meeting business plan

How to Conduct a Business Plan Meeting or Strategy Meeting

Doing a business plan meeting will help you stay on track throughout the next 12 months. Follow this strategy meeting agenda to review your business plan goals, make tweaks to your business plan direction and update timelines and accountability so that you are farther along one year from now.

Quick note: you can download a free sample business plan for several different industries from MoreBusiness.com. Then, edit the business plan to create a custom one for your company.

Table of Contents

Business Plan Meeting

While many companies hold their meetings in January, the time of year doesn’t matter. If you haven’t updated your business plan in over a year, set up a time on your calendar to do it as soon as possible.

You can have your strategy meeting offsite, like a strategic planning retreat, or in your office. Offsite strategy meetings often include team building activities as well as strategic business topics.

We hold our meetings at our office over 5 days, 2 hours per day in the mornings. After each business planning session, we take the team out for lunch (or have it catered in). This allows us to break up the day and keep the creative juices flowing. It also allows our team to keep up with their normal activities in the afternoon so client issues are addressed.

Our goal is to dive deep while having fun. Here’s how we do it. Read our strategy meeting agenda below or watch this 6-minute video:

Strategy Meeting Agenda

Every business plan meeting is broken up into specific topics that we cover. We prepare a strategy meeting agenda for everyone to follow and take notes on.

We also make it a point to connect regularly throughout the year. Doing so helps us make sure we are on track to meet each milestone and enables us adjust the plan as necessary.

1. Create a List of Accomplishments and Shortcomings

It’s important to evaluate where you have been before you can figure out where you are going. You must know what worked and what didn’t. Take an honest look at your business and create a list of what you did well (accomplishments) and what didn’t go so well (shortcomings).

We go through accomplishments first and write a large list on our white board. We take a picture so nobody has to transcribe the list while we are shouting out answers.

Inevitably, during our discussion of shortcomings, we remember other accomplishments so we have a blank space on the white board to write those down.

Encourage your staff to speak without feeling shy about the answers. How comfortable they are in sharing their thoughts is a reflection of your company culture .

2. Review Company Values

Everyone at our company has a framed list of company values in their office. The list is simple, about 4 lines. It provides a lens from which we can ensure that new goals are in line with what is important to us.

This part of the strategy meeting agenda is usually fairly quick, but it is an important reminder that sets the stage for the next series of topics.

3. Answer These Strategic Planning Questions

This is the longest portion of your strategy meeting. Talk about SWOT – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Look at your competitors to see what they are doing better than you and how you could change to compete.

Ask questions like these and take notes without judging any comments:

• What are our biggest sources of revenue?
• What are our smallest sources of revenue?
• How much time does each revenue source take to service?
• If we stopped providing low revenue products and services, how would that impact the company? Would it free up time to focus on high revenue opportunities?
• What is our competition doing that we aren’t? If we offered something similar, how would that affect our revenue and expenses? Would it change our focus?
• What new lines of products or services should we consider adding?
• Have our customers been requesting something that we aren’t providing?
• What changes are occurring in our industry that could affect us?
• Are there any new or pending laws that will impact sales or customers? Should we lobby our legislators to change these laws?
• What are our financial goals for the next 12 months? 24 months?
• How will we get there?

Your mission at this step in the strategic planning process is to come up with key goals that make sense – and that you can measure (more on that next).

Remember to look at each item with your company values in mind. If a new product idea doesn’t line up with your values, it will not be a good fit for your business.

Next, take the time to create a list of all of these ideas and tasks.

4. Rank Each Task by Difficulty, Value and Priority

Once you have a detailed list of ideas for the next 12 months, you need to prioritize them. Every company has limited resources. If you focus on irrelevant activities, you will limit your growth. Setting priorities is an essential part of your strategy meeting agenda.

Next to your newly created list of goals, add three columns: difficulty, value, and priority. You will assign a number from 1-10 for difficulty and value and 1-3 for priority.

Difficulty : start by ranking each goal or idea in terms of difficulty to accomplish, 10 being the hardest. The difficulty should be higher for tasks that require longer time commitments to complete.

Value : rank each task by the value it brings to the company as a whole, not to an individual employee. Use 10 as your marker for having the most value. For example, if adding a new product line would create a significant revenue stream, that task would have a high rank. Look at each task as “nice to have” vs. “must have” to sort out what will provide the most value.

Priority : once you have ranked each task’s difficulty and value, you can set a priority. Tasks that have low difficult and high value should get a high priority since they are the easiest to do and will provide you with quick benefits. Give those a priority of 1. Tasks with high difficulty and low value should be marked with a priority of “Not Yet” to indicate they are not the best bang for your buck at this time.

This process enables you to determine which tasks should bubble to the top of your action item list.

5. Set Milestones and Assign Accountability

Create a spreadsheet for each quarter that lists each task and who is responsible for working on it. Add deadlines and milestones so you can tell if you are on track.

Monthly Meeting

Don’t invest all the time to hold a strategy meeting and then let your action items sit on a shelf collecting dust.

Schedule a monthly meeting to review your strategic planning goals. This means you will have just 3 meetings per quarter. Use these high level meetings to make course corrections and adjustments to your plan.

You should also meet weekly to go over specific tasks that dive into the details of each high level goal. These weekly meetings supplement that strategic topics covered in each monthly meeting.

Download MoreBusiness.com’s agenda for a  one-on-one meeting  (it’s free) to plan and track meetings with each team member.

Over time, you may find that some of the goals from your strategy meeting are no longer appropriate. Be flexible enough to recognize that you may need to make changes before your next business plan meeting.

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The 16 Types of Business Meetings (and Why They Matter)

It’s not that the advice is wrong, per se. It’s just not specific enough.

• Introduction
• Background: The thinking behind the taxonomy
• Cadence Meetings
• Catalyst Meetings
• Meetings to Evaluate and Influence
• Table: Summary of Types
• Example: How Different Types of Meetings Work Together

For example, it’s not wrong to tell people they need an agenda with clear outcomes listed for every topic. It just doesn’t apply to a lot of situations. An exquisitely detailed agenda for the one-on-one with my boss? For the sales demo? For our morning huddle? Yeah, I don’t think so. For the board meeting or the requirements analysis meeting? Absolutely.

Sometimes an organization has a pervasive problem with meetings. People complain that there are too many meetings, nothing gets done, it’s wasted time, it’s all power and politics instead of productivity—and they start to look for solutions. They find lots of generic advice, and they find lots of this kind of drivel:

Crushing morale, killing productivity – why do offices put up with meetings? There’s no proof that organisations benefit from the endless cycle of these charades, but they can’t stop it. We’re addicted. by Simon Jenkins for the Guardian September 2017

This article is wildly popular. Over 1000 people who hate having their time wasted in meetings paradoxically had extra time they could spend commenting here to express their agreement and outrage.

Mr. Jenkins has clearly struck a nerve. It’s the kind of pandering that drives clicks and sells ads, which makes that a job well done for the Guardian. But it’s also nonsense.

There’s no proof that organizations benefit from meetings? You can only say something like that when you’re speaking too generally for anyone to know what you’re talking about. Because otherwise – did you hear that, sales teams? There’s no proof those client meetings help your company. Go ahead and cancel them! Hospital workers, stop wasting your time in those shift-change meetings! You should know what to do without talking to each other so much – go heal people already! Boards? Board meetings are for losers. Just use chat and email to manage all your governance duties.

