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How to make a good report of your meeting?

Your meeting was a great success. Your employees assimilated all the concepts transmitted, your customers were seduced by your new product or your manager congratulated you on your presentation!

Preparation of the agenda...gestures, dynamic speech, team effort, room layout you didn't leave anything to chance.

From now on, all you have to do is take care of the report of your meeting to crystallize good intentions.

Objectives of the report

A good report should serve four purposes:

 

  1. Take up the essential elements of the meeting;

  2. Making decisions ;

  3. Refresh participants' memories and allow the absentees to take the train;

  4. Building a valuable archive which can be consulted at any time (historical dimension).

Beat the iron while it's hot...

Some meeting organizers wait a week before sharing their minutes because of their busy agendas.

Don't wait so long or you will lose the substance of the exchanges made. Concepts that seemed clear to you during the meeting will seem blurred out of context.

In addition, participants may have attended half a dozen events after yours. Write your minutes within two or three days of the meetingideally the next day.

Header

Do not neglect this first part. It is the showcase for your report and will make participants want to continue reading.

In the header, the following information should be included : your name, the date and place of the meeting, the subject to be discussed (title) and the names of the participants (as well as their functions if you know them).

Introduction

The introduction should answer the following questions: Who? When? When? Why did you do it?

Regarding the latter question, write two or three sentences to recall the reasons that led you to organize your meeting.

Development

The report is a work of synthesis. It consists of pick up on key points and the broad outlines of the exchanges that brought added value to your meeting.

Therefore, don't just write down everything that has been said. Copy and paste is also banned. You must rephrase what the speakers say in your own wordsensuring that popularize technical terms if necessary. The facts must be traced in accordance with thechronological sequence. Always write in the present tense and use the third person when you make your point.

Mostly, stay objective. Your pen must remain neutral, even if you do not share the opinion of your collaborators. Criticism and personal opinions have no place in this kind of exercise.

Conclusion

End your report with the decision(s) made. Add the time at which the meeting ended, possibly the total duration. If other meetings or conferences are already scheduled, please remember to mention them. indicating the dates chosen.

If you are still uncomfortable with this exercise, you should know that there are report templates. They will be of great use to you until you can define your own model.

"And if you want to get out of the classic word format, here are some of them examples of more original reports. »

Comment faire un bon compte-rendu ?