Design Your Meeting Agendas the Whole Brain? Way

Meetings can either fuel collaboration and results or drain energy and productivity. One key to making them effective? A well-structured agenda. When designed with Whole Brain? Thinking, your team meeting agenda engages every participant by aligning with diverse thinking preferences, ensuring clarity, focus, and meaningful discussions.

A traditional agenda outlines discussion topics, sets expectations, and keeps meetings on track. A Whole Brain? agenda, however, goes further—incorporating different cognitive styles to enhance participation, creativity, and decision-making. By applying this approach, your meetings will be more inclusive, engaging, and outcome-driven.

Follow these six steps to creating a Whole Brain? team meeting agenda that ensures productive, structured, and engaging discussions.

1. Identify the Objectives (Blue & Green Thinking)

Before drafting an agenda, define what you want to accomplish.

• What are the key discussion topics? (Blue)
• What decisions need to be made? (Blue)
• What information must be shared in advance? (Green)
• Who should attend, and what roles should they play? (Green)

2. Establish Meeting Norms (Green & Red Thinking)

Meeting norms create a structured yet inclusive environment.

• Define how discussions will be conducted (Green).
• Encourage open participation and respectful dialogue (Red).
• Set expectations for confidentiality or unique meeting formats (Green).

3. Solicit Agenda Topics (Red & Yellow Thinking)

Some meetings follow a standing agenda, but Whole Brain? meetings encourage input from diverse perspectives.

• Allow team members to suggest discussion points (Red).
• Include brainstorming or creative problem-solving (Yellow).
• Ensure all voices are heard, including those who may not usually speak up (Red).

4. Draft the Agenda (Green & Blue Thinking)

An effective Whole Brain? agenda includes.

• Key meeting details: Time, location, attendees (Green).
• Topics & time allocations: Helps stay on track (Green).
• Meeting goals: Clarifies purpose (Blue).
• Facilitator and speaker roles: Assigns responsibilities (Green).

5. Share the Agenda Before the Meeting (Blue & Green Thinking)

To ensure preparation and alignment:

• Distribute the agenda at least 24 hours in advance (Green).
• Encourage participants to review data or reports ahead of time (Blue).

6. Encourage Whole Brain? Engagement During the Meeting (All Four Quadrants)

A Whole Brain? agenda facilitates a well-rounded discussion.

• Start with a check-in or team update (Red).
• Review facts and key data (Blue).
• Ensure structured discussion and action planning (Green).
• Allow space for brainstorming and innovation (Yellow).

Every meeting should have a purpose, and the agenda is a simple yet powerful way to define that purpose. Implementing Whole Brain? Thinking ensures that meetings are not only structured but also inclusive of different cognitive styles.

When you embrace cognitive diversity in your team, you’ll find meetings are better organized, more engaging, and more productive for everyone involved.

Your Whole Brain? Reading List:

• 5 Steps to Overcome and Prevent Meeting Fatigue
• 6 Team Meeting Ideas to Improve Engagement
• How to Use AI in Meetings to Help Your Team Thrive?

[On-Demand Webinar] The Power of Productive Meetings

“This meeting could have been an email!” ??

Saying that a lot lately? Research shows that the average worker spends around 31 hours monthly in meetings. That’s almost a full workweek’s worth of time!

Our on-demand webinar, The Power of Productive Meetings: Unlocking Success Through Purposeful Collaboration, will equip you with practical strategies and best practices to run better meetings. You’ll learn how to set clear objectives, foster active participation, make better decisions, and hold your team accountable — whether you’re in-office or remote!

Transform your meetings from unproductive and time-consuming to purposeful and efficient. Watch the webinar on demand.

About This Newsletter

Are you bringing your Whole Brain? to work?

We created this newsletter to help employees at all levels decode and harness their cognitive diversity through the Whole Brain? Thinking Model. Each issue highlights actionable tips for better understanding your thinking preferences — and other people’s preferences — so you can unlock better thinking, performance, and results in your flow of work.

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