When you get specific about the kind of meeting you’re talking about, the generic “meetings waste time” or “you must have 5 people or less” statements become ridiculous, and people who complain about meetings in general sound like childish whingers.

A meeting is not a meeting.

Want to skip the background information? Jump ahead to the taxonomy.

This doesn’t mean that meetings in general work great and that there’s no problem to solve here. It just means that there isn’t a singular meeting problem that has a simple meeting solution .

This is a challenge for us!

At Lucid, we work to help our clients get meaningful business results from their meetings, and to do this, we have to get specific. The coaching we provide for our committee clients is not the same advice we give to leadership teams .

Mr. Jenkins correctly points out that when you invite 20 people to a meeting designed for 5, it doesn’t work anymore. Well, duh. His conclusion is that meetings don’t work. A more useful conclusion is that if you’re going to invite 20 people, you should run a meeting designed to work for 20 people. That’s entirely doable, but it’s also a very different meeting.

In brief: the solution to a meeting problem depends on the kind of meeting.

Which raises the question: what are the different kinds of meetings? If it isn’t useful to provide guidelines for all meetings, is it at least possible to establish useful guidelines for a certain type of meeting? Or do we really need to look at each and every single meeting as if it was totally unique and special?

This question has driven much of our work over the past 10 years.

We found that there is a core structure underlying all successful meetings , acting as a kind of skeleton. Every meeting needs bones, but after that, the kind of animal you get on top of those bones can vary wildly. A fish is not a bird is not a kangaroo, despite the fact that they all have a head and a tail.

We found that meetings work together , and that looking at individual meetings in isolation leads to misunderstandings. It’s like studying a single bee; the drone’s dance doesn’t make a lot of sense unless you know that there are other bees watching. Meetings are designed to beget action that is evaluated and built upon in subsequent meetings, and the sequence and cadence at which these meetings occur drives the momentum of that action. Looking only at a single meeting means you miss the clues that lead to the honey.

We work with facilitators and experts to design agendas and guidebooks for running specific meetings . We’ve seen where the structures look the same, and where they differ. There are lots of specific ways to run a status meeting, but even though there’s a lot of variety between them, every status meeting still looks way more like every other status meeting than it does like any strategic planning session. Mammals are more like other mammals than any of them are like an insect.

And of course we work with clients and hear concerns about all those things that the experts don’t talk about, like how to lead a decent meeting when the group thinks meetings aren’t cool, or how to prepare in advance when your goal is to “wow” everyone during the meeting. We know people worry about how to walk those fine lines between inclusiveness and efficiency, and between appropriate framing and facilitation on the one hand, and manipulation on the other. We hear how they experience specific meetings in the context of getting real work done and can see how priorities shift between getting the content right and getting people connected.

A Taxonomy for Meetings

From all of this, we’ve developed a taxonomy for meetings that we use to help answer these questions:

• Assessing Meeting Performance Maturity : Which kind of meetings does an organization run, and which ones does it need to know how to run well? How well does it run those meetings?
• Meeting Design : If I need to design a new meeting, is there a core pattern I can build on? What factors of the design have the greatest impact on the success of this kind of meeting?
• Meeting Problem Diagnoses: If there is a problem with a meeting, are there common requirements for that kind of meeting that I can check first? Are there things going on in that meeting that might work in other meetings, but are incompatible with success in this one?
• B.S. Filter: Is the advice I’m hearing or reading relevant to the success of this meeting, or is it meant for another sort? Or worse, is it generic B.S.?

Background Work: Forming the Hypothesis

We’re not the first to propose a meeting taxonomy. If you search for “types of meetings” and if you read any books on meetings, you’ll find many ways to break down meetings by type. Most lists include between 4 and 6 different types; things like Issue Resolution meetings and Decision Making meetings.

To build our taxonomy, we started with a set of 6 types and a list of all the different kinds of meetings we could think of, then tried to match them up.

This was frustrating. No matter which list we started with, within a few minutes we always found an example that didn’t fit.

For example, Google used this list of the 6 Types of Meetings from MeetingSift as the definitive list for years. It’s very similar to many other lists out there.

• Status Update Meetings
• Information Sharing Meetings
• Decision Making Meetings
• Problem Solving Meetings
• Innovation Meetings
• Team Building Meetings

So – you tell me. Which one of those does the board meeting fit into? How about the project retrospective? The answer is that meetings like the ones that you might actually find on your calendar can fit into several of these types.

Whenever we found a meeting that didn’t fit, we set it aside and asked “Why?” What is it about that meeting which meant it should be treated differently than these others?

Because we are focused on driving tangible business results, we found we needed to get more specific. In the end, we found that there were three major factors that impact how to approach a meeting.

• The Meeting Intention
• The Meeting Format

The Expected Participation Profile

Our current taxonomy uses these factors to describe 16 distinct meeting types and gives a nod to a significant 17th that falls outside of our scope.

The Differentiators: Intention, Format and Participation Profile

Before we dive into the specific types, let’s take a look at the factors that make them distinct in more detail.

Meeting Intention

The intention behind a meeting is most often expressed as the meeting’s purpose and desired outcomes. In other words, why do people run this kind of meeting? What is it meant to create?

There are two major outcomes for any meeting: a human connection and a work product. We found that many attempts to categorize meetings dealt only with the work product, which often led to bad advice.

For example, the intention of a decision-making meeting is:

• A decision (the work product) and
• Commitment to that decision from the people in the room (a human connection outcome)

It is very easy to run a decision-making meeting that achieves 1 (a decision) but fails to achieve 2 (commitment), and therefore will fail to deliver the expected business result. If you have ever been in a meeting where you’re discussing a decision you thought had already been made, you know this to be true.

Our taxonomy attempts to look at both kinds of outcomes when describing the meeting intention.

When we first started looking at meeting format, we used a standard breakdown of “formal” and “informal” to help distinguish between the board meetings and the team meetings, but we abandoned that pretty quickly because it didn’t hold up in practice.

In practice, we found that while boards have rules that they must follow by law, and they do, this didn’t necessarily mean that the majority of the meeting followed any very strict structure. Many board meetings actually include lots of free-form conversation, which is then briefly formalized to address the legal requirements.

By contrast, we would have considered an Agile team’s daily stand-up meeting to be an informal meeting. Heck, we run those and I don’t always wear shoes. But despite this casual, social informality, the daily stand-up runs according to a very clear set of rules. Every update includes just three things, each one is no longer than 2 minutes, and we never ever ever problem solve during the meeting.

It turns out that formal and informal told us more about a participant’s perception of social anxiety in a meeting than it did about the type or format of a meeting. I experience stand-ups and interviews as informal, largely because I’m in charge and am confident of my role in these meetings. I doubt everyone I interview considers it an informal chat, though, and I imagine our stand-up may feel pretty uptight to someone who wasn’t used to it.

Instead of formal and informal, we found that the strength of the governing rituals and rules had a clearer impact on the meeting’s success. By this measure, the daily stand-up is highly ritualistic, board meetings and brainstorming sessions abide by governing rules but not rigidly so, and initial sales calls and team meetings have very few prescribed boundaries.

