Yesterday, I introduced the application of the D.A.R.T. Method(TM) of deliberate planning to note-taking in meetings.
There are two issues that typically come up with this method. I’ll take them one by one.
- People are resistant to limiting the notes to just these items. They are convinced that something important will be left out.
If you capture the rationale of the decision appropriately, all the side discussions don’t really matter. The side discussions only serve to get to a decision.
Besides, exactly how many times have you gone back to notes for something other than a decision, who is responsible, why the decision was made, or timeline?
- People need practice defining rationale for a decision.
Sometimes, this takes a few tries to really nail it. Rationale should be tied to how or why that particular decision gets you closer to your goals.
My people looooove examples. Here you go.
Beth will increase her touch points by 50% to her top 3 volume customers because they are the most reliable and consistent source of sales in the next quarter.
Marc will find out why two of his customers reduced their volume of orders last quarter by 25% because if it’s an easy fix and we can address this issue before other customers have it, we will avoid future dips in sales.
Angelica will conduct a customer survey to confirm why they didn’t show up to the live webinar despite registering because if people want access to the information in different ways than live webinars, we may be able to reduce costs by selecting a different way to provide it.
Note taking can be such a burden on the note-taker. Sometimes, the note-taker feels like they should be capturing meeting minutes or a virtual transcript, so they try to get EVERYTHING down. Sometimes, the note-taker is so consumed by note-taking that they don’t often have the opportunity to participate fully in the meeting and engage colleagues. These are sad, unfortunate outcomes! Let the note-taker play!!
Implement the D.A.R.T. Method this week at one of your (probably many) meetings. See what a huge difference it makes.