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Creating Great Teams – Destroying Terrible Meetings: A Quick Look at Agendas

Posted on May 3, 2019

Now that we have examined how meetings go wrong, let’s spend the next couple of posts examining how you can make them great! As suggested, a strong agenda is the core of any great meeting. Let’s take a few minutes to examine the critical components of a good agenda.

First, state the specific purpose of the particular meeting. This strategy serves the function of helping the team focus and stay within the established purpose. Think for a moment: Can you state the specific purpose of each meeting you attend?  Make sure all the members of your team can state the purpose of your meetings.

New agenda items are next. This section of the agenda is often called “new business.”  Each item should have a responsible party or parties, usually the people who submitted the item. This person should provide any background information the members need to make decisions. The person who submitted the agenda item should assist the team in identifying goals and desired outcomes associated with the subject, and plans of action to name responsible parties and due dates.

The final agenda item should always be setting agenda items for the next meeting. With important discussions just concluded, you should be able to create most of the next agenda at the end of the current meeting. Of course, things will happen, and the agenda will change somewhat, but teams find it easy to identify the most critical topics for the next meeting at the end of the previous one.