We’ve all been to meetings that cost time and money. Whether it’s the wrong people in the room or unproductive discussions moved here or even a lack of discussion, time spent in meetings isn’t cheap. An effective meeting agenda ensures that you accomplish the goal of your meeting and get closer to achieving company goals.
A concise and clear agenda helps everyone understand the agenda for the meeting and helps participants prepare for it. Include the following items on your agenda to ensure that it is effective.
Determine the purpose of the meeting and list all anticipated outcomes of the discussion. This will help you stay focused on the most important issues and avoid ineffective side-bars.
Determine what topics will be discussed for each item. This should include a brief description of the topic, who will be responsible for addressing it and how much time needs to be devoted to the discussion. It’s also helpful to include the meeting’s location and time zone, particularly for remote teams.
In the case of group collaboration, you might consider the agenda items as an open-ended question that will be addressed by the group (i.e., “What steps should we take to rent equipment?” ?”). Each discussion point could be addressed as a query to encourage discussion and be aware of what is expected at the meeting.
Create a plan for how you’ll want each agenda item to be addressed. This is an aspect of a meeting that is often ignored, but can be significant in determining the effectiveness of a meeting. A clear and concise process can help participants to decide how to approach a particular topic that could cause off-topic discussions, or even a complete breakdown of the meeting. Adding a process will allow attendees to adjust their remarks to fit the time frame or suggest that more time be set aside for a topic.