Read this before creating another agenda

​In the last post we looked at what training should be.

In this post I will focus on Agenda and structure.

I saw a t-shirt once that said I survived another meeting that should have been an email. I am going to get it I think. But how can we avoid death by meeting.

It should go without saying, if you don’t have a compelling agenda cancel the meeting, people will love the free time that just opened up in the schedule. More will get done.

This is a good time to ask yourself “does this really need to be a meeting?”

Don’t just hold your meeting because its Thursday morning and that is what we do.

If you do think you need the meeting, how long should it be?

A lot of meetings are in half hour increments, ever wonder why.

Technology is great and we do need to be efficient so we go with our scheduling defaults form outlook etc,  half hour or hour long increments.

This is fine except I see people “padding” agendas to “fill out the time”

Instead of this habit, take a look at what you want to get accomplished and determine the correct length. See previous link about ROI here.

Many people create an agenda but their main focus for the meeting is to cover everything on the Agenda.

This is incorrect thinking, we need to take each item one at a time, and not move on until
we are sure everyone in the room knows what we are looking for and why. This last part is so important.

If you have ten items to cover on an agenda, it is more beneficial and efficient if you only cover the first few items but you cover them thoroughly, than to cruise through and say “we covered all of it”.

You will end up having to bring everyone back in and you have not really saved the time you thought you had. It is preferable to over communicate the first time round and then “check in” with the team.

This is simple but profound. When you have covered an item and you think you are done say this sentence “OK what do you think we just discussed?”

When you get an answer, pick another attendee in the room and ask “Do you agree, is that what we are doing?”

This creates dialogue and drives home impact, covers repetition for learning and allows the group to hear peers repeating the message.

Next post we will share the power why…