For both lawyers and project managers, and especially for legal project managers, communication is the single most important skill for success. Communication, however, is more than articulation. The truly great legal project managers I've worked with can not only explain highly technical information to non-experts and create a professional and positive atmosphere in meetings, they also excel at capturing and following up on information.
There are so many great, affordable applications that can help you with this. I've recently discussed share point and share point alternatives, and I haphazardly maintain a list of project and practice management applications on this site. For ad hoc information capture, I'm a fan of Evernote (can't imagine living without it, actually). With all this technology there is no excuse for not contemporaneously capturing information communicated to you and being able to quickly reference and follow up on it. But in my experience, I've not seen a great improvement in communication from the days when a moleskin notebook was the coolest information-capture technology available.
This is because good note-keeping and follow-up is a habit. New technology may allow better backup, access from multiple locations, and swift retrieval, but it doesn't really make it any easier for people with poor communication habits to capture information. If you are not in the habit of taking notes, its doesn't matter if you have an iPhone with Evernote on it. Unused, it is no better then the back of an envelope.
Same with follow-up. A cloud-based calendar synced with all your computers and mobile devices is no better than a Day Planner or Hipster PDA if you are not in the habit of checking it. E-mail and text message alerts don't count as "checking," they are at best an extra reminder for when you are focused on something else and, at their worst, an alarm for a new fire you'll have to put out because you haven't been looking ahead.
In my experience, the best communicators have the best communication habits not the best communication tools. They capture important information communicated to them, put it in a system where it can be easily retrieved when it is needed, and they regularly work their calendars and contact lists to not only follow-up on promises, but to excavate new opportunities for proactive communication. Legal project managers could learn a lot from successful sales people about this. If a salesperson is a reactive communicator, the calls will eventually stop coming in and sales opportunities will dry up.
The great legal project managers don't wait to be contacted, they take the initiative and poke their contacts now and then to make sure they're still alive.
One of the skills most attorneys have learned is to take good notes on a yellow pad while continuing to actually listen. It's also a good PM skill... but it's useless unless you develop and follow up on the to-do items you generate this way. And as Paul notes, even where there's no specific to-do, follow up anyway.
That's funny, I edited out a line from from this post noting that I still take notes on paper in meetings because I have not been able to maintain eye contact while taking notes on a computer or smart phone.
I have not yet bought a tablet PC. I wonder if that will be the digital in-person-meeting note-taking solution for me.
Still, I will continue to carry a wallet pen and some blank business-cards in my wallet at all times and still keep Moleskine notebooks in my bags. There are times I just prefer jotting things on paper.
One thing I love about Evernote is that it will recognize handwriting from images. So I will often snap a picture of a white board or paper notes rather than type them out. My penmenship isn't great, but I will make sure to clearly print certain key words at the top of my notes / white board, such as client name, project code, etc. Evernote does a good job picking those up. I'll also apply tags to such photo-notes that are worth keeping on file during my weekly review.
Hi,
I'm Lauren from Springpad. Since I saw that you were posting about your experience using Evernote, I thought I'd let you know about Springpad (http://springpadit.com) which is similar to Evernote in that you can upload any notes or clip websites and access all your stuff online or on your phone. But, we take it a step further by putting all the info you store to work for you in our free apps. For example, you can use our Meeting Meeting Minutes app (http://springpadit.com/springpad/#friendsstuff/appdirectory/aboutapp/meetingminutes) or the People I meet app (http://springpadit.com/springpad/#apps/app/peopleimeet) to keep track of all you rnew business contacts. Would love to get your feedback!
Thank you, I'll check it out.