In 2008 Eric Ries described how his startup analyzed problems. After each problem, a meeting was held, led by a designated “five whys master,” with everyone involved present. The results were emailed to the whole company and “should read like plain English.”
Ries wrote that over time teams get used to “the rhythm of five whys, and it becomes completely normal to make incremental investments.”
Advisory committees covered by the Federal Advisory Committee Act must keep a written record of every meeting. The Act says: “Detailed minutes of each meeting of each advisory committee shall be kept and shall contain a record of the persons present.” The minutes also describe what was discussed and the conclusions reached.
The committee’s chair signs off: “The accuracy of all minutes shall be certified by the chairman of the advisory committee.”
Let me capture that. — I will write this down in the notes.
As discussed… — An email that turns a spoken agreement into a written one.
Just following up. — The commitment is in writing, and I am checking on it.
Can you send that over? — Please put it in writing so that we have a record.
For the record… — I want this statement noted, so that nobody can deny it later.
Many American clubs, union locals and school boards begin a meeting by checking the record of the last one. The union AFSCME gives its local chairs a script: “The Secretary will read minutes of the last meeting.” Then: “Are there any additions or corrections to the minutes? [Pause.] If not, the minutes will stand approved as read.”
For a public board, the minutes are the official record. A legal expert at the University of North Carolina notes that “courts frequently refuse to admit parol or other evidence that seeks to contradict what is shown in a board’s minutes.”
In 2023 American meeting software began writing the recap. On February 14, Otter.ai launched OtterPilot, which offers “AI-generated summarization of the key meeting topics” and lets attendees “assign action items during the meeting.” By the end of May, Microsoft had added an “intelligent recap” to Teams Premium.
On September 5, Zoom introduced AI Companion. Zoom said it can “identify action items from a meeting in progress.” Less than two months later, Zoom reported more than one million meeting summaries.
About two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies are incorporated in Delaware. Delaware’s corporation law says: “One of the officers shall have the duty to record the proceedings of the meetings of the stockholders and directors in a book to be kept for that purpose.”
Lawyers treat the minutes as evidence. The law firm Skadden warns boards that “plaintiff stockholders will scrutinize minutes when evaluating and pursuing claims against directors and officers.” Steve Wagner, a partner at the law firm Porzio, Bromberg & Newman, told the magazine Habitat: “If it’s not in the minutes, it can be challenged.”
The Federal Open Market Committee, which sets interest rates in the United States, meets behind closed doors. Its minutes are “released three weeks after each meeting.” Markets read them closely.
Later, the full record follows. The committee “currently releases the transcripts of its meetings after an interval of about five years.” Nearly every word of the discussion then becomes public.
“In the earliest days of the Constitutional Convention, the delegates agreed their proceedings would be secret.” The secretary, William Jackson, kept an official journal, but his papers were in disorder, and he had not dated the votes. John Quincy Adams, who published them in 1819, called them “no better than the daily minutes from which the regular journal ought to have been, but never was, made out.”
James Madison chose a seat in front of the presiding officer and took his own notes every day. He kept them private until he died in 1836. In 1837 Congress paid $30,000 for his papers, and the notes were published in 1840. “Madison’s notes of the Debates have remained the standard authority for the proceedings of the Convention.”
Article I, Section 5 of the US Constitution says: “Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such Parts as may in their Judgment require Secrecy.”
The same section lets a minority put every member’s vote in writing. The yeas and nays “of the Members of either House on any question shall, at the Desire of one fifth of those Present, be entered on the Journal.” Today, “the Speaker announces his or her approval of the Journal at the start of each legislative day.” “In current practice, approval is automatic unless a Member demands a vote.”
Just to confirm what we discussed… — The first line of an email sent after a call.
To recap our call… — A summary follows, so that both sides have the same record.
Can you put that in writing? — A spoken promise is not yet enough.
Boilerplate. — The standard clauses of a contract. The word first meant the iron plates of a boiler. Later it meant ready-made text that newspapers received on metal plates. Ed McBain used it for legal text in 1965: “The rest of the will was boilerplate.”