Having an agenda can be the difference between a wasted meeting and a great meeting.

So what makes a great agenda?

Just 3 things:

1. Keep it simple
2. Communicate it in a timely fashion
3. Make sure it’s complete

Let me explain just a little about my rationale for each in turn…

1. Keeping It Simple

Keeping an agenda simple ticks a lot of boxes, you can draw it up quicker and on any device, you can get it out to your intended audience quicker and it can be read on any device to name but a few.

There’s a great quote from Einstein which can be applied to lots of aspects of life and business, but applies very well here: “Keep it as simple as it can be and as complex as it needs to be“.

2. Communicating In A Timely Fashion

A timely fashion means different things to different people in different industries and depending upon the nature of the meeting, but usually this means send out the proposed agenda nice and early.

Early communication is rarely a bad thing and, particularly when people are expected to show up and contribute something, they will appreciate knowing as early as possible what to expect and what’s expected of them.

In contrast, late and poorly communicated agendas can lead to a bad rep and poor attendance.

Reminders form part of timely communication and again will depend upon various things, not least the culture of your organization or your relationship with the recipient(s).

For example: in a culture where meeting attendance has dropped dramatically, a gentle reminder about a meeting with a good agenda attached a day or even a few hours before the meeting is probably a very good idea (i.e. in addition to the earlier communication of the agenda).

Whether a reminder is written (e.g. email), via an alert system (e.g. built into your calendar system) or verbal (e.g. a brief courtesy call) or not needed at all is completely up to you and to be carefully decided.

3. Making Sure Your Agenda is Complete

In my view, for an agenda to be complete it needs 3 things: the items to be discussed, who is responsible for each agenda item (even if an agenda item will involve several parties, then it is always useful to specify one lead so that someone is clearly accountable for providing that input) and how long the agenda item will take (which translates to how much time from the overall meeting time is assigned to that item).

Note: The sum of the time allocated to each item should equal the time of the meeting – if it’s 10 mins short then add a final agenda item “a.o.b. (10 mins)” 😉 … if it’s 10 mins over, then you need to do some recalculating before you send that baby out!

Though not technically part of the agenda, a good meeting invite should also contain the name or title of the meeting, the location (including dial-in/joining details if via audio or video conference), the name of the chairperson and attendees and a clear indication of whether each attendee is expected/mandated to attend or an optional attendee.

Having complete information in an agenda, communicated early is a great way to manage expectations and allow people to prepare accordingly, avoiding wasted time in the meeting itself and making for a far more productive meeting for all concerned.

Of course there are times when an agenda should contain more, but in most cases my simple agenda strategy has served me very well. I use a plain-text agenda wherever possible and communicate it via good old email (and attached to the meeting invite when using a calendar).

Like this:

Of course there are also times when an agenda isn’t needed or is best avoided in case it makes a very informal meeting such as a coffee/catch-up seem too formal.

I’m often amazed (especially in the corporate world) by how much time some people waste ‘crafting’ an agenda and then ending up sending it much later than they could have and then changing it and resending it anyway.

When an agenda is in a fancy presentation and changes include re-formatting, that’s all just wasted time which could have been spent on real work.

A simple, plain-text agenda is easy to write, easy to send, easy to read and easy to change if needed.