How to create a useful agenda for any type of meeting

As the former CEO of five ventures and board member of dozens of others, Naeem Zafar has sat in his fair share of meetings. Zafar, a CEO coach who teaches entrepreneurship and innovation at the University of California, Berkeley, and Northeastern University, says ineffective meetings are a “pain point” for him. “My whole life is driven by efficiency,” he says. “Why do I have seven people sitting around the table? I’m talking to two of them. I’ve been trying to optimize it all my life.”

Chances are, you have been (or will be) in at least a few meetings this week, too. In fact, a survey done earlier this year by Reclaim.ai found that the professionals who responded spent nearly 15 hours per week in meetings. That’s down more than 30% from three years ago, but it’s still nearly two full days of the workweek. So, it’s no wonder that a fair amount of time and resources are spent examining how to make meetings more efficient.

When it comes to advice about making meetings more efficient and effective, one tool is commonly recommended: an agenda. And while writing one may seem straightforward, experts like Zafar say that there are some ways you can turn a simple agenda into a powerful tool:

Think about the meeting’s goals

Before you begin to write the agenda, think about the type of meeting, as well as its purpose and goals. An agenda for a status meeting will likely look different from an agenda for a kick-off meeting for a big project or a brainstorming or strategic-planning meeting, says project management consultant and coach Natalie Berkiw-Scenna, author of Unleash Your Meeting Potential: A Comprehensive Guide to Leading Effective Meetings.

When you know your purpose, you can more effectively map out what needs to happen to get to those goals through your agenda. “Sometimes, you can have a hybrid of two or more [types of meetings], and that’s perfectly fine, as long as people understand what they’re coming to the table to do,” she says.

Include the core four sections

Berkiw-Scenna structures her agendas in four key sections:

1.   Logistics: This includes the place, time, participants, and type of meeting to make sure people know where (and why) they’re meeting.

2.   Opening: This gives people an opportunity to introduce themselves, if needed, and set expectations for what’s meant to be accomplished. This also gives people a chance to speak up if anything important needs to be added to the agenda.

3.   Content: “This is really describing the conversation you want to take people through,” Berkiw-Scenna says. Include a list of topics, in a logically sequenced order, as well as who will be speaking and whether the expectation is to share information, decide, etc. “Ideally, in that section of the agenda, you don’t want to put more than two or three items,” she says, to provide enough time for discussion, questions, and decision-making. It’s also helpful to front-load the agenda with the most important discussion points upfront.

4.   Wrap-up: Leave time in your agenda to recap what’s been discussed and decided, along with next steps and responsibilities.

Berkiw-Scenna typically allots time to each discussion point—five minutes for introductions and context-setting, for example, and perhaps 20 minutes to discuss a decision that needs to be made. Zafar, on the other hands, prefers to not allot times per discussion point. “I think you have to be flexible,” he says. “If you make five-minute intervals, it becomes very confining.” He adds, though, that someone needs to be in charge of moving things along.

Give people what they need to prepare

While it’s common practice to distribute the agenda in advance to give attendees time to think about the meeting topics, you may also need to provide them with other information, says Paul Axtell, personal effectiveness consultant and author of Meetings Matter: 8 Powerful Strategies for Remarkable Conversations. So, think about what other data and accompanying information would be helpful for you to provide.

Naeem distributes his agendas in advance, then uses them to conduct a “silent meeting” to kick off some of his meetings. Attendees read the agenda as a shared document and comment on it, adding insight or answers. “Most of the issues are resolved in the document itself,” he says. Then, the group discusses the remaining—and typically more complicated—agenda items. This also helps prevent the loudest voices in the room from taking over the meeting.

Assign an “agenda-keeper”

Whether it’s the person running the meeting or another attendee, give someone the responsibility for sticking to the agenda, Zafar says. He also reinforces his agendas by writing the meeting goals or purpose in a place where everyone can see them. That way, if the conversation goes too far off topic, someone can simply point to the purpose statement. “Every time we are deviating, I just stand up, point to what we wrote down, and don’t even say anything,” he says. “And that really focuses the group.”

Get consensus when changing course

Zafar says it’s not uncommon to get into a meeting and find that an unexpected problem has come to light or that the agenda needs to change. “After the first 10 minutes, you figure out that you have bigger fish to fry—that’s a tricky situation, which happens more often people realize,” he says.

But before you simply pivot, the leader of the meeting should gain consensus among the people attending about shifting the agenda by explaining the need to change the discussion to deal with more pressing issues. This shows respect for the people and the time they have spent preparing, he says.

Use the agenda as a follow-up tool

Axtell says that a properly structured agenda lends itself to being a framework for follow-up to ensure that the meeting’s decisions and assigned responsibilities are carried out. “Add a summary of what has been decided and who has agreed to do it,” he says. “Now you have a record, so more people will do what they say. There’s a visible piece that captures what was agreed upon.”

By putting a little thought, structure, and support into the lowly agenda, it can help meeting attendees be more prepared, which will likely help make your meetings more effective.