how you can improve your listening accuracy.
5.3 Modes of Listening
Attentive listening
An attentive listener concentrates on the speaker and does their best to eliminate any distractions such as poor delivery skills, ambient noise etc. An attentive listener exercises patience by allowing the speaker to finish expressing their thoughts without interrupting. This is a difficult skill to master, but it is essential to become a good listener. In meetings which involve non-native speakers it is easy to get frustrated when what is being communicated is not immediately understood due to language barriers. An attentive listener would remain calm and watch for other non-verbal signals and ask for information to be repeated. Often we need time to 'tune in' to different accents or fluency levels, and remaining calm is the key to giving your mind time to figure things out while asking for clarification when needed.
Responsive listening
Is more active and allows for some interjection verbally or with facial gestures. A responsive listener demonstrates to the speaker(s) that they are not only listening but also understanding what the speaker is saying. They also know how to interject without impolitely interrupting, which will encourage the speaker to keep talking or add to a point being made for clarification.
You can use both verbal and non-verbal responses to encourage the speaker:
Non-verbal responses - include smiling, nodding affirmatively, facial expressions, taking notes, leaning towards the speaker.
Verbal responses - include using words like, “really?”, “yes”, “I see”, etc. This style of interactive listening would be more appropriate if you as the minute taker are also a participant in an informal meeting. Typically this level of interaction would not be expected by individuals administering a meeting.
Active listening
It combines the skill of listening plus strong observation skills to take in the emotional state and expression of the speakers. It can include responding to the speaker without invalidating what they are saying if they specifically ask for advice or opinion. An active listener monitors the conversation in order to get both content and feeling. They pay particular attention to what the speaker is saying, how they are saying it and why.
Paraphrasing the message back to the speaker ensures you have properly understood what they are saying. When paraphrasing, make sure to capture both the content and the feeling. This style of listening and recording information is critical in situations where emotions are important, like disciplinary or personal related activities, case studies, customer complaints or legal cases. If you are going to be supporting these types of meetings as an active participant, you may be required to paraphrase and prompt to get the full picture of content and feeling.
Examples:
“In other words, your supervisor has already created a work plan for the week (content) and you are annoyed because you were not consulted (feeling)”
So, you have recommended that a team building exercise be organised (content) but you are worried about the financial implications (feeling)”
5.4 Levels of Listening
There are four significant levels of communication that most messages fall into.
These are:
Factual: specific details, evidence, data, relevant information
Perceptive: conveyance of thoughts and personal beliefs with or without paying attention to the facts
Emotive: feelings and personal experience conveyed via vocal, verbal or visual channels
Mixed:- information conveyed via sarcasm, humour, or cliché thus mixing the other styles together
Identifying the nature of the message will help you listen at the right level.
Examples:
When you ask somebody for directions you are mentally prepared to receive this kind of route based information. If you were listening to a friend tell a story and suddenly at the end there was a test, even if you were listening thoroughly (to the humour, fun, emotions, etc.) you would be more than likely unable to recall specific facts (like the time or a certain event). However, if you were warned in advance that you needed to pay attention to the details, then you would be more likely to be listening in a mode receptive to that kind of information.
If you inaccurately assess the type of information, and therefore listening level required, it can lead to confusion and even misrepresentation of the information being conveyed.
5.5 The Process of Listening
There are five stages in the listening process, namely: hearing, understanding, remembering, evaluating and responding.
Let us briefly look at each of these stages.
Hearing
This is the response from sound waves stimulating your sensory receptors in the ear. Simply put, it is the perception of sound waves. You have to hear to listen, but you can hear and not listen. Adding attention to hearing takes it into the realm of actually listening to it rather than letting sounds float across your mind.
Understanding
This is the stage that is concerned with interpreting the words, sights and sounds we picked up during the hearing stage. We have to combine all the sensory data we received to make complex emotional decisions about the tone of information and what the meaning behind the selected words and expressions was.For successful interpersonal communication, you must understand the context assumed and the intended meaning of the speaker.
