How to Create an Effective Meeting Agenda
We’ve all attended unproductive meetings that cost time and money. No matter if it’s the wrong person in the room, or irrelevant discussions or even a lack of discussion, time spent in meetings isn’t free. A well-organized agenda for meetings ensures that you reach the objective of your meeting and move closer towards the goals of your business.
A clearly written and concise agenda for meetings helps everyone understand what will happen during the meeting and helps participants prepare for it. The best way to develop an effective agenda for meetings is to include these fundamental elements:
Note all the expected outcomes and the goal of your meeting. This will allow you to keep your attention on the most important issues and eliminate unnecessary side-bars.
Then for each item on the agenda, you must define the topic to be discussed. This will include a brief description of the topic, who will be responsible for covering it and how much time should be devoted to the discussion. It is also important to include the location and time zone of the meeting, especially in remote teams.
If you’re group collaboration, you might consider setting each agenda item up as a question that will be addressed by the group (i.e., “What steps are we taking to rent equipment?” ?”). The act of phrasing each discussion item as i loved this a question can stimulate discussions and help improve understanding of what’s expected during the meeting.
Include a procedure for how you’ll want each agenda item to be dealt with. This is among the most often overlooked elements of a meeting and can greatly improve the effectiveness of your meeting. Without a clearly defined process each participant will have to decide for themselves how to approach the subject which could lead to off topic conversations or even an entire meeting that goes off the rails. By adding a process participants can modify their comments so that they can be within the time frame allotted or suggest additional time for a particular topic.