This still didn’t quite explain all the variation we saw in meeting formats, however. When we looked at the project status update meeting, we realized it shared some characteristics with the board meeting, but these project meetings aren’t governed by rules and laws in the same way. And while the intention for project updates is always the same—to share information about project work status and manage emerging change—there’s a ton of variation in how people run project status updates. Some teams are very formal and rigid, while others are nearly structure-free. This means our “governing rituals” criteria didn’t work here.

The format characteristic all project status update meetings do share, and that you’ll also see with board meetings, is a dislike of surprises. No project manager wants to show up to the weekly update and get surprised by how far off track the team is, or how they’ve decided to take the project in some new direction. Board members hate this too. For these meetings, surprises are bad bad bad!

Surprises are bad for project updates, but other meetings are held expressly for the purpose of finding something new. The innovation meeting, the get-to-know-you meeting, the problem-solving meeting all hope for serendipity. Going into those meetings, people don’t know what they’ll get, but they try to run the meeting to maximize their chances of something great showing up by the time they’re done.

So, when categorizing meetings based on the meeting format, we looked at both:

• The strength of governing rules or rituals
• The role of serendipity and tolerance for surprise

Last but not least, we felt that who was expected to be at a meeting and how they were meant to interact had a major impact on what needed to happen for the meeting to succeed.

The question behind these criteria is: what kind of reasonable assumptions can we make about how well these people will work together to achieve the desired goal?

Remember: every meeting has both a human connection outcome and a work outcome.

This has many significant design impacts. For example, in meetings with group members that know each other already, you can spend less meeting time on building connections. We don’t do introductions in the daily huddle; we assume the team handled that outside the meeting.

In meetings where the work product is arguably far more important than the human connection, it’s not always necessary for people to like one another or even remember each others’ names as long as the meeting gets them all to the desired goal efficiently. A formal incident investigation meeting does not need the person under investigation to know and like the people on the review board to achieve its goal.

By contrast, some meetings only go well after the team establishes mutual respect and healthy working relationships. The design of these meetings must nurture and enhance those relationships if they are to achieve the desired outcomes. Weekly team meetings often fail because people run them like project status updates instead of team meetings, focusing too heavily on content at the expense of connection, and their teams are weaker for it.

After much slotting and wrangling, we found there were three ways our assumptions about the people in the room influenced the meeting type.

• A known set of people all familiar with one another. Team meetings fit here.
• A group of people brought together to fit a need. Kickoffs, ideation sessions, and workshops all fit here.
• Two distinct groups, with a clear us-them or me-them dynamic, who meet in response to an event. Interviews fit here, as do broadcast meetings and negotiations.
• The expected leadership and participation styles. Every type of meeting has a “default” leader responsible for the meeting design; usually the boss or manager, a facilitator, or the person who requested the meeting. Most also have an expected interaction style for participants that, when encouraged, gets the best results. Some meetings are collaborative, some very conversational, like one-on-ones, and some are very formal – almost hostile. Still others, like the All-Hands broadcast meeting , don’t require any active participation at all.
• The centrality of relationships. Finally, we looked at whether the meeting’s success depended on the group working well together. Nearly every meeting that teams repeat as part of their day-to-day operations works best when team members get along, and becomes torturous when they don’t. Outside of regular team meetings, there are also meetings designed explicitly to establish positive relationships, such as the first introduction, interviews, and team chartering workshops. In all these cases, a successful meeting design must take relationships into account.

Criteria We Considered and Rejected

There are lots of other factors that influence how you plan and run any given meeting, but we felt that they didn’t warrant creating a whole new type. Here are some of the criteria that impact meeting design, but that we didn’t use when defining types.

Location and Resources

Face-to-face or remote, walking or sitting, sticky notes or electronic documents; there’s no question that the meeting logistics have an impact. They don’t, however, change the underlying goals or core structure for a meeting. They simply modify how you execute it.

A design workshop for creating a new logo will deal with different content than one for developing a new country-sponsored health plan or one for creating a nuclear submarine. At the human level, however, each of these design workshops needs to accomplish the same thing by engaging the creative and collaborative genius of the participants in generating innovative solutions. Similarly, project meetings in every field look at time, progress, and budget. The content changes, but the core goals and format do not.

This one is like logistics. You absolutely have to change how you run a meeting with 20 people from how you led the same meeting with 5. But again, the goals, the sequence of steps, the governing rituals – none of that changes. In general, smaller meetings are easier to run and more successful on a day-to-day basis. But if you legitimately need 20 people involved in that decision, and sometimes you do, that is an issue of scale rather than kind.

Operating Context

What comes before the meeting and what’s happening in the larger ecosystem can have a huge impact on how a team approaches a meeting. A decision-making meeting held in times of abundance feels radically different than one you run to try and figure out how to save a sinking ship . Even so, the underlying principles for sound decision-making remain the same. Some situations absolutely make it much harder to succeed, but they don’t, in our opinion, make it a fundamentally different kind of meeting.

Now, given that extended lead-up, what types did we end up with?

The 16 (+1) Types of Meetings

I’ve broken our list into three main groupings below and provided details for each type. Then, at the end, you’ll find a table with all the meeting types listed for easy comparison and a spreadsheet you can download.

Quickly, here’s the list. Details are below.

Team Cadence Meetings

• Progress Updates

One-on-Ones

• Action Review Meetings

Governance Cadence Meetings

• Idea Generation Meetings

Planning Meetings

• Decision Making Meeting

Sensemaking

• Introductions

Issue Resolution Meetings

• Community of Practice Meetings

Training Sessions

Broadcast meetings.

Want to learn more about this chart? See the follow-up post on the Periodic Table of Meetings .  

Cadence Meetings We Review, Renew, Refine – Meetings with Known Participants and Predictable Patterns

As we do the work of our organizations, we learn. The plans we made on day one may work out the way we expected, but maybe not. New stuff comes up and before too long it becomes obvious that we need to adjust course.

Organizations use these meetings to review performance, renew team connections, and refine their approach based on what they’ve learned.

All of these meetings involve an established group of people, with perhaps the occasional guest. Most happen at regular and predictable intervals, making up the strategic and operational cadence of the organization.

These meetings all follow a regularized pattern; each meeting works basically like the last one and teams know what to expect. Because the participants and the format are predicatable, these meetings often require less up-front planning and less specialized facilitation expertise to succeed.

The meeting types in this group are:

• Ensure group cohesion
• Drive execution
• the Weekly Team Meeting
• the Daily Huddle
• the Shift-Change Meeting
• a Regular Committee Meeting
• the Sales Team Check-In Meeting

Expected Participation Profile

These meetings are typically led by the “boss” or manager, but they can be effectively led by any team member. The best results happen when everyone invited engages collaboratively. Healthy relationships are important to meeting success.

Meeting Format

Team cadence meetings follow a regular pattern or standard agenda, which can be very ritualistic. Team meetings should surface new information and challenges, but big surprises are not welcome here. (Unless they’re super awesome!) These meetings are about keeping an established team personally connected and moving towards a common goal, and not about inspiring major change.

To learn more, visit our Team Cadence Meetings Resource Center.

Back to the list of types ⇧

Progress Checks

• Maintain project momentum
• Ensure mutual accountability
• the Project Status Meeting
• the Client Check-In

Project managers and account managers lead these meetings, and everyone else participates in a fairly structured way. In many ways, these meetings are designed to inform and reassure people that everyone else on the team is doing what they said they’d do, or if not, to figure out what they all need to do to get back on track. Functional relationships matter, but it’s not as important to the overall result that these people enjoy each other’s company. Because these meetings are mostly designed to “make sure everything is still working”, which matters to project success and the organization’s ability to plan, they can often be very boring for the individual contributors who already know what’s going on with their work.