Remembering
For the purposes of minute taking we need to remember enough to record what was said, while the next item is being spoken. There is a limit to what can be held in the active memory of your brain and you must 'empty' the information out by writing or typing it to allow new words in. If you have ever watched people do live translation, they have a similar experience. After a certain length of time, equivalent to information in words, you need to do the 'translation' as the mind just cannot hold anymore. Don't make the mistake of thinking you will simply remember what is being said, you won't!
Evaluating
Entails weighing evidence and sorting out facts to determine the presence or absence of bias, and attributing collective meaning. For a minute taker, the evaluation stage is where you examine what has been said to establish whether or not it is noteworthy and interpret the collective assumptions. The same sentence said with different tone and response could mean totally different things.
Example:
“It has been decided we will go to the Black Horse for Friday drinks” (said with sarcasm plus irritation and greeted with frowning faces)
“It has been decided we will go to the Black Horse for Friday drinks” (said with joy and greeted with big smiles and positive hand gestures)
“It has been decided we will go to the Black Horse for Friday drinks” (said as a question and greeted with silence and looks of concern)
Response
The listening cycle is not complete without an appropriate response. This could be in verbal or non- verbal terms. A response is the only way the speaker knows that their message has been received and understood. The response is also the only overt mechanism through which the speaker can gauge how effective the communication was. During a meeting when key items are being discussed, remaining in eye contact with the Chair and visually noting down specific actions or agreements can give them additional confidence that you are capturing the pertinent points and understanding the content of the meeting.
5.6 Listening Strategies
Listening strategies refer to specific methods that help you look for and assimilate pertinent information among a sea of less useful content. Your goal as a minute taker should be to comprehend and recall the input of multiple people and effortlessly sift through information to find meaning. This is not always easy and in some cases people talking over each other, side discussions, distractions and noise can make it hard to get what you need. Using a listening strategy can help you more effectively find and process the information you need.
Top-down strategies
Top-down strategies are based on the listener. The listener takes time to interrogate the background information of the topic, context, situation and language. This background information then stimulates expectations that will guide the listener in the interpretation of what is heard or anticipate what is about to be said.
Top-down strategies include:
Listening for the main idea: knowing in advance what is going to be discussed and areas of contention
Prediction: understanding key issues and looking for resolution of specific problems or concerns
Making inferences: knowing precedents and past experiences which naturally shape future decisions
Paraphrasing: finding the key elements in communications and skipping irrelevant details
Bottom-up strategies
These are text or language based strategies because the listener relies heavily on the words and visual communication from the listener.
Bottom-up strategies include:
Language used: the combination of words, sounds, and grammar to form meaning
Listening for certain words or details: how was a specific question answered
Observing word - order patterns and choice of words to convey emotion
Simplification: looking for the most simple way something can be expressed
Activity 1: Keep it Brief
Estimated time: 15 minutes
Taking brief notes is a vital skill that is part of the evaluation stage of listening, which bits you need.
Find a five minute video to watch online which is factual in nature
Summarise the video in five bullet points Could it be summarised in just one?
Finding the shortest form of expression will improve your note taking, minute writing and verbal communication.
5.7 Practical Ways to Improve Listening
Listening is an active and psychological skill, meaning it can be improved through frequent practice and training. Even people that have some challenges in active listening can still hone their skills by taking some time and effort in practice.
Always face the speaker
Sitting in an upright position and in a chair that faces everyone in the room makes it easier to note the body language of the speakers. This is why board meetings adopt the circular seating arrangement.
Eye contact
Maintaining eye contact will help you not to lose track of what a speaker is saying. Switch off your cell phone and put your laptop on airplane mode to avoid any distractions.
Focus
Maintain focus on what is being said. Most people focus too much on how they will respond to what is being said that they end up missing the point that is being communicated.
