The Importance of Meeting Agendas

Better Meetings Start with Better Agendas?

Meeting agendas are essential to promoting successful meetings and making employees more productive.?

While many meetings are necessary to keep business growth moving forward, research indicates that more than 50% of meeting time is wasted and that unproductive meeting time translates into $37 billion annual waste in the US (Better Business Meetings). Conducting useless meetings will never align with your business growth strategies.?

According to 3M, the ‘average’ meeting in the US...

• lasts 1 hour and 30 minutes?
• Involves 9 people?
• Has about two hours of notice before the meeting
• Has no advance written agenda (63%)
• Completely covers agenda only one-half of the time (53%)?

One of the biggest problems afflicting meetings is unclear objectives.

The best way to ensure that your meeting won’t be effective or efficient is to go into it unsure of what you’re trying to accomplish. This is why having a set agenda prior to meeting is key for both internal and external meetings. It ensures that you’re not wasting the time of your colleagues, your sales team, or most importantly, the time of your customers and prospects.?

A clear meeting agenda provides:?

• topics of discussion?
• a leader/presenter for each topic?
• a suggested time allotment for each topic?
• an outline of the meeting
• a checklist to ensure all topics are covered
• key objectives of the meeting

When scheduling a meeting, it’s the responsibility of the meeting organizer to present clear objectives to each attendee prior to the meeting. The agenda should always be circulated in advance of the meeting so that attendees know what to expect and have time to prepare. It’s the attendees’ responsibility to come into the meeting having read those objectives and be ready to discuss them.?

A best practice is to send an agenda several days before the meeting, with a minimum of 24 hours advance notice. When creating an agenda, the organizer should consider what topics need to be covered at the meeting and how the meeting should flow.?

Sales Meetings

For sales reps, when meeting with prospects, it’s recommended that you (or a personal assistant and virtual executive assistant) send a meeting confirmation email including the meeting agenda and your sales materials in advance—otherwise, there’s a good chance that your prospect may spend the whole meeting reading through your deck as opposed to listening to your pitch, negating the entire purpose of your meeting.?

Bottom Line

A clear and circulated meeting agenda with set objectives is crucial for an effective meeting, and it's vital for attendees to be well-prepared in order to maximize productivity and focus during discussions.?

In case you missed it:

From the Prialto blog archives.

6 Key Elements of an Effective Meeting Invitation

Meeting Confirmation Email: The Power of Confirming Appointments

How No Meeting Days Will Help You Get Deep Work Done