Put away the laptops

In our strategy work we have people distill their conversations on "strategy packs." They do this the old-fashioned way, with pen and paper. We've tried electronic versions of this from time to time; but these experiments didn't give us the same results. Here is some research from Psychological Science that touches on why that might be the case. The researchers found that when the computer is used for its intended function of easier note taking, notes are often taken indiscriminately or by mindlessly transcribing content. Longhand note taking, on the other hand, usually leads to synthesizing and summarizing content rather than verbatim transcription, and also to improved outcomes.