Write an agenda that gives the purpose, outcome and owner of each item.
Shu Fen is a marketing executive at a retail chain. Their calendar invite for next week is titled "Q4 planning", and the description reads "Agenda: 1. Budget 2. Events 3. AOB". From that, nobody can tell whether they are deciding something, giving an update or just listening. So nobody prepares, and the first twenty minutes of the meeting go on working out what the meeting is for.
An agenda is the cheapest tool you have for a good meeting, but it has to say more than a list of topics. Ten minutes of writing the day before saves the first twenty minutes of every person in the room.
Before you write any items, write one sentence that says why the meeting exists. This is the purpose sentence. It should name an outcome, meaning something that is different by the end. "Discuss" makes a weak purpose because discussing has no finishing point. "Decide" makes a strong one because it has an end: once the decision is made, the meeting can finish, even early. Shu Fen's purpose sentence is: decide the Q4 event calendar and the budget split.
The purpose sentence also helps people decide whether they need to attend, which is the question Lesson 6.1, "Decide if this needs to be a meeting at all", deals with. Someone with no involvement in events can read it and ask to be sent the notes instead of coming.
If you can't write the purpose in one sentence, either the meeting is trying to do too much or you don't yet know what you want from it.
Labels such as "budget" or "events" give the subject but not what has to happen. Rewrite each item as an outcome or a question. Shu Fen's "Budget" becomes "Agree the Q4 budget split between events and digital." "Events" becomes "Choose two of the four proposed events for November." A vendor item becomes "Should we renew the AV vendor contract or go to tender?"
Written this way, each item tells attendees what is being asked of them. The finance person knows to bring numbers for the split, and whoever proposed the events comes ready to argue for them. It also tells the chair when an item is done. Once the question has an answer, you move on.
AOB stands for any other business, and it often becomes the place where big topics arrive without warning. If you keep it, give it a short fixed slot of five minutes at the end, and ask people to say in advance if they plan to raise something.
Next to every item, write how long it gets and who leads it. The item owner introduces the item, has done the background work and proposes a way forward.
Put decisions first. Energy and attention are highest at the start of a meeting, and decisions left at the bottom get squeezed or rushed after the updates overrun. Updates that only inform can go last, or go into the pre-read and be skipped in the meeting entirely.
Be realistic about times, because most items take longer than you expect, decisions especially. Add up the minutes. If the total is more than the slot, cut items or move them to a later meeting rather than hoping people will talk faster.
Shu Fen sent the rewritten agenda the day before, titled "Q4 planning, Thursday 3pm to 3.50pm, Meeting room 4 and Teams". Under the purpose sentence, it listed these items:
Agree the Q4 budget split between events and digital. Shu Fen, 15 min. Options in the attached sheet. Choose two of the four proposed events for November. Arun, 20 min. Event summaries attached. Should we renew the AV vendor contract or go to tender? Grace, 10 min. Updates and AOB, 5 min. Tell Shu Fen by Wednesday if you have an item.
The four items add up to 15 + 20 + 10 + 5 = 50 minutes, which fits the 3pm to 3.50pm slot.
An agenda that arrives just before the meeting is only a list of headings. People need time to read papers, check numbers and form a view. Send the agenda and any pre-reading at least one working day before, and earlier for a big decision.
Keep pre-reading short. People read a one-page summary with the options and a recommendation. A 30-page deck usually gets opened for the first time in the meeting. If you need the long version, attach it underneath with the summary on top. Lesson 1.2, "Build longer messages as a pyramid: point, reasons, detail", shows how to structure it.
If your team tends not to read in advance, the chair can open the meeting by giving everyone three minutes to read the one-pager. It feels odd the first time, but everyone then works from the same facts.
Find a real meeting in the next week or two that you own, or that you could offer to draft the agenda for. Before you write any items, try writing the purpose sentence and see whether it describes a result. If it does, the items usually follow from it.
Pick a real meeting coming up and write its agenda: a one-line purpose, then each item written as an outcome with a time and an owner.
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