Consulting Journal: Techniques - Taking notes in meetings

This article is reprinted from The Consulting Journal
http://www.consultingjournal.com

Techniques: Taking notes in meetings

by David Blakey

Taking notes in meetings with clients may need you to do more than just write down what you agree.

[Monday 16 July 2001]

Taking notes during an interview may seem a simple and straightforward task. If you just need to get facts from the person you're interviewing, then it probably is a simple and straightforward task. Often, in management consulting, you may need to get more than just facts, and it may not be so simple or so straightforward.

Imagine that, instead of being a management consultant, you're a web designer. When you interview a client you want to know what they want. You can ask them to state their requirements. You might then ask them questions for clarification. While they are answering, they might think again about their requirements. As a result, they may change some requirements, or add to them, or even remove them. Based upon your experience, you may be able to present them with some alternatives that have been successful for other clients. This may also cause them to change their requirements. By the end of the interview you will aim to have noted a set of requirements that will, for now, meet your client's needs.

In that situation you won't need to keep a note of any requirements that were later changed or abandoned. You will only want to have notes of the final set of requirements.

In this role of web designer, you can use a number of techniques for taking notes. If you find it useful, you can use mind-mapping. You can make notes as the interview progresses and then go back and change them or cross them out as your discussion causes the client's requirements to change. The aim is to to get to a set of notes that reflect the final set of requirements.

As a management consultant, it may be more useful to record everything chronologically. This means that you will note the client's original requirements and then note any changes or deletions or additions in sequence, as they occur.

Why would you do this? Well, there are situations in which your client will apply their current knowledge to a problem and state their requirements based upon that knowledge. As you discuss these requirements with the client, you may increase their knowledge or their awareness of alternative solutions, so that their requirements will be stated differently.

An example would be a client who asked you to investigate ‘human resources information systems’. If you made that client aware of some HR outsourcing options, their requirements could change from a focus on information systems to a focus on information services. You may need to convince the board that appointing an ASP for the HR function could offer less risk and consume less capital than an in-house system. If you have not noted the gap in management perceptions, you might miss an opportunity or overlook a stumbling-block.

You may need to persuade other people within the client that the ‘final’ requirements are a better solution for them than the initial requirements. It helps if your notes show the gap between the original expectations and the current ones.
You might be involved in providing further support to that person or to other managers within the client to build their confidence with a contracted-out HR function. It helps if your notes reflect their original views, so that you can decide how to reinforce the current view.
You might have to prepare business cases for the current requirements. It helps if your notes reflect the client's baseline for benefits. You can then ensure that any solution will provide those baseline benefits and that appropriate emphasis is given to this.

My tips

So here are my tips for management consulting interviews.

Take notes sequentially.

Don't go back up the page and change your earlier notes. Don't use mind-mapping or any other graphical note-taking techniques.
Don't cross-reference during the interview.

Some consultants draw lines connecting an earlier statement with a newer, different one. Doing this can distract your client. Worse, it can antagonize your clients, if they realize what you're doing. It can appear that you are highlighting their ignorance or indecision.
Always cross-reference after the interview.

Think about adding cross-references in a different colour, so that it is clear that the cross-referencing and any additional notes you make are not part of the original interview.

This is one of those techniques that, applied well and consistently, will actually help you to do a better consulting job for your clients.