Page 18 - CFESA Magazine Sept - Oct 2017

Meeting Agendas:

BUSINESS Set Your Meetings Up for Success
INTELLIGENCE by KMA Human Resources Consulting

Have you ever walked away from a meeting shaking your head in frustration, feeling as though
it wasn’t a good use of your time? There are many key ingredients to making sure your meet-
ings are productive. Agendas will get your team thinking ahead and they provide a road map
toward achieving results.

The Power of Agendas
Think of a meeting agenda as a guide that allows you and other meeting participants to stay
focused. An agenda answers several important questions about “why” you are meeting. It also
puts everyone on the same page with the conversations that will ensue. Here are four tips for
using agendas to run meetings more efficiently.

1. Send your agendas in advance of the meeting. When scheduling a meeting online, al-
ways include the agenda in the proposal. This allows attendees time to consider the topics of
discussion, bring resources, and think about what they might want to say to add value in the
conversations. It’s also a good idea to ask for any addi-
tional items for the agenda that you may have missed.

2. Typically, the person who has proposed the
meeting is the facilitator. However, an agenda also
empowers attendees to help keep the meeting on
track and hold themselves accountable to saying on
topic. If the meeting gets off track, use your agenda to
bring the team back on focus. If the detoured discus-
sion is important, then agree to schedule a meeting
covering that topic in the future.

3. Use verbs when writing an agenda. This simple but powerful approach makes it very
clear what is intended with each of the topics you plan to cover

4. Review the agenda and general time frames at the start of your meeting. It is helpful to
provide limits for each topic with this review. Relay your confidence that these topics can be
effectively covered in the meeting time allotted.

Sample Agendas
Below are several sample agendas with specific actions and objectives for the meetings:

Meeting Purpose: Cover all bases for upcoming open house.
• Confirm final head count.
• Create time-line of the evening’s events.
• Identify all roles needed at various stations and primary functions at each.
• Appoint specific responsibilities to those station roles.
• Create position schedules.
• Identify floaters and point people.

18 CFESA Magazine SEPT / OCT 2017 www.cfesa.com