Minute-Taking

Who Would Benefit

This course is ideal for anybody who takes notes at meetings and needs to produce clear and accurate minutes that will be acted on and referred back to. The dynamic skills taught in this course will help develop your attention to detail, your listening ability and your ability to write accurately and succinctly.

Course Description

As useful as meetings can be, they aren’t always structured in a way that’s easy to digest. The important information can be buried or scattered throughout, making it imperative that you take good notes. Without accurate minutes, you may end up forgetting what was said or focusing on the wrong things, and end up treading over the same old ground.

• CPD Points: 12

• Training Course Category: Management & Leadership

• Training Course Duration: 2 days or 4 Virtual Sessions 

• Training Course Location: Virtual, online or classroom-based

Learning Outcomes

This course will improve your confidence with preparation, and minute-taking, enabling you to minute both formal and informal meetings more effectively.

You will be shown how to write up minutes that are accurate, concise and easy to understand, ensuring that key action points are understood and followed up. 

The Programme Includes:

Module 1 Learning Topics 

• Explore the different roles and responsibilities within a meeting

• Appreciate the importance of the Minute Taker role in meetings

• Understand the purpose and importance of minute-taking in meetings

• Review different types of minute-taking approaches; Summary, Action Note, Verbatim…

• Understand what to prepare before you enter the meeting

• Explore and plan for the different behavioural types in the meeting using the

• Social Styles (David Merrill and Roger Reid) theory

• First impressions, perception and how this can affect the control you have

• The 3 V’s of Communication and the importance of the Voice during virtual meetings – what you should say/do during the meeting

• Personal Action Planning and post-work activities

Module 2 Learning Topics

• Recap on 1st session and assessment of learning (fun quiz!)

• Examine what good and bad Minute-Taking looks like.

• Review the structure, timings and documentation used for your meetings and how to use numbering effectively for audit purposes

• Explore and test the skills needed to be an effective Minute Taker; Listening and Questioning skills vs. the speed of speech!

• Learn the 6 levels of Listening and how to use TED questions

• Learn what notes to take and what not to do!

• Practice summarising, clarifying and paraphrasing techniques

• Learn how to Mind-map and use the STAR, CAR and GROW models to help capture the detail you need to formulate accurate minutes

• Practice minute-taking using the tools and techniques above

• Personal Action Planning

Module 3 Learning Topics 

• Recap on 2nd session and assessment of learning (fun quiz!)

• Recap fun practical activities on CAR, STAR and GROW

• Appreciate the power of the written word; Intent vs. Impact!

• Examine the good, the bad and the ugly – writing techniques

• Explore the power of Semantics in business writing

• Use the Active vs. Passive Voice and writing in the past tense

• Writing paragraphs using the Funnel and Statement and Question techniques

• Stopping the waffle and watching your spelling and grammar

• Practical Activity on reducing paragraphs and word count

• Practical Activity on taking notes and translating them into minutes

• Practical Activity on speed writing skills

• Personal Action Planning

Module 4 Topics 

• Recap on previous sessions and assessment of learning

• Common grammar mistakes in English

• Common mistakes in English writing

• How to correct and stop making mistakes

• Practical exercises bringing each module together