Agendas

One of the commonest complaints I hear from middle managers is about the way meetings are run. Meetings perform two main tasks to inform and to decide things. The agenda for a meeting not only tells the attendees what to expect, it also tells them what they need to know or bring with them for the meeting. A good agenda means that managers arrived adequately prepared, are not wrong footed by unexpected requests and are able to provide appropriate input.

Agendas are an often neglected area of meeting management. Commonly the agenda is either a standing one, the same items are discussed each week, published moments before the meeting starts or worse decided at the beginning of the meeting. Given the cost of bringing people together, both in terms of salaries and lost opportunity, the purpose of the meeting should be clear, as should the outcomes both for each meeting and for the group as a whole. Agendas should therefore be published well in advance, and background materials circulated accordingly. The items on the agenda should be sized to fit the time available and the required outcome from each item made clear. This has a number of benefits, including enabling staff to ensure that they are able to stay for the full duration of the meeting and allowing the meeting leader to develop items over several meetings.

It is important to focus on what can realistically be achieved in the time available. If the subject is important, pouncing on a final decision too quickly, will cause resentment and make implementing the decision impossible to do. It is perfectly possible to spread a big decision over several meetings, by breaking it into smaller discussions, encouraging participants to work on the decision outside of the meeting and report back or by forming sub-committees to do the options analysis outside of the meeting and then report back for the group to make the decision.

When sizing an agenda do not try to manage each item to the minute, it is invariably impossible to do, instead aim to define suitable outcomes for each item including actions such as identify suitable staff member to research area X and report back to next meeting.

It is makes sense therefore that a skilled meeting leader will not just be managing a single meeting, but will be applying an overarching process to ensure that the meeting team continuously deliver to their remit. This will include scoping agendas for several meetings in advance to ensure that the team move forward as well as ensuring that each member continues to contribute.