Quick Tips: Great Meeting Agendas

Your lead and follow coaching tip for today is make meeting agendas and make them great. 

One reason we tend to complain about meetings is that they feel like a waste of time. I know that when I don’t have any meaningful way to participate, or the topic isn’t relevant to me, I can’t get out of the room fast enough, and if I’m required to be in the meeting, I start feeling resentful pretty fast, because my time is limited and I have things to do. I imagine you may feel the same way.

The good news is that if you are leading a meeting, you have a lot of influence over how that time is spent. Making a great agenda is one way you can make really good use of time. I know the term agenda may sound boring, but it doesn’t have to be. I actually really love agendas because to me a well-crafted meeting agenda is like a well-crafted choreography or set of stage directions. Basically, it’s a way of organizing time so that the meeting flows in a logical, useful, and maybe even interesting and fun.