Parent Post
Agendas are an important
Agendas are an important first step for a successful meeting, but far too few leaders put enough thought into the ones they create.
So what can you do to create agendas that inspire, target the issues, and leave attendees satisfied? Instead of listing agenda items as simple bullet points, reframe them as questions. By populating the agenda with questions rather than topics, you’ll begin to think and act differently as you design the meeting.
The approach will make you more strategic, thinking critically about the meaning of a topic and your outcome. To reap the benefits of this question-based approach, there are four keys to success. 👉
Privilege the most important
Privilege the most important questions first.
Put your most compelling questions at the start of the meeting. This will not only assure coverage of key issues; it is also a way of quickly grabbing attendee attention and conveying the value of the meeting.
And while it is fine to start a meeting with 5 minutes or so of news and notes, after that concludes, go all in addressing the most challenging, important, and vexing questions.
Execute on the agenda.After
Execute on the agenda.
After your set of questions is finalized, distribute the meeting agenda in advance so people have time to think about and prepare for the questions to be addressed. Then the meeting leader needs to execute the agenda. The most successful leaders not only consider what should be covered in a meeting, but also how to cover each item.
Design questions that are
Design questions that are specific and challenging.
Think about creating agenda questions for meeting attendees as you would go about creating goals for your employees.
Create specific questions so that attendees are clear about what the challenge or problem is, thus better focusing collective meeting efforts. Research also shows that difficult but doable goals are the most motivating types of goals. Similarly, agenda questions should be designed to challenge but not be so outlandish that attendees fail to take them seriously and experience frustration.
Way forward…There are numerous
Way forward…
There are numerous approaches to consider.
To pick the right tool for the job, think about the attendees, the tasks, the history, and the meeting’s potential pitfalls.
Ultimately, a questions-based approach to agendas can bring focus, engagement, and better performance to your meetings. If you have never tried this approach, give it a go. This will not only help make meetings better, but will also build a broader team culture of learning, taking reasonable risks, and non-complacency.
Collaborate to identify questions
Collaborate to identify questions that truly matter.
There is no magic formula for the ideal number of questions. What is important is to have the right questions. To identify them, the leader should first generate potential questions from their perspective.
Next, take input on the agenda from the attendees because meetings are collective experiences, allowing other voices is only appropriate. Reflect on each question’s value and strategic importance and drop questions that do not make the cut.
