Effective Meetings: The Agenda

Ok, you have decided that a meeting is needed. To get the most out of your meeting, the first step is to create a meeting agenda and share it in advance with everyone. If you have determined a meeting is needed, then it is worth planning ahead. Why?

1. In creating the agenda, you verify the need for a meeting. If you are unable to properly establish an agenda then a meeting may not be required.
   
2. Everyone comes to the meeting understanding what is to be discussed, prepared to tackle the problems, and understands the meeting purpose.
   
3. An agenda sets a time limit so everyone can schedule their already busy day.
   
4. Following the agenda, keeps the meeting on point so you accomplish what you set out to do. There is nothing worse than finishing a meeting and still not have the answers to the questions you started out with. ​
   

The agenda will let participants know what is to be covered, what information they need to prepare for the meeting, and allows them to begin formulating possible solutions or answers to the questions you have.

As we noted in the previous blog, each meeting should have a purpose. Primarily to exchange information for the purpose of making a decision or problem solving. Include the purpose of the meeting in the agenda. It should not be a secret.
The agenda format we are suggesting may be unlike others you have seen. Most agendas have a list of broad topics. A working agenda includes questions, information required, and who is responsible for each. Again, every meeting should have a purpose. Following is a sample meeting agenda following this format. Read it and you should have a good idea what the meeting is for, and who is responsible for what information items.
In this example, you are Bill, the Services Manager. The participants are ones that increased their requests for rush mail orders to the mailroom over the past several months. NOTICE: At the end of the meeting you will provide a recap of decisions made and the solution(s) identified.

Meeting Agenda: Mailroom Rush Orders

Time: 9:00am     Location: Board Room
Participants: Bill, Services Manager; John, Mail Services; Betty, Accounting; Amy, Sales; Winifred, Client Relations
Preparation: Review your existing mail service needs specific to rush mail requests. Historical data that can be shared in advance will be useful.

​Topic                                             Information                                   Who?                    Time
Mailroom is being                    How many are received            John                       15 mins
overloaded with rush              on average?                                
order requests.                                                                                                                             
Why is there in an increase?                                                  Winifred, Betty 
                                                                                                     & Amy

Purpose: How can we              Opportunities for                Bill, Winifred, Betty   30 mins
reduce the number of rush      reducing rush requests.    & Amy 
requests, Or increase
capability to handle them?       And/Or; Is there                 John
                                                       a better way to handle
                                                       rush mailing requests?

Decisions, next steps                                                                 Bill                             10 mins
Review of decisions made
and solutions identified



When you start the meeting, quickly review the agenda, make sure to state the purpose of the meeting. This is your opportunity to share what outcomes you expect. Using the sample agenda, you expected outcome is to solve the mailroom problems with rush mail order requests.

Also, consider identifying a few key people to help keep the meeting on task. People that are participating can serve in these capacities:

• Timekeeper - this person will monitor the clock and give a 2 minute warning when the time is about to expire for a particular topic. This keeps the discussion focused and as the leader, you can steer people back on topic as time is nearing the end.
• Scribe - someone to keep notes for the meeting. Critical elements that should be noted during the meeting are the decisions to be made, any open tasks that need to be completed and by whom, and the results of the meeting. Shortly after the meeting, the scribe should share the meeting notes with everyone for any edits or corrections. This records the discussions, supporting the decisions reached, and clearly states the end result of the meeting.
• Meeting Leader - generally this person will be you, but there are times that someone else may be responsible for leading the meeting. The leader makes sure to keep everyone on topic.

Productive meetings will always end with solutions, or if there is not enough information available, a list of next steps that will lead to second meeting agenda. Spending time in creating an agenda will ensure your meetings are needed, and meet the purpose you set for the meeting. Participants are prepared when the meeting starts so you can gain the most use of everyone’s time.