Pre-Meeting Mastery: Cut the Wasted Time with the Power of an Agenda

I thought it was a silly concept when I was first tasked with creating an agenda for an upcoming meeting. To date, I hadn’t seen an advisor invest time into crafting an agenda prior to a meeting. Frankly, my impression was, “This extra minor task will be underappreciated by the prospect and will have little impact on the outcome of my meeting...”

For most of us, it’s another busy week of work with tasks and meetings accumulating faster than we can check them off. While you remain busy, it does not mean you’re more productive. In fact, corporate culture has made it too easy for us to get pulled into meetings that drain our time, energy, and focus. Unfortunately, these meeting distractions impact our long-term productivity.

Consider the following statistics:

• Atlassian’s research found that as many as 72% of all meetings are ineffective.
• Managers only spend an average of 3.6 hours of their workday on actual tasks, and only about half of that time is spent on productive tasks.
• Non-managers spend about 4.2 hours a day on tasks, with about 53% of that time spent on productive activities.
• Furthermore, it takes an average of 23 minutes to get back on track after being interrupted for a meeting.

Beyond taking our most precious commodity — time — I bet you can imagine the financial impact to an organization from lost productivity as a result of needless meetings.

Meeting prep also plays an important part with external stakeholders and new business opportunities. An agenda is the first impression for a prospect preparing for a meeting with your sales team. It makes all stakeholders aware of what is expected, who should attend, and what outcomes will be achieved from the time spent together. So, I argue, make your first meeting impression as powerful as possible and stand out from your competition by using a structured meeting agenda.

Anatomy of an Agenda

An effective agenda should achieve three things:

1. Identify who should participate in the meeting.
2. Address what will be discussed during the meeting.
3. Explain how everyone should prepare for the meeting.

Consider incorporating my M.A.P. Framework into your virtual calendar appointments so all parties, whether participating in the meeting or not, have access to the same structured information:

• Meeting Objective: Clearly define the primary goal of the meeting. This ensures that everyone understands the central purpose right from the start.
• Advance: Provide all necessary pre-meeting materials in advance. This allows participants to come prepared, having reviewed all relevant information beforehand.
• Program: Outline a detailed agenda that specifies the flow of topics and the timing of each segment.

This M.A.P. approach not only enhances meeting efficiency but also ensures that every participant is aligned and prepared, making the most out of the time spent together.

Meeting Objective

What is the purpose of the meeting? This statement should be clear and concise, similar to an executive summary. If you only have a statement or two to capture a busy executive’s attention, what would that statement be? Most participants should be able to determine if the meeting would be worth their time and energy based on the meeting objective. Consider these examples:

1. Objective: To review the research findings of our risk discovery process and discuss strategies for risk mitigation.
2. Objective: To identify the three to five issues to be addressed should our agency be the preferred partner for your risk management and insurance needs.
3. Objective: To understand the current and future family dynamics and explore strategies to minimize risks associated with the family’s owned assets.

Advance

How often have you shown up to a meeting to review materials that you later felt would have been more productive to review on your own time? In many cases, meetings for the sake of meetings can be a big time-waster. Before sending a meeting agenda or meeting appointment, consider what pre-meeting materials can be sent out to the meeting participants. This may alleviate the need for a meeting altogether or dramatically shorten and streamline your meetings because most (or all) participants will come prepared to discuss their thoughts, findings, or perspectives.

Include relevant meeting materials as an attachment to your calendar invitations, but also note them in the calendar description as well. I personally prefer to create a one-page PDF copy of the meeting details using the M.A.P Framework, which means I note the pre-meeting materials on that document below the Meeting Objective for record-keeping purposes.

Program

Finally, what are the specific items that will be discussed outlined in an agenda format? Under each item to be addresses, include specific topics or sub-categories that should be discussed as well. And when possible, note who should take the lead on each specific item. Having a clear and concise guide will help you keep your meeting on track and facilitate discussion because each participant knows when and where to contribute to the meeting.

Pre-Meeting Mastery

I learned early in my career that you should never start an important meeting without an agenda. I would suggest you send out a virtual meeting agenda via a calendar invite or as an attached PDF more than 24 hours before your meeting. Then, 24 hours before your scheduled meeting, follow up with all parties, reminding them of the agenda and any pre-meeting materials that should be reviewed.

If your meeting is in-person, print a copy of the agenda for everyone in attendance. This helps create structure, demonstrates professionalism and respect for other people’s time, and can be a great source for note-taking.

When you incorporate this simple tactic into your customer and employee experience program, you will see appreciation from all parties and more time saved from unproductive meetings. People will be more enthusiastic about meeting with you because they know you’re mindful of other people’s time. Consider using the M.A.P Framework for your next big business meeting and see how it transforms your level of professionalism.