Excerpted from The Truth About Getting Your Point
Across...And Nothing but the Truth
A colleague of mine was responsible for running a bi-weekly
two-hour team meeting. He took great care to develop a very full, detailed
agenda. As we would get into the meeting, it would only take us getting to
agenda item one before the meeting was behind schedule. During the entire time
that my colleague ran these meetings, we never got more than halfway through
the agenda before adjourning. The team got so used to not making it through the
agenda that there wasn't even an attempt to try to stay on schedule. The agenda
and associated times were completely unrealistic and were worthless as a
meeting management tool.
An effective agenda goes beyond start time, location,
topics, and durations. Effective agendas do the following:
·
Support the meeting purpose
·
Set the expectations of attendees as to what
will be discussed
·
Inform attendees of any preparation that will be
required prior to the meeting
·
Give the meeting leader a roadmap for driving
the agenda
·
Permit adequate time to cover each item
·
Allow the meeting leader to adjust the agenda
easily if the meeting gets behind schedule
Having said all this, there is a guiding principle the
meeting owner needs to follow: The meeting owner drives the agenda, not the
other way around. There are times where you may have a concise meeting purpose
and specific agenda items to address the meeting purpose, but the actual
meeting deviates from the agenda. Be open to the agenda change; just make sure
the meeting purpose is still being met. Doing this requires the meeting owner to be very in-tune to what is going on in the meeting and footing it back to what
is happening on the agenda. If the actual meeting is deviating from the agenda,
the meeting owner needs to consciously decide if the deviation is appropriate
or if it needs to be nipped in the bud. There's no secret sauce on this; it
means keeping the original meeting's purpose in mind, observing what is
actually happening in the meeting, and continually assessing whether the
meeting's purpose is being met.
So, what are some good tips to developing effective agenda?
Consider these next times you have to plan a meeting:
·
Have a tight, focused meeting purpose - You've
called the meeting for a reason; make sure that the purpose is explicit and
achievable. A good sanity check on this is that you should be able to complete
this sentence: "At the end of this meeting we should be able to
_______."
·
Cross-foot your agenda items with the meeting
purpose - As you're crafting your agenda items, make sure that each item is
doing something to support the meeting purpose. If the items don't support the
meeting purpose either change the agenda item or change the purpose. Don't
confuse the attendees by having agenda items that don't support the meeting
purpose
·
Be realistic with allocated agenda item times -
Don't put overly aggressive times on the agenda that you in your heart know
you're not going to achieve. Planning 90 minutes’ worth of meeting in 60
minutes means you'll only get through 2/3 of the meeting or the meeting will
run over by at least 30 minutes. Don't wish for the best case; put reality down.
·
Distribute the agenda at least one day before
the meeting - Meeting attendees want to know what is going to be discussed and
if there is a preparation that is needed prior to the meeting. Give them a day if
possible, to review the agenda and get mentally prepared for the meeting.
1.
Put the most important agenda items at the front
of the meeting - Cover your top items first. There are two reasons for this:
first, you'll ensure that the most important items get covered. Second, you'll
keep attendee attention better by covering the most important items earlier. If
they are put later in the agenda then you'll see some chomping at the bit as
you go through lesser important agenda items first.
·
Have as your last agenda item an "action
items review" section - I've seen way too many meetings happen in my
career where the end of the meeting comes, everyone leaves, but there is no
agreement on what actions need to be taken out of the meeting. In your action
items review, indicate what the action items are, who is responsible for each
action item, and when the action item needs to be completed by.
·
Have a contingency plan in place for when agenda
items run over - Even with the best-planned meetings, sometimes agenda items
take longer than expected. Have a plan for how you are going to accommodate the
change, which could mean shortening some other agenda items or eliminating an
agenda item completely
Build tight, realistic, achievable agendas. You'll get more
done, reduce attendee frustration, and make the best use of everyone's time.
Just don't be a slave to the agenda if you see the agenda won't accomplish the
meeting's purpose.
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