Allow the speaker to speak their mind
Give the speaker enough room to speak their mind before you make up your mind. Do not make up your mind about what they are saying because of a bias.
Engage with questions
Engage yourself with relevant questions. Note down questions which you need answered and wait to see if they come up - this is a good way of looking for specific information in what is being said.
5.8 Listening Barriers
There are numerous obstacles that stand in the way of effective listening.
These barriers can play out in meetings and make it hard for the minute taker to listen effectively.
They can be classified as below:
Physiological barriers
This refers to genuine hearing problems or related deficiencies that make it hard to listen properly. Others might have challenges in processing or retaining information in memory. If you suffer from such, you should consult with your HR or occupational therapy team to see if you can be supported in this role with technology or other equipment to amplify or assist you.
Physical barriers
Distractions in the environment like the sound from the air conditioner, nearby traffic, music, etc. can be described as physical barriers. Technology noise, like ringing mobile phones can also be placed in this category. During a meeting as many physical barriers as possible should be removed, like asking people to turn off phones.
Attitudinal barriers
Being preoccupied with personal or even work related issues can make it hard to completely focus on what a speaker is saying.
For example:
If you are trying to multitask too many roles and record notes while joining in, your focus will be split between the items required from you.
Cultural barriers
Accents and linguistic ability can make it hard to understand someone. But organisational cultures can also hinder effective listening.
For instance:
If it is within the culture of the organisation for the junior staff to fear the senior staff, they may feel inadequate and feel like they cannot speak up or seek clarification.
Gender barriers
Studies have shown that men and women listen differently and for different reasons.
For instance:
Women listen for the emotion in the message while men listen for the facts in the message.
While there is truth to this, both genders can learn to pick up and practise listening skills they feel less adequate in.
Lack of training
It is a wrong to assume that we are natural listeners. Listening is a skill that has to be taught and learned. Lack of listening skills is a serious hindrance to proper communication.
Bad habits
There are some bad listening habits that can hinder effective listening. Some people have perfected the art of faking attention when thinking about something totallydifferent, while others can recall what was said word for word without assimilating the information. Switching off, getting bored and fidgeting or nervous actions which distract yourself or others around you will also need attention to free up mental focus on the active skills needed.
Fact
The number one listening barrier in the UK is distractions from technology - are you looking at Facebook, WhatsApp or email while taking this course?
Source: Activia
Activity 2: Self-Reflection
Estimated time: 5 minutes
Understanding your own skills and barriers to both listening and minute taking will help you determine the best course of action to further your personal development
In what ways are you a confident and proficient active listener?
In what situations do you find active listening more difficult?
What are your main listening barriers and how could you overcome them?
In what ways are you a confident and proficient minute taker?
In what situations do you find minute taking more difficult?
What are your main minute taking barriers and how could you overcome them?
Frequent and honest self-reflection and even seeking the opinion of others about your skills will help you improve and grow faster than just hoping you are good enough. Usually we are radically under confident in our abilities and feedback gives us confidence in our skills and allows us to hone areas for development.
Take a Quick Recap Test
[viralQuiz id=425]
5.9 Achieving Excellence
The efficiency of committees can be dramatically reduced or improved by the quality of minutes.
The quality is determined by the person writing the document so their value should never be underestimated. Let us look at some of the tips that can help you to become a better minute taker.
Understand the meeting
Prepare following these tips:
Before you even go to the meeting, you need to understand at least some of the major concepts
Knowing the subject matter will make it easier for you to understand the deliberations
Understanding the meeting helps you to accurately record the minutes
Meeting minutes are not valuable unless they are accurate, so ensure the names, jargon and
other pieces of organisational specific information are captured correctly.
Make time
Preparing for meetings, attending and capturing information, and writing up notes and creating quality minutes is a time consuming exercise. Ensure you allow sufficient time to do this properly. Arrive at the meeting well in advance in order to have sufficient time to properly set up. Allow for unforeseen delays and ensure you have the security clearance in advance. On arrival, sit at a vantage location so that you can easily hear all the proceedings. Make sure you have enough space for your notepad, agenda, laptop and audio recorder (if you brought one).
