Our scribe captures almost every word spoken during our Level 10 Meetings, resulting in a massive wall of text in our meeting notes that nobody actually reads. How do we train our scribe to capture only what is essential for accountability?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A scribe is not a court reporter. If your meeting notes look like a transcript, you are doing it wrong. Capturing too much detail creates noise, slows down the meeting, and dilutes accountability.

The scribe's only job is to capture three things: the exact numbers on the Scorecard, the status of Rocks, and clearly defined weekly To-Dos.

During the IDS section, the scribe should not write down the discussion. They should not summarize who said what or capture the debate. They must wait until the issue is solved, and then capture only the resulting To-Do.

A valid To-Do must follow a strict format: who is doing what by when. For example, John to email the updated contract template to the sales team by next Tuesday.

If there is no actionable To-Do, there is nothing for the scribe to write down. The solved issue is simply marked as done.

Train your scribe to keep their hands off the keyboard during the discussion. They should only start typing when the facilitator asks, What is the To-Do here?

This keeps the meeting moving quickly and ensures your post-meeting notes are clean, actionable, and easy for the team to review and execute.