HOW TO PUT AN AGENDA TOGETHER FOR A MEETING
Lately I have been invited to attend meetings that have dragged on for ever and ever and ever...Whether on Zoom or in person.
To begin with, in my opinion, this shows an absolute lack of respect for the participants' time. Beyond that, meetings that are not planned out and lack an agenda are hard to keep on time and on point. They create an aimless mess with little accountability and tracking opportunities.
Early on in my career, I was taught how to mediate meetings by a professional mediator - what she was able to do in thirty minutes of meeting takes others two hours to get through.
Why?
Because she planned out the meetings and gave an actual time for how long each point would be discussed. She also assigned roles and tasks early on in the meeting. This made people accountable for the five or ten minutes of the meeting. What was the purpose of that: inclusion and delegation.
No one person should do all the work - so by assigning parts of the meeting to others and moderating a meeting with a clear agenda and times set out for each part of the agenda - what do you get: quantifiable and measurable assignments in a short period of time.
So the next time you organize a meeting, may I suggest that you do the following;
Create a list of the items you want to discuss;
Decide how much time you want to discuss each topic;
Ask the person responsible for that department or idea to present the topic;
Allow others to think out of the box and respect their opinions;
Revisit things that haven't worked in the past with an open mind - maybe this is the year that they will make your event exceptional;
Keep an open mind to everyone's input;
Seek a positive outcome;
Summarize each point so that everyone knows what they are doing;
Keep it light and fun - no one wants to sit in a negative meeting;
NEVER go overtime!
No muss - no fuss...and no, I didn't use ChatGPT for this - I used my own little grey cells - but I could have and the sentence structure could have been cleaner,
I'm sure...but this wasn't the right time or place!
HAVE A GREAT WEEK! ENJOY! LIFE IS SHORT!