Project updates follow a regular pattern. Some are very strict, others less so; this varies by the team and the kind of work they do. Surprises are entirely unwelcome. Any major surprise will cause a meeting failure and derail the planned agenda.

To learn more, visit our Progress Check Meetings Resource Center.

• Career and personal development
• Individual accountability
• Relationship maintenance
• the Manager-Employee One-on-One
• a Coaching Session
• a Mentorship Meeting
• the “Check In” with an Important Stakeholder

These meetings involve two people with an established relationship. The quality of that relationship is critical to success in these meetings, and leadership may alternate between the participants based on their individual goals. While these meetings may follow an agenda, the style is entirely conversational. In some instances, the only distinction between a one-on-one and a plain ol’ conversation is the fact that the meeting was scheduled in advance to address a specific topic.

One-on-ones are the loosey goosiest meetings in this set. Experienced and dedicated leaders will develop an approach to one-on-ones that they use often, but the intimate nature of these meetings defies rigid structure. People tend not to enjoy surprises in one-on-ones, but they infinitely prefer to learn surprising news in these meetings rather than in a team or governance cadence meeting. If you’re going to quit or fly to the moon or you’ve just invented the cure to aging, you’re way better off telling your manager privately before you share that with the board.

To learn more, visit our One-on-One Meetings Resource Center.

Action Reviews

• Learning: gain insight
• Develop confidence
• Generate recommendations for change
• Project and Agile Retrospectives
• After Action Reviews and Before Action Reviews (Military)
• Pre-Surgery Meetings (Healthcare)
• Win/Loss Review (Sales)

These meetings are led by a designated person from the team. When run well, action reviews demand highly engaged and structured participation from everyone present. Because action reviews are so structured, they don’t require the individuals involved to be great friends. They do, however, require professionalism, focus, a commitment to building psychological safety, and strong engagement. Action reviews that happen too infrequently or too far away in time from the action tend to become more conversational and less powerful.

Action reviews are highly ritualistic; these are the kind of meetings that inspire the use of the word “ritual”. The action review is a tool for continuous learning; the more frequently these are run and the tighter the team gets, the faster they learn and improve. Teams can and will change how they run these meetings over time based on what they’ve learned, and this avid pursuit of change for the better is itself part of the ritual. Action reviews take surprise in stride. The whole point is to learn and then refine future action, so while huge surprises may cause chagrin, they are embraced as lessons and used accordingly.

Can you tell these are some of my favorite meetings?

To learn more, visit our Action Review Meetings Resource Center.

• Strategic definition and oversight
• Regulatory compliance and monitoring
• Board Meetings
• Quarterly Strategic Reviews
• QBR (a quarterly review between a vendor and client)

The teams involved in governance meetings are known in advance but don’t necessarily work together often. Nor do they need to; these aren’t the kind of meetings where everyone has to be pals to get good results. These meetings are led by a chair or official company representative, and participation is structured. This means that while there are often times for free conversation during a governance meeting, much of the participation falls into prescribed patterns. These are often the kind of meetings that warrant nicer shoes.

Governance cadence meetings are highly structured. When run professionally, there is always an agenda, it is always shared in advance, and minutes get recorded. Governance meetings are NOT the time for surprises. In fact, best practice for important board meetings includes making sure everyone coming to that meeting gets a personal briefing in advance (see Investigative or One-on-Ones) to ensure no one is surprised in the meeting. A surprise in a governance cadence meeting means someone screwed up.

To learn more, visit our Governance Cadence Meetings Resource Center.

Catalyst Meetings The Right Group to Create Change – Meetings with Participants and Patterns Customized to Fit the Need

New ideas, new plans, projects to start, problems to solve, and decisions to make—these meetings change an organization’s work.

These meetings are all scheduled as needed, and include the people the organizers feel to be best suited for achieving the meeting goals. They succeed when following a thoughtful meeting design and regularly fail when people “wing it”.

Because these meetings are scheduled as needed with whomever is needed, there is a lot more variation in format between meetings. This is the realm of participatory engagement, decision and sense-making activities, and when the group gets larger, trained facilitation.

Idea Generation

• Create a whole bunch of ideas
• Ad Campaign Brainstorming Session
• User Story Brainstorming
• Fundraiser Brainstorming

Idea generation meetings often include participants from an established team, but not always. These meetings are led by a facilitator and participants contribute new ideas in a structured way. While it’s always nice to meet with people you know and like, established relationships don’t necessarily improve outcomes for these meetings. Instead, leaders who want to get the widest variety of ideas possible are better off including participants with diverse perspectives and identities. Relationships are not central here; ideas are.

These meetings start with the presentation of a central premise or challenge, then jump into some form of idea generation. There are loads of idea-generation techniques, all of which involve a way for participants to respond to a central challenge with as many individual ideas as possible. Unlike workshops or problem-solving meetings, the group may not attempt to coalesce or refine their ideas in the meeting. Here, idea volume matters more than anything else. Organizations run these meetings when they aren’t sure what to do yet; the whole meeting is an entreaty to serendipity. As such, there are few governing principles beyond the rule to never interfere with anyone else’s enthusiasm.

To learn more, visit our Idea Generation Meetings Resource Center.

• Create plans
• Secure commitment to implementing the plans
• Project Planning
• Campaign Planning (Marketing)
• Product Roadmap Planning
• and so on. Every group that makes things has a planning meeting.

Planning meetings often involve an existing team, but also involve other people as needed. Depending on the size and scope of the plans under development, these meetings are led by the project owner or by an outside facilitator. Participants are expected to actively collaborate on the work product. They may or may not have established relationships; if not, some time needs to be spent helping people get to know each other and understand what each of them can contribute. That said, these meetings are about getting a job done, so relationships don’t get central focus.

Planning meetings vary depending on the kind of plan they’re creating, but generally start with an explanation of the overall goal, an analysis of the current situation, and then work through planning details. Planning meetings end with a review and confirmation of the plan created. Planning meetings are not governed by rules nor do they follow specific rituals; the meeting format is dictated more by the planning format than anything else. Because planning meetings happen very early in an endeavor’s life cycle, successful meetings design for serendipity. Anything you can learn during this meeting that makes the plan better is a good thing!

To learn more, visit our Planning Meetings Resource Center.

• Group formation
• Commitment and clarity on execution
• One or more tangible results; real work product comes out of workshops
• Project, Program and Product Kickoffs
• Team Chartering
• Design Workshops
• Value Stream Mapping
• Strategy Workshops
• Team Building workshops

Groups are assembled specifically for these meetings and guided by a designated facilitator. These meetings put future work into motion, so the focus may be split equally between the creation of a shared work product (such as a value stream map or charter document) and team formation since successful team relationships make all the future work easier. Workshops often incorporate many of the elements you find in other types of meetings. For example, a workshop may include information gathering, idea generation, problem solving, and planning altogether.

Because they attempt to achieve so much more than other meetings, workshops take longer to run and way longer to plan and set up. Most workshops expect participants to actively engage and collaborate in the creation of a tangible shared result, and a lot of effort goes into planning very structured ways to ensure that engagement. When it comes to business meetings, these are also often as close to a working party as it gets.

