Agendas are important in meetings. We’ve all been in meetings where participants are unprepared, people veer off-track, and the topics discussed are a waste of the team’s time. These problems usually arise from poor agenda design.

How Agendas can help you run a more effective meeting

An effective agenda sets clear expectations for what needs to occur before and during a meeting. It helps team members prepare, allocates time wisely, quickly gets everyone on the same topic, and identifies when the discussion is complete.

If problems still occur during the meeting, a well-designed agenda increases the team’s ability to effectively and quickly address them.

The Agenda Preparation process

Here are some tips for designing effective agendas. These principles work irrespective of the type or size of the meeting.

Seek input from team members.

If you want your team to be engaged during the meeting, the agenda must include items that reflect their needs. Team meeting time is expensive and difficult to schedule. It should mainly be used to discuss and make decisions on issues that affect the whole team and need the whole team to solve them.

Ask team members to suggest agenda items along with a reason why each item needs to be addressed in a team setting. If you ultimately decide not to include an item, explain your reasoning to the team member who suggested it.

Note whether the purpose of the meeting is to share information, seek input for a decision, or make a decision.

Be sure to clarify from the Chairperson what they expect from you during the meeting. Also be clear as the type of detail he/she expects in the minutes.

Team members wont participate effectively if they don’t know their role in the decision making process. If people think they are involved in making a decision, but you simply want their input, everyone is likely to feel frustrated.

If the purpose of the meeting is to make a decision, state the decision-making rule. This saves time that would have been wasted in debate.

Estimate a realistic amount of time for each topic.

We often underestimate the amount of time needed to debate a topic. You need to calculate how much time the team will need. This includes introducing the topic, answering questions, resolving different points of view, and generating potential solutions. Also create time for agreeing on the action items that follow from discussions. This enables team members to either adapt their comments to fit within the allotted time-frame or to suggest that more time may be needed.

The purpose of listing the time is not to stop discussion when the time has elapsed. The purpose is to get better at allocating enough time for the team to effectively and efficiently answer the questions before it.

Distribute the agenda with sufficient time before the meeting.

This enables the team to read background materials and prepare their initial thoughts for each agenda item ahead of time. Identifying this person next to the agenda item ensures that anyone who is responsible for leading part of the agenda prepares for it before the meeting.

It also helps to propose a process for addressing each agenda item. This identifies the steps through which the team will move together to complete the discussion or make a decision.

Unless the team has agreed on a process, members will, in good faith, participate based on their own process.

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