Our scribe is too slow during the IDS portion, which forces the whole team to sit in silence while they capture the notes. How do we keep the momentum of the discussion alive without losing our action items?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A slow scribe can completely drain the energy from a Level 10 Meeting™. When the entire leadership team has to pause and watch one person struggle to type out a detailed paragraph during the IDS® portion, momentum dies. The purpose of capturing to-dos and issues is to establish clear accountability, not to write a transcript of the discussion.

To keep the momentum alive, you must change how your scribe captures information. First, the scribe should only record the final decision or the specific action item, not the conversation leading up to it. A great to-do should be a single, clear sentence that starts with a verb, has one owner, and has a specific deadline. For example, "John to call the vendor and request the updated contract by Friday."

Second, the facilitator must help the scribe by summarizing the conclusion of an IDS® discussion. Before moving to the next issue, the facilitator should say, "What is our solution here, and what is the specific to-do?" Once the team agrees on the exact action, the scribe types that single line and the meeting immediately moves forward.

If the current scribe is still struggling to keep up, consider assigning the scribe role to a different member of the team. The Integrator does not have to be the scribe. Assign it to someone who can type quickly and synthesize complex discussions into simple, actionable steps without slowing down the group.