Smaller kickoffs may follow a simple pattern and be held in the team’s regular meeting space, but many workshops take place in a special location; somewhere off-site, outside, or otherwise distinct from the normal work environment. All these meetings start with introductions and level-setting of some kind: a group exercise, a review of the project goals, and perhaps a motivational speech from the sponsor. Then, the team engages in a series of exercises or activities in pursuit of the work product. Since these meetings are long, coffee and cookies may be expected. Workshops conclude with a review of the work product, and often a reflective exercise. That said, while the basic pattern for a workshop is fairly standard, these are bespoke meetings that do not adhere to any particular rituals. The people who plan and facilitate the meeting work hard to create opportunities for serendipity; they want the team to discover things about each other and the work that inspires and engages them.

To learn more, visit our Workshops Resource Center.

Problem Solving

• Find a solution to a problem
• Secure commitment to enact the solution
• Incident Response
• Strategic Issue Resolution
• Major Project Change Resolution

These meetings involve anyone who may have information that helps the group find a solution and anyone who will need to implement the solution. Depending on the urgency of the situation, the meeting will be led by the person in charge (the responsible leader) or a facilitator. Everyone present is expected to collaborate actively, answering all questions and diligently offering assistance. Tight working relationships can help these meetings go more easily, and participants who establish trust can put more energy into finding solutions since they worry less about blame and personal repercussions. That said, these meetings need the participation of the people with the best expertise, and these people may not know each other well. When this happens, the meeting leader should put extra effort into creating safety in the group if they want everyone’s best effort.

Problem solving meetings begin with a situation analysis (what happened, what resources do we have), then a review of options. After the team discusses and selects an option, they create an action plan. We’ve all seen the shortest version of this meeting in movies when the police gather outside of the building full of hostages and collaborate to create their plan. Problem solving meetings follow this basic structure, which can be heavily ritualized in first responder and other teams devoted to quickly solving problems. These strict governing procedures get looser when problems aren’t so urgent, but the basic pattern remains.

In a problem solving meeting, the ugly surprise already happened. Now the team welcomes serendipity, hoping a brilliant solution will emerge.

To learn more, visit our Problem Solving Meetings Resource Center.

Decision Making

• A documented decision
• Commitment to act on that decision
• New Hire Decision
• Go/No-Go Decision
• Logo Selection
• Final Approval of a Standard

Often a decision-making meeting involves a standing team, but like problem solving meetings, not always. These meetings may also include people who will be impacted by the decision or have expertise to share, even if they aren’t directly responsible for implementing the decision. Decision making meetings may be led by a designated facilitator, but more often the senior leader or chair runs them. People participate in decision making meetings as either advisers or decision makers. If the decision under discussion is largely a formality, this participation will be highly structured. If, on the other hand, the group is truly weighing multiple options, the participation style will be much more collaborative. Established relationships are not central to decision making meetings, but the perceived fairness and equanimity of the discussion is. When the group behaves in a way that makes it unsafe to voice concerns, these concerns go unaddressed which then weakens commitment to the decision.

Decision making meetings involve the consideration of options and the selection of a final option. Unlike problem solving meetings that include a search for good options, all that work to figure out the possible options happens before the decision making meeting. In many cases, these meetings are largely a formality intended to finalize and secure commitment to a decision that’s already been made. Ritual is high, and surprises unwelcome. In other situations, the group is weighing multiple options and seeking to make a selection in the meeting. There still shouldn’t be any big surprises, but there’s a whole lot more flexibility. For example, corporate leadership teams run decision-making meetings when faced with unexpected strategic challenges. Many of these teams revert to a structure-free conversational meeting approach; just “talking it out” until they reach a decision. Unfortunately for them, teams make the best decisions when their meetings follow a formal decision-making methodology .

To learn more, visit our Decision Making Meetings Resource Center.

Context Meetings Efforts to Evaluate and Influence – Meetings Between Us and Them, with Info to Share and Questions to Answer

These meetings are all designed to transfer information and intention from one person or group to another. They are scheduled by the person who wants something with the people they want to influence or get something from.

At the surface, that sounds Machiavellian, but the intention here is rarely nefarious. Instead, these meetings often indicate a genuine interest in learning, sharing, and finding ways to come together for mutual benefit.

Because each of these meetings involves some form of social evaluation, the format and rituals have more to do with etiquette and interpersonal skills than regulations or work product, although this is not always the case.

• To learn things that you can use to inform later action
• To gain an understanding of the current state of a project, organization, or system
• Peer Consults (aka Braintrusts)
• Project Discovery Meetings
• Incident Investigations
• Market Research Panels

Expected Participant Profile

These meetings may be led by an interviewer or facilitator. Participants include the people being interviewed and sometimes a set of observers. Engagement in sensemaking meetings may feel conversational, but it always follows a clear question-response structure. Most interviewers work to develop a rapport with the people they’re interviewing, since people often share more freely with people they perceive as friendly and trustworthy. That said, many sensemaking meetings work fine without rapport, because the person sharing information is expecting to benefit from it in the future. For example, if a doctor asks a patient to describe his symptoms, the patient does so willingly because he expects the doctor will use that information to help him feel better.

Many interviews are governed by rules regarding privacy, non-disclosure, and discretion. These formalities may be addressed at the beginning or end of the session. Otherwise, there are no strong patterns for a sensemaking session. Instead, people regularly working in these meetings focus on asking better questions. Like idea generation meetings, information gathering meetings delight in serendipity. Unlike idea generation meetings, however, the goal is not to invent new solutions but rather to uncover existing facts and perspectives.

To learn more, visit our Sensemaking Meetings Resource Center.

• Learn about each other
• Decide whether to continue the relationship
• a Job Interview
• the First Meeting Between Professionals
• the Sales Pitch
• the First Meeting with a Potential Vendor
• the Investor Pitch

Introduction meetings are led by the person who asked for the meeting. The person or people invited to the meeting may also work to lead the discussion, or they may remain largely passive; they get to engage however they see fit because they’re under no obligation to spend any more time here than they feel necessary. People attempt to engage conversationally in most introductions, but when the social stakes increase or the prospect of mutual benefit is significantly imbalanced, the engagement becomes increasingly one-sided.

There are no strict rules for meetings of this type as a whole, but that doesn’t make them ad-hoc informal events. On the contrary, sales teams, company founders, and young professionals spend many long hours working to “hone their pitch”. They hope this careful preparation will reduce the influence of luck and the chances of an unhappy surprise. The flow of the conversation will vary depending on the situation. These meeting can go long, get cut short, and quickly veer into tangents. It’s up to the person who asked for the meeting to ensure the conversation ends with a clear next step.

To learn more, visit our Introduction Meetings Resource Center.

• A new agreement
• Commitment to further the relationship
• Support Team Escalation
• Contract Negotiations and Renewals
• Neighbor Dispute

These meetings are led by a designated negotiator or moderator or, if a neutral party isn’t available, by whoever cares about winning more. All parties are expected to engage in the discussion, although how they engage will depend entirely on the current state of their relationship. If the negotiation is tense, the engagement will be highly structured to prevent any outright breakdown. If the relationship is sound, the negotiation may be conducted in a very conversational style. Obviously, relationship quality plays a central role in the success of a negotiation or issue resolution meeting.

