Agendas Make Meetings Productive

A management article
By: Martin Haworth

Meetings take up time and effort, so they need to be very productive. And one aspect worthy of special focus is how well you organise your meetings. Using a great agenda does just that.

Having a meeting agenda template that works well for you, week in, week out, creates a consistency which gets your people bought into the meeting process. Delivering an efficiency and effectiveness which makes the most of the valuable time you have together. Key points to note are:-

Circulate

Share your agenda in good time, well before your meeting (with reading material for preview). This gives time for review, preparation and challenge.

Roles

In a meeting there are various roles to be taken on from the start. Chair, notetaker, facilitator, reviewer and other, more specific roles. These should be clearly stated on the agenda in advance of the meeting.

Items for Discussion

Items on your agenda need to be selected carefully and only be relevant for the grouping of people who get together. Time is precious, so make sure that when together, only things which need everyone's input are given time.

Set Timings

Get clear on your agenda just how long the meeting will last and how long will be devoted to individual items on it. This gives clear indications of what will happen in meeting.

Ground Rules

Within your agenda will be some rules of how the meeting process will work. It is important to set standards of behaviour which eveyone signs up to.

AOB

Often included in agendas, this item is one that really should not be there. Good preplanning before the agenda goes out should mean that all items are included at that point and, where dispute occurs, the
meeting lead takes a decision. AOB can easily take a meeting off the rails and lead to missing time agreements.

Action Points

As the meeting progresses there will be action points that individual meeting members will be accountable for. By having a spot on the agenda for a quick review, prior to circulating these in writing, everyone will be clear on what is expected of them.

Parked Items

Sometimes during a meeting, items arise which whilst important, are outside the scope of that particular meeting. So by both 'parking' them during the meeting, thus validating their importance, and having a specific point to check the next steps for them is clear, they do recieve attention. This then allows the meeting purpose to be maintained.

Next Meeting

By ensuring the date of the next meeting is an agenda item, this serves three purposes It indicates to the meeting attendees follow up meetings

It gives an indication of when agreed action points from the meeting are likely to be required

Finally, it reminds the person responsible for the agenda to agree a clear date during the meeting - if not, it is likely to slip.

Meeting Review

Your agenda should also be an ongoing learning tool. As such, and to ensure your meetings truly make a difference, there is a real benefit in reviewing how things have worked in the meetng - for all participants. Agenda it!

About the Author
© 2005 Martin Haworth is a Business and Management Coach. He works worldwide, mainly by phone, with small business owners, managers and corporate leaders. He has hundreds of hints, tips and ideas at his website,
www.coaching-business-to-success.com.

Feedback Request
To help us to maintain the quality of this collection of management articles, could you please help us by taking a minute of your time to give us your opinion of this article. Please note that we respect your privacy, and your personal details will not be shared with anyone else. We are governed by the UK's Data Protection Act. An entry marked * means that this must be completed