Once the meeting is over, clear up any queries you might have as soon as possible, such as clarifying any new terms or names. Compile the minutes as soon as possible when information is still fresh in your mind. Accuracy is greatly improved when minutes are written promptly and rapid circulation can promote better responses and action.
Be a good gardener
A good minute taker must know when to prune. You have to establish a balance between an in-depth reporting of complicated topics and a succinct summary of details. Aim to reduce bias and perfect the art of neutrality. Meetings often bring together people with divergent views and the minute taker must remain objective.
5.10 Language and Grammar
Writing minutes has its own unique writing style.
The spoken words that you note down must be transformed into a language that is acceptable in minutes. Here are a few guidelines which will help when composing sentence structure and word choice.
Words and phrases
Guidelines:
Avoid obscure, complex or unfamiliar words and chose words that are easy to comprehend Make use of short sentences and paragraphs and make the subject clear in the first sentence Activate the sentence by putting the key words first, for example, who, did what, then when Avoid vague terms for time, quantities and numbers, e.g. “as soon as possible”, “several”, “few” etc. Use acronyms where appropriate and include the full meaning of the acronym in brackets the first time you mention it the document
Tenses
Minutes should always be written in the past tense and in the third person. Avoid excessive repetition and try to start paragraphs differently to prevent the minutes from becoming repetitive and boring. Make use of active tenses instead of passive - the active voice is usually more direct and easier to understand. Always use the positive tense. Most readers read in the positive which means they will get the wrong idea if you write in the negative. Double negatives can also be read as negatives, even though they are meant to be positive. Write about what has been done or what will be done.
For instance:
Instead of writing, “the projects are not dissimilar” write “the projects are similar”.
Names
How you note down the decisions and discussions that lead to them is very important. Avoid using names when summarising discussions unless when it is important. In fact, names are only allowed when you want to show who is responsible for a given action. So instead of writing something like, “James Brown suggested that....” Or “Mathew Henry pointed out that...” you can write “the committee deliberated on the possibility....” Or “the committee noted that...”
Activity 3: Putting it All Together
Estimated time: 5 minutes
The only way to improve a practical skill like minute taking is to get practice, either with the skills in isolation or as a function.
Consider the following:
How you will get the time and opportunities to practise the skills needed or minute taking role
What circumstances could you create to get yourself more experience?
Do you feel comfortable having a go in meetings or do you need more specific practice?
From the self-reflection, are there any specific skills you need to focus on?
Either with real meetings, by watching videos or creating mock situations the only way to get better is to stretch yourself and put your knowledge and understanding into practice and develop the skills to help you flourish in the role.
Assignment
Personal Development
Time: 30+ minutes
Hopefully, you took in as much of the information in this module as possible. To find out how well
you have done, complete the following worksheet.
Module Summary
In this final module, we covered ways to improve the personal skills needed to deliver quality minutes, focusing specifically on listening and how it impacts the quality of information gathering and retention. Listening is a critical skill for minute taking and we looked at ways to become a better listener. We reviewed different modes of listening to understand their use in different scenarios: attentive, responsive or active listening. We also saw that listening has four different levels: factual, perceptive, emotive and mixed. The process of listening demonstrated the stages we go through when perceiving and receiving messages before understanding and evaluating them. We also discussed various strategies that can help you to pick out key information during complex situations or in challenging environments. We also suggested some practical ways of improving listening in a meeting and then discussed some of the common barriers to effective listening and how to overcome them. To conclude this module were methods to improve your confidence in the minute taking role. Thisincluded: taking time to understand the meeting; time for preparation and compilation of the minutes; being neutral in discussions; knowing what to prune out and using specific language and tenses. This module concluded with an exercise to encourage you to find opportunities to strengthen knowledge and put your minute taking skills into practice.
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