A good agenda is a powerful tool to steer a meeting effectively. If you are in charge of organizing a meeting besides defining the schedule you will have to define the agenda. A good meeting agenda includes the following items:
- Date and time
- Meeting location
- Participants & guests
- Excused absentees
- Optional: Dresscode (e.g. for offsite meetings)
- Agenda item name
- Agenda item type (Information, decision, action)
- Agenda item duration
- Agenda item owners name
Did you ever experience a discussion at the beginning of a meeting on who was to take the minutes? A very effective way to avoid such discussions is to already name the person who will take the minutes in the agenda which is distributed before the meeting. For regular meetings you might have an order (most common is alphabetic) so that it is everyone’s turn in a while.
Last but not least - follow your agenda during the meeting.
Related articles:
- No meeting without agenda
- No meeting without meeting minutes
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I have 2 comments about work. The first pertains directly to the topic of meetings. While I have never worked at a place that followed such a practice, I have always been intrigued by an article I read around 20 years ago about a fast growing hi-tech company whose CEO held a high disdain for long meetings. He did not permit chairs in meeting rooms. Since people had to stand the entire time, the meetings were concise and brief. Sounds good, but I wonder if important items were not discussed?
My second comment is also related to time management at work. I have read about companies, and interviewed with one, that required that when an employee asked someone to do something them, the person doing the task finish his answer with the statement “By when do you need it”? Although I don’t work at a company where this is mandatory, I like to follow that practice. It helps everyone to manage their time as well as establishes the correct mutual expectations.
[...] How to create a good meeting agenda [...]
I didn’t understand the concluding part of your article, could you please explain it more?