What’s on the Agenda?

 

You hate meeting. I ate meetings. We all hate meetings. Then, why do we keep going to meetings? Maybe it is because there is just the slightest chance that something important may take place and we will miss it, or (more likely) we are afraid that if we don’t go, we will be saddled with an extra task we don’t have time to deal with. Since meetings seem to be a part of the corporate landscape for the foreseeable future, the least we can do is try and be smarter about the way we approach them.

First of all, make sure the meeting is absolutely necessary. Is there any other possible way the needs and issues can be addressed that doesn’t involve pulling several people away from other high value tasks and trapping them in a tiny room, a fuzzy phone call, or an online web conference? Can this be handled through a series of emails or memos? Can you delegate the assignment to a single person? Can it wait until next month? Do you have all the information you need to make this meeting worthwhile? Are all the important players available? Make sure you answer all these questions BEFORE you start the meeting.

Then, make sure you have prepared a specific, well-organized agenda. An agenda serves as a guide to follow in the meeting, a mechanism for communicating about the meeting, and as a structure for developing the meeting strategy. Every meeting should have an agenda and it should be given to all participants before the meeting begins. It can be on paper, chalkboard, and flip-chart or communicated orally. Ideally, participants should have the opportunity to give input to or feedback about the agenda prior to the start of the meeting because they will be more likely to develop both interest and commitment to the success of the meeting.

The agenda can be very simple or very detailed, depending on the complexity of your meeting. The shorter your meeting or the more familiar all participants are with both each other and the subject of the meeting, the simpler your preparation will be. The longer your meeting (over an hour or two), the more elaborate your planning will be.

Even though the agenda is a detailed plan for running the meeting, it is important to remember to remain flexible about time, process and scope. In other words, if the plan is falling short in some way, be open to adapting to suit the needs of the meeting purpose and participants.

An agenda, circulated prior to the meeting, lets everyone know how to prepare and it gives the group a detailed plan for accomplishing the meeting purpose. Without an agenda, meetings frequently become unfocused with participants feeling free to bring up any topic or discussing one topic for as long as they want.

Because an agenda is both a planning and a communication tool, the following elements should be included:

1. The meeting subject and purpose;
2. Agenda topics;
3. Process to be used for each topic;
4. Time allocated for each topic;
5. Topic leader;
6. How the participants should prepare;
7. Logistics - date, time, location;
8. Input and/or reactions to the agenda prior to meeting.

The agenda topics define the scope of the meeting and are the stepping stones used to achieve your overall purpose. Without the topics, there is there is no plan for reaching the required end result. The topics on an agenda are the content that needs to be covered to reach the desired outcome.

Some common pitfalls to developing agenda topics include:

• Trying to cover too many items
• Addressing issues that don't concern the whole group
• Not getting others' input for topics

List the topics, and be sure to ask the following the questions:

• Do the topics flow logically?
• Will they move us toward the desired outcome?
• Can we cover them all in a reasonable amount of time?
• Have I left anything out?

Prioritize topics in any of the following ways:

• Logically
• Whether or not all need to be present
• How much creative energy is required

If you must meet, don’t meet until you have an agenda to guide to make sure the whole process is conducted as painlessly as possible.

 

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March Time Management Quick Tip – Put It in Reverse

So, your boss just handed you a major project that is due in 18 days. How can you organize the project so that it is completed on time? Simple; start at the end and work backwards. Divide the project into stages (research, outlining, writing, editing, PowerPoint design, etc.) and estimate the amount of time it will take to complete each stage. (Don’t underestimate here. Most projects take at least 20%-40% longer than you think they will at first.) Then, starting with the last stage, on your calendar lay in each stage, along with the time it will take to complete, in reverse order by working backwards from your deadline. When you arrive at stage one, you will know the date when you must begin working on the project in order to meet your deadline.