Item 4.3, carried forward again
The fortnightly design team meeting for a school extension. The architect chairs. Around the table, or on the call, are the structural engineer, the services engineer, the cost consultant and the client's project manager. Item 4.3: services engineer to confirm plant room size. It was on the last agenda, and the one before. The plant room size affects the ground floor layout the architect needs to fix for stage 3 sign-off.
The minutes from the last meeting went out a week later. By then the services engineer had forgotten what was agreed, and nobody reminded them until today.
Why actions stall between meetings
Minutes are typed up after the meeting, often days later, by the architect who is also doing the design. Actions are buried in paragraphs. Each consultant keeps their own list, if any. Nobody is reminded between meetings, so the meeting itself becomes the reminder, and every action gets a fortnight's delay built in.
- Minutes take days to produce and circulate.
- Actions are buried in narrative text.
- Owners and dates are vague, such as 'engineer to look at'.
- No reminders between meetings.
- Open actions are copied forward by hand.
What stalled actions cost the architect
The architect's design depends on inputs from the rest of the team. Each stalled action holds up a decision, and the lead designer carries the delay. Stage deadlines slip, and the reasons are hard to show because the record is scattered across minutes. Writing minutes takes skilled time that would be better spent designing.
An action log that runs between meetings
- During or after the meeting, notes or a recording, where everyone has agreed to recording, are turned into draft minutes with actions pulled out as a list.
- Each action has an owner, a clear description and a due date, which the project architect confirms or edits before the minutes go out.
- Minutes and the action list go out the same day, while the meeting is fresh.
- Each owner gets their own actions by email, with a link to mark them done or add a comment and attachment.
- Reminders go out before due dates, and overdue items are highlighted to the project architect.
- Open actions carry into the next agenda automatically, with their history.
- The action log is kept for the whole project, so the record of who was waiting for what is always available.
Where a meeting is recorded, the recording is only used to draft the minutes, and it is kept or deleted according to the policy you set. Nothing is circulated until the project architect has read and approved the draft, because minutes that misrecord an agreement cause more trouble than late ones.
The log before the next meeting
| Action | Owner | Due | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Confirm plant room size | Services engineer | Before next meeting | Overdue, reminded |
| Beam sizes for rear opening | Structural engineer | This week | Done, attached |
| Update cost plan for stage 3 changes | Cost consultant | Next week | In progress |
| Client to confirm room data | Client project manager | This week | Open |
Meetings about decisions, not reminders
Meetings start with a clear list of what was done and what is still open. Owners receive reminders in time to act rather than at the table. Minutes go out on the day. And when a stage slips, the log shows exactly which inputs were late and for how long, which helps in any conversation about programme or additional fees.
Is this your design team meeting?
- The same actions appear on several agendas in a row.
- Minutes go out days after the meeting.
- Consultants are only reminded at the next meeting.
- You could not quickly show which inputs held up a stage.