August 9, 2023
Action items are one of the most important basic building blocks for running a business.
A proper action item must have:
If any one of those is missing, then you don’t have an action item. You have a task. A task which probably won’t get done.
That’s all straightforward enough. The trick is capturing action items
during meetings. Often, meeting participants are either neck deep in
the heat of battle conversation, or zoned out because the topic
doesn’t concern them.
One technique for improving the collection of action items is to designate one attendee as the Recorder. They are expected to take notes and write down all action items identified during the meeting. Meeting notes must be shared or published after the meeting is done.
Action items can be assigned by a more senior person in the meeting, but it is generally better when the action item has a volunteer who commits to owning the task. A middle ground is when a leader asks someone who they think might be a good match for the work, and then that person agrees - they have the option to refuse, in which case they should explain why, and suggest a better assignee.
Recently, some powerful AI tools have appeared on the market to take over the Recorder role. One is Spinach and another is Fireflies.