One dull pencil...
...is worth two sharp memories...
(Credit to the good folks behind Crucial Conversations for inspiring this article.)
“What was it that we agreed to exactly?” “What did we mean by that?”
Comments like this, when a person or team is reviewing notes from a previous team meeting, point to a simple, common, and totally avoidable problem: failing to capture decisions and actions clearly in writing. Which leads us to the proverb, “One dull pencil is worth two sharp minds.” Or as my colleague Pavel prefers, “…two sharp memories.” The most intelligent people can forget things with the elapse of time. Good recording can protect us from this.
I think anything unclear at the end of a meeting will commonly double its “unclearness” every few days after the meeting. As an experiment, let’s say on average it takes 3 days for the doubling in confusion. So if on Tuesday your team commits to something that’s 5% unclear, by Friday it will be 10% confused, Monday 20%, Thursday 40%, and Sunday 80%! That makes for a lot of waste and frustration. When you meet again in a few weeks, you may have to redo the discussion.
There’s a very simple solution here—ensure at the end of a meeting that you write down with crystal clarity what is being agreed to. Use that dull pencil (or keyboard) to protect you from several otherwise sharp minds.
Given the simplicity of this discipline, why don’t we always do it? I can think of a few reasons:
We’re mentally fatigued at the end of a meeting—taking the 30 seconds to ensure the outcomes and actions are documented and “confusion-proof” can feel like an annoying, unnecessary step.
Because we’ve just discussed the topic at length, we assume that the context and content of that discussion will continue with us after the meeting, and when we read the notes at the next meeting! But we know it doesn’t always work this way.
We’re not committed to executing it. A perfect way to give yourself an “out” on an action is to either not record it or record it vaguely. Tricksy, yep, but it happens!
Some simple tips:
Always include a “what”, a “who”, and a “by when.”
Keep the commitments concise. Less is more.
Ask the team to “confusion test” what is written—will it make sense to us when we read this in a week? A month?
Have some way of depicting visually the decisions and actions you are committing to. Seeing them can prevent fuzziness.
Confirm the outcomes with the team at the end of your meeting: “Does this make sense?” “Is it totally clear?”
Clarity for the win!