The format for these meetings is entirely dependent on the situation. Formal treaty negotiations between countries follow a very structured and ritualistic format. Negotiations between individual leaders, however, may be hashed out on the golf course. These meetings are a dance, so while surprises may not be welcome, they are expected.

To learn more, visit our Issue Resolution Meetings Resource Center.

Community of Practice Gatherings

• Topic-focused exchange of ideas
• Relationship development
• The Monthly Safety Committee Meeting
• The Project Manager’s Meetup
• The Lunch-n-Learn

The people at these meetings volunteer to be there because they’re interested in the topic. An organizer or chair opens the meeting and introduces any presenters. Participants are expected to engage convivially, ask questions, engage in exercises when appropriate, and network when there isn’t a presentation going. These meetings are part social, part content, and the style is relaxed.

Most of these meetings begin with mingling and light conversation. Then, the organizers will call for the group’s attention and begin the prepared part of the meeting. This could follow a traditional agenda, as they do in a Toastmaster’s meeting, or it may include a group exercise or a presentation by an invited speaker. There’s time for questions, and then more time at the end to resume the casual conversations begun at the meeting start. People in attendance are there to learn about the topic, but also to make connections with others that create opportunities. Many hope for serendipity.

To learn more, visit our Community of Practice Meetings Resource Center.

• To transfer knowledge and skills
• Client Training on a New Product
• New Employee On-Boarding
• Safety Training

The trainer leads training sessions, and participants follow instructions. Participants may be there by choice, or they may be required to attend training by their employer. There is no expectation of collaboration between the trainer and the participants; these are pure transfers of information from one group to the next.

Training session formats vary widely. In the simplest form, the session involves the trainer telling participants what they believe they need to learn, and then participants ask questions. Instructional designers and training professionals can make training sessions way more engaging than that.

To learn more, visit our Training Meetings Resource Center.

• To share information that inspires (or prevents) action
• the All-Hands Meeting

Broadcast meetings are led by the meeting organizer. This person officially starts the meeting and then either runs the presentation or introduces the presenters. People invited to the meeting may have an opportunity to ask questions, but for the most part, they are expected to listen attentively. While they include presentations in the same way a Community of Practice meeting does, they do not provide an opportunity for participants to engage in casual conversation and networking. These are not collaborative events.

Broadcast meetings start and end on time. They begin with brief introductions which are followed by the presentation. Questions may be answered periodically, or held until the last few minutes. Because these meetings include announcements or information intended to inform later action, participants often receive follow-up communication: a copy of the slides, a special offer or invitation, or in the case of an all-hands meeting, a follow-up meeting with the manager to talk about how the big announcement impacts their team. The people leading a broadcast meeting do not expect and do not welcome surprises. The people participating often don’t know what to expect.

To learn more, visit our Broadcast Meetings Resource Center.

That said, I have heard people call broadcasts and training sessions “meetings” on multiple occasions. The all-staff meeting is often just announcements, but people call it a meeting. Project folks will schedule a “meeting to go over the new system” with a client, and that’s basically a lightweight training session.

And if we look at meetings as a tool we use to move information through our organizations, create connections between the people in our organizations, and drive work momentum, broadcast meetings and training sessions certainly fit that bill (as we’ll see in the story below).

Table: All 16 Meeting Types in the Taxonomy of Business Meetings

Now that you’ve seen the details, download this table as a spreadsheet .

Why a spreadsheet?

I expect people to use the taxonomy in one of these ways.

• Take inventory of your organization’s meetings. Which of these do you run, and which should you run? If you’re running one of these kinds of meetings and it isn’t working, what can you see here that may point to a better way?
• Make the taxonomy better. At the end of the day, our list of 16 types is just as arbitrary as MeetingSift’s list of 6 types. What did we miss? What doesn’t work? Let us know. Comments are welcome.

Since all models are wrong the scientist cannot obtain a “correct” one by excessive elaboration. On the contrary following William of Occam he should seek an economical description of natural phenomena. Just as the ability to devise simple but evocative models is the signature of the great scientist so overelaboration and overparameterization is often the mark of mediocrity. George Box in 1976 Journal of the American Statistical Association

Or, stated more economically, “ All models are wrong, but some are useful. ” We’ve tried to hit a mark that’s useful in a way that simpler lists were not. We invite your feedback to tell us how we did.

The 17th Type: BIG Meetings and Conferences

Just when you think you’ve really broadened your horizons and been very thoroughly inclusive, you meet someone who sets you straight. I recently had the pleasure of meeting  Maarten Vanneste , who is also a dedicated advocate for meeting design and the meeting design profession . It turns out that while we are using the same words, Maarten works in a very different world where a “meeting” might be a multi-day conference with dozens of sessions and a highly paid keynote speaker or 10. In that world, meeting planners handle logistics, room reservations, lighting requirements, branding, promotions… a wealth of detail that far exceeds anything we might worry about for even the most involved strategic planning workshop.

This is so different, why even mention it?

Because it’s another example of how using a generic word like “meeting” leads to bad assumptions . In case it isn’t clear, in this article when we talk about meetings and meeting design, we’re talking about the 16 types of day-to-day business meetings listed above. Professional meeting planning is a whole different kettle of fish.

How Different Types of Meetings Work Together: A Tale of 25 Meetings

To illustrate how the different kinds of meetings work together, let’s look at a typical sequence of meetings that you might expect to see in the first year of a company’s relationship with a major new client.

This is the story of two companies: ACME, makers of awesome products, and ABC Corp, a company that needs what ACME makes, and all the people working in these two companies that make their business flow.

Sam likes what he saw in the webinar.

Peter calls Sam and they schedule a demo meeting.

Peter tells Jill and the sales team about the upcoming demo with Sam at ABC.

Peter, Jill and Henri prepare before the demo with Sam at ABC.

Peter and Henri give a demo to Sam and Ellen. Ellen is impressed and asks for a quote.

Jill tells the CEO and the rest of the leadership team about the big ABC deal her sales team is working so everyone can prepare.

Peter goes over all the requests in his meeting with Ellen to make sure he understands them, but he’s in no position to authorize those changes. After the meeting, he takes the requests back to Jill.

Peter discusses the contract with Ellen. Ellen wants a better contract.

The leadership team meets to decide how to respond to Ellen’s contract demands. And they do!

Several more negotiation meetings and a security review later, and the deal is signed! Meeting 9: The Sales Handoff (Type: Introduction ) Now that the contract is signed, it’s time to get the project team involved. Peter arranges a meeting between Ellen and Sam and the customer team from ACME: Gary the project manager, Henri the solutions analyst, and Esme the account manager. Going forward, Gary, Henri and Esme will handle all the communication with Sam from ABC Corp. Before the meeting ends, the ACME team schedules a trip to visit ABC Corp the following week.

Peter introduces Sam and Ellen to the ACME team: Gary, Henri, and Esme.

Jill, Peter and the sales review the lessons they learned closing the ABC deal.

Sam escorts Gary, Henri, and Esme through a day of discovery meetings at ABC Corp.

