Transparent notes

The value of notes and action items are undisputed. If you leave a meeting without any action items or notes, did you really have a meeting? I think not.

The second layer of value comes from collaboration on the notes. Sharing your notes with colleagues allows them to also benefit from the notes. This is a very important step in building a strong resilient team. It also allows for a more open and transparent culture.

Concrete examples and value

Project tracking

By having notes from all projects accessible in a searchable tool, you can easily find information about a project. For example if tech people are working on a long running project and wonders what the sales people actually discussed 6 months ago with the customer, they can easily find the answer in the old meeting notes.

  • This reduces the need for meetings and asking around
  • It is also very useful to see the history of a project and how it has evolved over time

Project handover due to long term leave or people leaving the company

People leaving the company or go on long term leave usually leads to big information gaps as notes, emails, chats and other information is not available to the rest of the team. By having a culture of sharing and storing information in a public space, the problem is greatly reduced.

  • By making public notes, the organization gets less dependent on individuals and more resilient

Knowledge sharing for common questions

If you have a specific question, chances are high that someone else is wondering the same thing. By asking questions publicly instead of in private chats you are able to build a valuable knowledgebase over time which the whole organization will benefit from. Next time someone has the same question, they can easily find the answer in the knowledgebase. This knowledgebase can be in the form of a shared wiki page or a shared chat channel. The important thing is that it is searchable and accessible to everyone.

How to get started

It can seem overwhelming to change the workflow of a whole organization, so start small and increase the scope over time. Afterall the most important thing is to get started and build the culture of sharing information. You can always change the tools later.

Here are some widely used tools that can be used in most businesses:

  • Use an online wiki tool like:
  • If you like word or text files better:
    • Store the text files in a shared storage like Sharepoint
    • Write markdown files and store them in GitHub

How to organize the notes

Finding a good way to organize notes will take time and will change over time. The important thing is to get started and iterate over time. Here are some ideas:

Simplest is to just have a few folders:

  • Meeting notes
    • 2023-11-24 - CustomerName A - Delivery meeting
    • 2023-11-24 - CustomerName B - Technical meeting
    • 2023-11-25 - CustomerName C - Sales meeting

Over time you will probably want to add more structure to the notes:

  • Project notes
    • CustomerName A (Explaining the project and where to find more info)
      • 2023-11-24 - Delivery meeting
      • 2023-11-24 - Technical meeting
    • CustomerName B
      • 2023-11-25 - Sales meeting
    • CustomerName C
      • 2023-11-26 - Delivery meeting
      • 2023-11-26 - Technical meeting
      • 2023-11-27 - Sales meeting

Content of the notes:

Most note application have good “meeting notes”-templates which can be used. Most common headlines is:

  • Topic
  • Relevant links
  • Attendees
  • Agenda
  • Notes
  • Action items

Other notworthy people

When talking about transparency in business it’s worth to mention Ray Dalio the founder of Bridgewater Associates (world’s largest hedge fund) and his book Principles. Here he talks about radical transparency and radical openness where all actions and info should be available to everyone in the company. Even board and management meetings are recorded and avilable to everyone. This is a very interesting concept which works very well for them. But that is a topic for another post.