Consulting Journal: Techniques - Making informal notes

Techniques: Making informal notes

by David Blakey

In some meetings you may need to work through ideas with clients, with both of you writing and drawing on the same page.

[Monday 9 September 2002]

We have an expression in consulting about writing down ideas on the back of an envelope. If we were in a meeting with a client, we would not consider actually taking notes on the back of an envelope, but there are times when something similar can be useful.

Consider two situations.

A formal client meeting

In a formal client meeting, we use notebooks. I prefer to use a hardback A4 notebook. This has a number of uses as well as taking notes. I can glue single pages into it, such as the agenda of a meeting. Occasionally a client will give me a single sheet, such as a memorandum or a copy of a diagram. I usually glue these into the notebook as well.

Other people prefer to use a soft spiral-bound notebook or an A5 organizer. This is really a matter of personal preference.

There are limits.

The size should be at least A5.
It tends to look more professional. I have been called into meetings in the past and have arrived with only my diary, which is about half the size of A5. When this has happened, I have asked the client for an A4 pad. At the end of the meeting I have removed the pages that I have written on and then handed the pad back. Later, I have glued these loose pages into my A4 notebook.
It should not be a pad.
I will borrow a client's A4 pad when I have nothing else that is suitable. I will not use a pad for taking notes of meetings. Clients expect that the notes will be part of my permanent record. An A4 pad does not look very permanent. Even worse is an A4 pad in a plastic folder, even if it does have your company's logo stamped on it. (Worst of all is a pad in a plastic folder with someone else's logo stamped on it.) If you really must use a pad, make it appear to be a temporary measure. When I asked my client for an A4 pad, I made it clear to him that I had left my notebook back in my own office, and that I would glue my notes into it as soon as possible. If you use a folder, it can imply that you always make notes on sheets that you tear off a pad. It gives a strong impression of impermanence. To some clients it can appear that you do not care very much.

In general, though, you should use whatever you feel most comfortable with, which can be a hardback notebook, a spiral-bound notebook or an organizer.

The notes that you take will be records. They will record what is said, what is discussed, and what is decided. To some extent, this will be a formal record. It is one that you may want to refer back to in the future.

A meeting to gather ideas

The second situation is a meeting that is less formal

You and your client may be working out ideas: drawing diagrams, making changes, crossing things out. My clients know that my hardback notebook is my permanent record. When I have filled one, I stick a dated label on the spine and file it. My clients know that it is a permanent record and that I will be able to recall a discussion from the past by checking in my old notebooks.

This permanence can be a hindrance when we are discussing ideas. I like to draw ideas on a sheet of paper (which I shall call a ‘worksheet’), and I invite my clients to add ideas of their own to it. We should both be able to add new items to the worksheet, to change items on the worksheet, and to delete items from it. As we think of new ideas, we will add them. We can then discuss those ideas. Some of the ideas will remain. Others will be crossed out. Our aim will be to produce an answer rather than to record it.

In order to keep ideas flowing, we must feel able to write down whatever we want. If we discuss it and reject it, then that's fine. The worksheet is an aid to work, and not a record. The answers that we agree upon can be recorded, of course, but that will happen at the end.

If the worksheet was a page of my hardback notebook, my clients could imagine that it was going to form a permanent record. They might be discouraged from putting forward ideas. So I use a separate A4 pad. We can both draw our ideas and make notes on it, and tear off pages when we want to move on. These loose pages look less permanent than my hardback notebook, so my clients are not worried if these ideas are later scrapped. The A4 pad acts as a kind of stack of ‘backs of envelopes’

After I have left the client, I do, of course, glue these loose pages into the hardback notebook, because I do want them to form part of my permanent record, even if all the ideas noted and drawn on them are scrapped later.

I also make sure that any whiteboard used in a meeting can print. I always take a print of the whiteboard contents just before they are erased. I glue these prints into my notebook as well.

In summary, then, you need a notebook for making notes ‘on the record’ and a pad for discussing ideas ‘off the cuff’. As the pad can be passed around the discussion table, it should not be in a folder - even one that isn't plastic.

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