Improve Your Meeting Agenda

By john fellows

Written agendas are the backbone of a well organized, productive meeting, appointment or presentation. Not only does a written agenda keep your meeting on track and on time, it sends a message to attendees that you take the meeting seriously enough to write down, in order, all the important topics for attendees to discuss. It only takes a little time to get a lot more out of your meetings. With these ideas to help you design a well organized agenda, you’ll soon reach new heights of meeting productivity.

Get Your Thoughts On Paper

To design an effective agenda, ask yourself: What’s the purpose of this meeting or appointment? What do I hope to accomplish? Be brief and to the point – your agenda should only remind you of important meeting or appointment topics, not discuss them in detail. Be thorough – think back over the events of the last few days or weeks and check your calendar to remind you of important issues you may have forgotten. Survey your salespeople to find out what’s on their minds and from their answers choose other topics for your agenda.

Organize And Prioritize

Once you know what you want to discuss, decide what’s really important. Avoid making the most important or delicate subject the very first or very last thing you talk about. Your next-to-last agenda item should be “new business” and the last item should be left for an issue raised during the meeting. Consider your topic sequence, and how order can help you build to an important issue. A title, the meeting date and a list of those expected to attend should appear at the top of your agenda. Remember to double or triple space between items to leave plenty of room for notes.

Presentation Counts

Always type your agenda for greater impact. Handwriting sends a mixed message: “These meeting topics are important enough to write down, but not important enough to present in a neat, professional manner.” Use a clear, easy-to-read typeface. Print your agenda on company letterhead and make several more than enough copies for all attendees. If you want people to take your meeting seriously, give them a well-written, professional-looking agenda.

At The Meeting

Once you take the time to design an effective meeting agenda, use it. Remember that meeting attendees might want to discuss issues that aren’t on your agenda – the more people there are at your meeting, the more difficult it may be to stick with the topics at hand. Be prepared to steer your meeting according to your plan. When attendees raise topics you aren’t prepared to discuss, keep them on track by telling them you’ll make a note of their concerns for discussion at a future meeting, but that time requires you to stick to the agenda for today.

Despite your best intentions, meetings have a way of going off on unpredictable tangents, running well over the time allotted for them and accomplishing little in the process. Whether you’re speaking one-on-one with a client or conducting a large quarterly sales meeting, a written agenda can help you get more done in less time. With a more focused, less haphazard approach to meetings and appointments you’ll not only be more sure of what you want to accomplish, you’ll be more likely to accomplish it.