With the background set, everyone works together to draft the project plan. People from the implementation team suggest ways they can easily handle some requirements, and identify items that will require extra time and creativity. They begin a list of issues to solve and one of risks to manage. Starting from the desired end date and working backwards, they work together to build out a draft timeline that shows the critical path, times when they’ll need committed resources from ABC, and places where they just aren’t sure yet what they’ll find. When they feel they understand how the project will go as best they can, they review their draft plan and assign action items. Gary will work on the project timeline, matching their draft plan with available resources and factoring in holidays. Henri will contact Sam to go over questions from the implementation team, and Esme will schedule the kickoff meeting with the client team.

Gary, Henri, and Esme meet with the implementation team members to draft a project plan.

Next, both teams dig into the details. They go over the project plan ACME created and suggest changes. They establish performance goals for how they expect to use the product, making it clear what a successful implementation will look like. They talk about how they’ll communicate during the project and schedule a series of project update meetings. They take breaks and get to know each other, and share cookies. Then they get serious and talk about what might go wrong, and outline what they can do now to increase their odds of success.

At the end, Ellen rejoins them and the group shares their updated project plan with her. They explain changes they made and concerns they still have, and ask a few questions. Finally, they go over exactly who does what next, and set clear expectations about how and when everyone will see progress. With the kickoff complete, they all adjourn to the local pub to relax and continue getting acquainted.

Esme and Ellen lead team members from both companies through the project kickoff

Happily for Gary, the ABC project is right on schedule. For now.

Gary, the other ACME PMs, and the ACME implementation team discuss project progress every week.

Surprise, Gary! Gary hates surprises.

Sam tells Gary there’s been a major shake-up at ABC, and the project is on hold. Oh no! What will Gary do?

Belinda can’t answer those questions, but she helps Gary relax and promises to get a team together who can give him the guidance he needs.

Gary meets one-on-one with his boss Belinda, and they make a plan.

Belinda, Gary, and the leadership team meet find a solution to the problems with the ABC project.

When Gary, Esme, and Sam meet, they each share their constraints and goals, then focus on those places where they seem to be at an impasse. 90 minutes of back and forth, and they reach a deal. The project deadline will move out 2 weeks because of the delay at ABC, but in recompense for the missed deadline, ACME will provide 4 additional training sessions at no charge for all the people at ABC that were just reassigned and need to be brought up to speed. It’s not perfect, but it works and the project gets back on track.

Esme and Gary meet with Sam to negotiate how they’ll finish the project.

ACME trainers teach the ABC team how to use the product.

Gary, Esme and the ACME team, along with Sam and the ABC team, meet with the ABC leadership group. They present their progress, sharing slides with graphs of tasks complete and milestones met. The leadership team asks questions along the way, making sure they understand the implications of the upcoming product launch. When everyone is satisfied, they turn to the CEO who is the decision maker in this meeting.

The launch is approved, and the new system goes live.

Gary, Esme, Sam and their teams ask the new ABC CEO to approve the project. She does!

Everyone agrees that, for the most part, this was a successful project. The client is happy, the product works well, and they made money. Still, there are lessons to learn. Peter and Henri realize that they saw signs that the situation at ABC wasn’t stable in those first few conversations, but they were so eager to win the client that they dismissed them. In the future, they’ll know to pay attention more closely. Gary and the implementation team discovered ways they could keep the project running even when the client isn’t responding, and they’ll build that into their next project plan. At the end of the meeting, the group walks away with a dozen key lessons and ideas for experiments they can try to make future projects even better.

The ACME team meets to discuss what they learned from the ABC project.

The ACME CEO talks about the ABC project with the ACME Board, and gets approval to pursue a new market.

Esme reviews how the product is working out for the ABC team with Sam in the Quarterly Business Review.

This case study becomes a central piece of content in the new marketing campaign approved earlier by ACME’s board.

The ACME marketing team interviews Sam about his experience with their products for a case study.

Sam tells Esme she’ll need to renew the contract with the new head of procurement. Esme gets ready.

Phew! What a journey.

We’ve talked about why it’s important to get specific about the kind of meeting you’re in, and then we looked at our taxonomy for classifying those meetings. Then, we explored how different types of meetings all work together to keep people connected and move work forward in the story of ACME and ABC.

In many ways, the story of Gary, Sam, Esme and the gang is just a story of people doing their jobs. A lot of people work on projects that run like the one described here. Sometimes everything works fine, other times they freak out; nothing unusual there. What you may not have paid much attention to before, and what the story works to highlight, is how often what happens on that journey is determined by the outcome of a meeting. The other thing we can see is that, while those folks on the implementation team may have thought the few meetings they attended were a waste of time, their contributions during meetings helped make the ABC project a success and had a major impact on the direction of the company. When we show up and participate in meetings, we connect with people who will then go on to different types of meetings with other people, connecting the dots across our organization and beyond.

With that in mind, let’s close by revisiting Simon Jenkins’ gripping headline:

Crushing morale, killing productivity – why do offices put up with meetings? There’s no proof that organisations benefit from the endless cycle of these charades, but they can’t stop it. We’re addicted.

Is it possible to run meetings that crush morale and kill productivity? Yes, of course it is. That doesn’t mean, however, that meetings are simply a useless addiction we can’t kick.

It means that some people are running the wrong kind of meetings, and others are running the right meetings in the wrong way. Not everyone does everything well. Have you ever eaten a sandwich from a vending machine? If so, you know that people are capable of producing all kinds of crap that does not reflect well on them or on the larger body of work their offering represents.

In the working world, meetings are where the action is. Run the right meeting well, and you can engage people in meaningful work and drive productivity.

Seems like a pretty nice benefit to me, and hopefully this taxonomy helps us all get there. 

General FAQ

Why do meeting types matter.

In the working world, meetings are where the action is. Run the right meeting well, and you can engage people in meaningful work and drive productivity. But if you’re running the wrong meeting, you’re pushing a heavy rock up a tall mountain.

What are the three main categories of meetings?

• Cadence Meetings – the regularly repeated meetings that make up the vast majority of the meetings held in the modern workplace.
• Catalyst Meetings – scheduled as needed, and include the people the organizers feel to be best suited for achieving the meeting goals.
• Learn and Influence Meetings – designed to transfer information and intention from one person or group to another.

What are examples of Cadence Meetings?

• Team cadence meetings
• Progress check meetings
• One-on-One meetings
• Action review meetings
• Governance cadence meetings

What are examples of Catalyst Meetings?

• Idea generation meetings
• Planning meetings
• Problem solving meetings
• Decision making meetings

What are examples of Learn and Influence Meetings?

• Sensemaking meetings
• Issue resolution meetings
• Community of Practice meetings
• Training meetings
• Broadcast meetings

To explore each of the 16 Meeting Types in more detail, visit our Interactive Chart of Meeting Types

Want More? Check out our Online Meeting  School!

Categories: meeting design

Elise Keith

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How to Facilitate a Successful Strategic Planning Meeting [Best Practices + Templates]

Written by: Raja Mandal

A strategic planning meeting isn't like your typical meeting where you sit around the table and discuss what happened last week.

It’s an event when leaders come together to assess the organization's current state, set long-term goals and create a roadmap to achieve them. As a meeting host, it's your job to make sure these high stake gatherings are productive.

According to Gartner, organizations that effectively unlock the capacity to implement new growth strategies increase their bottom line by 77% .

But where do you begin? How do you ensure that everyone is on the same page and that the meeting lives up to its billing?

This article will walk you through the steps of successfully running a strategic planning meeting and help you get the most out of it.

Let’s start!

