The value of an agenda cannot be overstated. The key role of the meeting facilitator is to make sure there is a clear agenda. This is essentially a meeting outline, which provides clarity on the meeting objectives. A good agenda will help keep a meeting on track. Everyone should be provided a copy of the meeting agenda in advance. The agenda should include the discussion topics, and an allotted amount of time for each topic. If different participants will be leading or contributing to different parts of the conversation, their name should be included next to that agenda item. A detailed agenda eliminates the risk of missing important topics or accidentally getting off-topic in unrelated discussions. When we’re creating an agenda, it’s important to recognize differences between an effective agenda and one that is ineffective. Let’s start with the purpose of the meeting. It must be clearly stated so that participants have an understanding of what we’re here to do and what we aim to accomplish.
Any available background information is also valuable. This can include situation statements, activities from past discussions, prior action items, and status of any ongoing items. The agenda topics need to be clear and concise in a logical order. An effective agenda is delivered to all participants in advance of the meeting, so they’ll have an opportunity to review the contents. And so that everyone comes to the meeting with some basic understanding of what will be discussed and why. We also want to contain the discussion duration. This gives us some structure around the amount of time for each topic and encourages us to limit the meeting to a realistic number of topics. Having too many topics, or not enough, are both a problem. Consider a checklist when creating a meeting agenda to ensure that all of these considerations have been made. This will ensure that you avoid the pitfalls of ineffective meeting agendas, which can result in wasted time and not effectively addressing important issues. Meetings with no agenda create all kinds of headaches. For example, we could be wasting a lot of time due to confusion and a lack of focus around the key things that we’re trying to accomplish. Important points could be missed. Finally, the consequence of having no agenda is that our objectives may not be achieved at all.