Don’t Do Meeting Agendas

It’s not a type-o. That’s right. Stop doing them. All these meetings but still most of us come out confused. We ask ourselves things like, “Did we get anything done? I didn’t get the answer I needed to move forward. What’s everyone getting Millie and Jimmy for a wedding gift?”

The Harvard Business Review says we spend about 23 hours of our weeks in meetings (and 70 percent of managers say they're unproductive). Most team meetings are like that Friends episode about Rachel’s English Trifle . They're a mix of everything. And setting an agenda before a team meeting doesn’t help either. Being on the receiving end of someone else's already made agenda is like getting a pink bunny suit for Christmas . No one wants it.

Here’s what to do about it. Try to this instead:

1. Everyone on your team buys into what is the most important goal that needs to be accomplished over the next six months. The goal must be something where everyone agrees that if the team doesn’t succeed then a big opportunity will be missed.

2. Create objectives for that one big goal and assign leaders on the team to each objective. For example, if the most important thing is an upcoming acquisition then one of the objectives might be identifying and unifying efficiencies and it gets assigned to one person to be accountable for it and report about its progress at each meeting.?

3. At each meeting, the team clarifies that it is still focusing on the most important goal in the months ahead then the leader allows each objective leader to say whether their objective is green, yellow, or red.

4. Make your meeting agenda in real time by putting what’s “red” (problems) on the agenda to allow the team to iron out the critical issues and enable the objective to move forward.

I know. Business is so sophisticated and we’re all too busy for something so simple to work. Right? I tried it the traditional way for years. I hated the meetings. My whole team did but when we switched it up this way - it worked. We were engaged. Don't just take my word for it. Another example of this method working is from Alan Mullaly’s time at Ford . Yes - the biggest car company in the world runs meetings like this.

You may find that it gives clarity in what your team needs to rally around over a longer period of time as well as determine what are the problem areas that need attention today. Best of all - everyone, especially the leader, stops bringing the metaphorical Jello molds, fruit cakes, and pink bunny costumes to the meeting.

Jamie Bearse is the CEO of ZERO Prostate Cancer . He's a NonProfit Nerd, a Pop Culture Geek and loves to talk about building great teams.