Using Notes Effectively In Meetings

So speaking up at a meeting is different from giving a speech giving a prepared presentation giving a PowerPoint.

If it looks like you’re just raising your hand ask a question all of a sudden you pull out a big long script and you start reading your PowerPoint slide.

That’s gonna seem odd.

The good news is you don’t have to do that.

There’s not that much pressure when you’re speaking up at a meeting.

All you really need to do is introduce one idea.

Now it can be in the form of a question or a statement but you don’t have to have a full script.

You don’t have to have a PowerPoint.

You don’t have to have a whole show and tell.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t have some way of preparing.

What I would recommend in any media is good etiquette anyway and it’s good to just help with the memory process make notes when you’re in a meeting when you hear other people speaking when you hear a boss a colleague a client speaking take notes on what they’re saying.

It helps your memory process but then if you have questions or disagreements or added insights write notes and they should just be two or three words at a time.

Again if you want to raise your hand or you just shout out something to say in a meeting it shouldn’t be staring at a big long list of notes page after page but if you want to have a single sheet.

Now this is tight but you should just write it out in your own hands if you want to have a single sheet where you’re just glancing down occasionally to frame your thoughts.

That’s fine.

There’s nothing wrong with glancing at notes I just wouldn’t read whole sentences.

I wouldn’t read whole paragraphs but to take a few notes to give you a sense of some structure if you’re going to say more than 10 seconds worth is perfectly fine.

So get in the habit in any meeting especially one where you think it might help you to speak out take notes and that way you can actually have a little outline for what you want to say in front of the group and I mean a little outline a tight focused outline not whole sentences.

So think about a subject that you might be asked to add to in a meeting where you might have some insights or questions and try to come up with a little outline.

Right now that you can use for practice we’re going to do in a few minutes.