Tips on how to create an agenda for effective meetings by HBR

An article in Harvard Business Review (Mar 19, 2015) by Roger Schwarz offers timeless tips and a sample template for designing an agenda that supports effective meetings. Decisions uses these same practices in its own agenda builder for Microsoft Outlook.

Tips from Roger:

• Seek input from team members. 
• Select topics that affect the entire team. 
• List agenda topics as questions the team needs to answer.
• Note whether the purpose of the topic is to share information, seek input for a decision, or make a decision. 
• Estimate a realistic amount of time for each topic. 
• Propose a process for addressing each agenda item. 
• Specify how members should prepare for the meeting. 
• Identify who is responsible for leading each topic. 
• Make the first topic “review and modify agenda as needed.” 
• End the meeting with a plus/delta. 

Read the full article and access the sample agenda template online: https://hbr.org/2015/03/how-to-design-an-agenda-for-an-effective-meeting

Get Decisions Meeting Secretary for Outlook to access an agenda builder integrated into the tool you already use to schedule your meetings.