[b-school] Change is continuous

[mangosteen]

Note: This has worked for me more often than not. Edge cases are a certainty.

Number #whatever in Things I've started doing of my own accord, likely attributable to b-school:

1. Before making a business phone call, I write out three points I'd like to talk about in the call. More than that and it's a meeting. Less than that, and it might be better in email to start with.

2. During the call, I make quick notes of the responses.

3. At the end of the call, I verify the responses from my notes, and inform the person that mail will be sent out with the agreed upon points, and also inform them of the likely Cc: list.

4. Send the mail.

Realization: "If it's not written down, it doesn't exist" isn't just a defensive (or offensive) business maneuver. In fact, thinking of it as a maneuver is a pretty bad idea, too.

Comments

[pseydtonne.livejournal.com]

Ooh, good observations and plans! Thank you for writing this.

[fenicedautun.livejournal.com]

I will actually disagree with this, if the person is one I work with regularly and don't see in person. If those 2 conditions are true, than the phone call is at least partly a touch base to broaden/deepen the relationship with that person and that's almost more important than the "reason" I called (which could be followed up by e-mail). Just remember that a phone call can feel much more personal than e-mail, and give more scope for asking questions of the other person that aren't immediately vital.

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

I do something very much like this. If it's a money-transaction, I also write down (actually, type) everything that goes on in the call. It keeps me calm, and provides a permanent record.

It also works in face-to-face situations. In meetings at work, writing the points on the projected computer screen, asking the people to go through them, getting consensus, and then agreeing at the end of the meeting, makes things go much smoother.

[also-huey.livejournal.com]

I learned this at my last job. Not so much "If it's not written down, it doesn't exist", quite so much as "If there isn't a written record of a conversation, you can pretty much guarantee that it will be remembered differently -- sometimes amazingly so -- by the participants".

Followup summary emails after phone conversations and face-to-face meetings are my way of short-circuiting both the "I never said that" and the "I don't remember that at all" defenses. For bonus points, be sure to ask a question in the followup email that demands a response, so you can be certain they actually read the damn thing.

[heliopsis.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly.

Here's another realization that I have used many times over the years: Take copious, detailed notes at meetings. If you're a competent touch-typist, it hardly requires your conscious thought. Then review the notes, tidy them up a little and send them out as the minutes of the meeting. Your minutes become what happened, however imperfect a record they may have been. It's very powerful.

[sweh.livejournal.com]

You have described a meeting. You have planned for a meeting, you have taken notes, you send out minutes. That _is_ a meeting.

Indeed, you have followed the plan for an _effective_ meeting; that's why it works for you.

[whitebird.livejournal.com]

A phone call is just a (usually) one-on-one business meeting. Taking notes helps everyone out.

I am personally getting sorely tempted by the LiveScribe pen, although it annoys me that they don't have purple ink cartridges. But they'd be great for helping to memorialize important information from meetings in notes and emails.

And you're completely correct in that it isn't a defensive business maneuver. It's a very good business practice.