Dave PriorTrainer/Consultant| LeadingAgileNew York, Ny, United States
On most of my projects now we are holding daily standup meetings. They tend to last no more than 15 minutes and rather than sending out minutes afterwards, I usually just record the meetings and post the mp3 to a server. Everyone on the team is responsible for listening to the recording if they miss the meeting. It has definitely cut down on the admin time of issuing meeting minutes. The only trick is, at the start of the project, everyone in the room has to take responsibility for keeping their own notes.
This was working great until we had a dispute about whether or not someone actually took responsibility for an action item. After listening to about 8 hours of mp3s, I found my answer.
So now I'm using the Livescribe Pulse smart pen to keep notes for myself. This way I can capture the recording with notes on critical points, action items, etc. and have it sync'd to the notes. The notes only have to be detailed enough for me to be able to find details and the pen ties the written notes to what was being said at that point in the meeting within the audio file. Now, if anyone can't remember taking an action item, etc. I can simply double tap on the note I made for myself and instantly access the audio from the meeting.
It is working out very well for me, but I was wondering if anyone else out there is doing anything like this. Saving Changes...
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David MorganProject Manager| Experian PLCGrantham, United Kingdom
In my last company, I experimented with recording team meetings conducted via audio conference calls. There was an option on the conference system to record the call and publish as a password-protected stream on the web so that absentees can catch up later.
The problem I found was that people clammed up a bit, knowing they would be recorded, people seemed to be afraid of saying anything controversial, incorrect or stupid and therefore said the bare minimum. The lack of idea exchange compared with the meetings prior to recording was clear. So I ended up ditching the idea.
Thats not to say it won't work in another environment however... Saving Changes...
I have started recording more and more types of meetings and events. I think people are getting more comfortable with that approach. Some people will not talk because of the recording, but perhaps they should not be talking if they do not wish to be "on the record".
You may wish to look at a transcription service for your meeting minutes. You can find vendors as cheaply as $25 per one-hour of recorded material. A speaker friend of mine uses Elance and vendors in India and gets some great results at a very reasonable price.
Your eight hours of MP3 could be converted to text for about $200 or $300, and then you could have scanned/searched through a Word or text document instead of listening to MP3s.
I just started exploring these services, but I am considering getting more and more material transcribed, now that I know it is so affordable.
