Task Delineation for Shared Productivity
One measure of a meeting's success is whether the participants walk away with straightforward to-do’s and tasks. Participants understand their responsibilities, and they know who they need to follow up with and when. It is even better if the group achieves tasks during the conference. Otherwise, what’s the point of meeting if we aren’t deepening trust with our collaborators and furthering shared objectives?
Because of this, we recommend including a section in the agenda for notating tasks. Creating a prominent section in the notes to reference tasks is helpful. Alternatively, a shared workflow system (such as Slack, Asana, etc.) is a great place to track and check in on tasks.
If you’re starting to work with your collaborators for the first time, discussing how you’d like to share tasks can be helpful. We didn’t have a shared server or project management software when Lindsay and I started working together. We’re both reasonably organized but needed a system for communicating our tasks. We agreed to a vocabulary for our Google Drive folders to help us quickly find information. Additionally, we decided to use a single document to track our meeting agendas and notes. In each meeting, we stacked the newest agenda above previous notes. We recorded our tasks and due dates at the end of every meeting. We would update the document between meetings and use our progress to inform subsequent agenda topics. We didn’t give up our personal organization systems, but this gave us a solid communication strategy and streamlined our shared work.
Items to include in a meeting task note:
Who: the person who is responsible for completing the task
What: describe the activity or assignment; during the meeting, ask clarifying questions to ensure agreement and understanding of the task, including a checklist of what needs to happen to accomplish the task.
When: the deadline for completion
Important considerations to discuss when creating a task list:
Does the responsible person have the authority to be held accountable?
Do we agree they have what they need to succeed (time, resources, clarity)?
How do you manage shared responsibility with teammates?
