How to create an effective meeting agenda
Sometimes people send an invite for a meeting that has a vague subject line and no agenda or goal stated. These kinds of meetings won’t be very efficient and will cost more time than they should. That’s not what you want, right? So, if you’re organizing a meeting, make sure to have a clear meeting agenda. Creating an effective meeting agenda is one of the most important elements for productive and effective meetings, and here’s why:
- The agenda communicates important information to all attendees. For instance, everyone will know what topics will be discussed, who will be the leader and how much time the meeting will take.
- The meeting agenda can be used as a checklist, to ensure all topics are discussed.
- It gives attendees the opportunity to come to the meeting prepared.
- The agenda provides a focus for the meeting.
Here are a few tips that will help you create the meeting agenda, so you can have more efficient meetings.
Define meeting objective
Before you create the actual agenda, identify the goal of the meeting, it gives you and your team focus. What are the results your group needs to achieve by the end of the meeting? These objectives give you a reason to meet. Know why you called the meeting, what you hope to accomplish as a result and what action you expect from the meeting.
Prioritize meeting agenda points
When creating your list of meeting agenda points, make sure you prioritize your list of topics from most important to least important. This way you’ll make sure all the important topics are handled and accomplished.
Seek input from team members
If you want your team to be engaged in meetings, make sure the meeting agenda includes items that reflect their needs. Ask team members to suggest agenda items along with a reason why each item needs to be addressed in the meeting. If you asked attendees to add agenda items, make sure they know that they should contact you before the meeting with their agenda request and that they should think about the amount of time they will need to present it.
Select agenda items that affect the whole team
Meeting time is often expensive and difficult to schedule. It should mainly be used to discuss and make decisions on topics that affect the entire team and need the entire team to solve them. They are likely to be issues for which people have different information and needs. If the team isn’t spending most of the meeting talking about interdependent issues, team members will not be engaged and will ultimately not attend the meeting.
Identify who is responsible for leading each topic
Someone other than the formal meeting leader is often responsible for leading the discussion of an agenda item. This person may be providing context for the topic, explaining data, or may have organizational responsibility for that area. Identifying this person next to the agenda item ensures that people take responsibility for leading that part of the agenda and prepare for it before the meeting.
Keep your meeting agenda short
Keep the meeting agenda to 6 agenda items or less. No one wants to spend 2 hours in a meeting. Long agendas seem daunting and often don’t get read. That’s what we like to call ‘death by meeting’.
Let the content decide the time per topic
Let the content decide how long each agenda point should take. Don’t fall into the trap of overscheduling time per agenda point. If you think something will only take 2 minutes, just write that down next to the agenda point.
GAIKU to the rescue
So, take your time to create a clear meeting agenda, it offers an automatic solution for your meeting to be more efficient! All agenda points will be clear, and everyone knows who’s responsible. But to make it even easier for you, GAIKU is here to help! Your meeting agenda will be fixed and sent out in no time! Ready to join our meeting revolution? Subscribe to the waiting list to stay updated, we’ll be launching soon!
If you want to learn more about planning and organizing a meeting, check out our blog about how to plan an efficient meeting.
