Meeting Agendas

Meetings…So much has been talked about with meetings.

How much of your time each week are you in meetings? At what cost?

What are you actively helping to create while in those meetings?

If you (like a LOT of people) feel like you are meeting’ed to death, start to do something about it. Here are two steps we used last night with a not for profit group that I support:

We set an agenda.

Meetings without agendas can easily turn into hot air festivals without the benefit of balloons. People don’t know what to prepare for, or if the meeting is even relevant to them. I used to ask my manager for an agenda with every meeting our team had. An agenda helps people prepare thoughtfully, so team members are less likely to be surprised by something, shoot from the hip, and then later change.

Stick to the agenda.

When we started to get off track on item X, several people on the call had the chutzpah to say out loud “let’s address that at a different time…we are getting away from our agenda.” It’s important to have a “parking lot list” of items to address later or with a separate team. It ISN’T saying that item X isn’t important. Exactly the opposite. By saying let’s address that when we can really give it the time it deserves, people are showing that X is worth discussing well.

Photo by Dylan Nolte