Table of Contents

What is a strategic planning meeting, what is the purpose of a strategic planning meeting, benefits of a strategic planning meeting, how to run a strategic planning meeting.

• 10 Templates to Use for a Strategic Planning Meeting
• A strategic planning meeting is an opportunity for you and your team to gather and discuss your business's future and the steps needed to grow.
• A strategic planning meeting aims to assess the current position, set long-term goals, create a success roadmap, and bring diverse perspectives together.
• The seven steps of running a successful strategic planning meeting include defining the purpose, inviting the right people, developing an agenda, conducting a SWOT analysis, setting long-term goals, developing strategy roadmaps and using the right tools.
• Follow the six best practices to run a successful meeting; prepare background materials, set ground rules, encourage active participation, stay focused, manage time, document and share outcomes, and evaluate and reflect.
• Use Visme's easy-to-use tools and templates to create the visuals you need to run the meeting successfully. Sign-up for Visme to get started.

A strategic planning meeting is a gathering of stakeholders in an organization to create a strategic plan that outlines the organization’s goals and objectives and the strategies and tactics required. It's a time to assess the company’s current state, identify areas for improvement, set short and long-term goals and create a roadmap to achieve them.

During a strategic planning meeting, leaders from different departments or areas of an organization come together to share their insights and expertise. This collaboration brings together diverse perspectives and creates a more comprehensive plan.

The meeting may also include external stakeholders, such as customers or partners, to provide additional feedback.

Once the strategic plan is in place, it's essential to communicate it to the entire organization. This ensures that everyone is aligned with the organization's goals and understands their role in achieving them. Regular check-ins and progress reports can also keep the plan on track.

We know that the purpose of strategic planning is to set goals for the future and plan how to achieve them. But what does that mean in practice? How do you create a clear picture of where your company is headed?

Here are the purposes of a strategic planning meeting that you can use to guide your meetings:

Assess the Organization’s Current Position

One of the primary purposes of a strategic planning meeting is to evaluate the organization's current state. This involves reviewing its performance, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This information helps leaders identify improvement areas and create a plan that aligns with the organization's broader mission and vision.

Use the SWOT analysis template below from Visme’s library to capture and visualize the data you found in the meeting.

Set Long-Term Goals

Another crucial purpose of a strategic planning meeting is to establish long-term goals. These goals should be achievable, measurable, and aligned with the organization's mission and vision. They help provide direction and focus for the organization, ensuring all efforts are aligned towards a common purpose.

If you need help setting and reaching your goals, read this comprehensive guide on setting SMART goals . Also, here’s a SMART goal-setting template you can use to make your own.

Create a Roadmap for Success

Once the long-term goals are established, a strategic planning meeting is an opportunity to create a roadmap for success. This involves identifying the strategies and tactics required to achieve the goals, as well as the resources and timelines needed to execute them.

The roadmap should be realistic and actionable, providing a clear path to achieving the organization's objectives.

For example, suppose your strategic planning meeting is about redefining your marketing strategy. In that case, the roadmap should outline how your organization will move from its current approach to a more effective one.

Here's a roadmap template that you can customize to make your own.

Bring Together Diverse Perspectives

A strategic planning meeting provides an opportunity to bring together leaders from different departments and areas of the organization. This collaboration leverages the diverse perspectives and expertise of everyone involved, creating a more comprehensive plan that is better aligned with the organization's mission and vision.

Hey executives! Looking to cut design costs?

• Spend less time on presentations and more time strategizing
• Ensure your brand looks and feels visually consistent across all your organization's documents
• Impress clients and stakeholders with boardroom ready presentations

Sign up. It’s free.

Let’s discuss the benefits of a strategic planning meeting to assess whether your organization would benefit and make the sessions more effective and productive.

Also, you would understand why many organizations invest time and resources in strategic planning meetings.

1. Increased Clarity and Focus: Leaders can ensure that everyone is aligned and working towards a common purpose by setting long-term goals and creating a roadmap for success. This clarity and focus help to improve decision-making, increase productivity and ultimately drive results.

2. Improved Collaboration and Communication: Leaders from different areas of the organization come together to discuss a plan for the future. This collaboration helps to leverage diverse perspectives and expertise, creating a more comprehensive plan that aligns with the organization's mission and vision. Additionally, the strategic planning meeting allows leaders to communicate the plan to the entire organization, ensuring everyone is on the same page.

3. Better Resource Allocation: You can identify the resources required to achieve the organization's goals. By creating a comprehensive plan, you can better allocate resources, such as budget and personnel, to ensure they are used effectively and efficiently.

4. Increased Adaptability: A strategic planning meeting is not a one-time event. It's essential to check in on progress and make adjustments as needed regularly. This ongoing adaptability helps to ensure that the organization remains aligned with its long-term goals, even as circumstances change.

Now we will explore seven key elements that, when combined, create the perfect recipe for successful meetings.

From defining your meeting's purpose and goals to using visual aids and brainstorming tools, we'll provide practical tips and strategies to elevate your meeting game.

1. Define the Purpose and Goals of the Meeting

This is the obvious first step to running a strategic planning meeting. Nobody wants to host a meeting they don’t know the purpose and goals of. It would be a horrible day at work for any professional at any organization.

Ask yourself why the meeting is being held and what you hope to accomplish by the end of it. This could range from updating team members on project progress to brainstorming new ideas.

Once the purpose is clear, set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals for the meeting. These goals will guide the discussion and help participants focus on the objectives.

For best results, share the purpose and goals with all attendees beforehand so everyone comes to the meeting prepared and engaged.

If you have difficulty achieving goals, maybe you aren’t setting them right. Use Visme’s SMART goal-setting templates to set achievable goals. Here’s an example template.

2. Invite the Right People

A critical aspect of any successful meeting is inviting the right people. This means including stakeholders and decision-makers directly impacting the meeting's goals and purpose. Additionally, consider inviting subject matter experts or team members who can contribute valuable insights and perspectives to the discussion.

To ensure optimal engagement and productivity, avoid inviting too many attendees. This can lead to unproductive discussions and hinder decision-making. Before sending out invitations, consider each person's role in the meeting and how they can contribute to achieving the set goals.

3. Develop an Agenda

An agenda serves as a roadmap for your meeting, providing structure and direction. Start by listing the topics to be covered in order of importance or relevance. Allocate time slots for each topic, keeping in mind the overall duration of the meeting. Include breaks and time for Q&A or open discussion.

Share the agenda with attendees in advance, giving them ample time to prepare their thoughts and contributions. This will help the meeting run smoothly and ensure that all key points are addressed.

While setting up the meeting agenda, it’s easy to forget the small details. This easily understandable concept map template will help you plan the agenda. Customize it using Visme’s concept map maker to fit your needs.

4. Conduct a SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool that helps identify an organization's or project's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Incorporating a SWOT analysis into your meeting can help participants better understand the current situation and make more informed decisions.

Begin by having attendees brainstorm and discuss the internal strengths and weaknesses of the project or organization. Next, analyze the external opportunities and threats that may impact success. Encourage open and honest discussion, leading to a more accurate and comprehensive analysis.

Use our online SWOT analysis generator to capture and visualize the findings of your analysis. Find hundreds of SWOT analysis templates in Visme’s library and choose the one that matches your intent.

Here’s an example template to get you started.

5. Set Long-Term Goals

During the meeting, engage attendees in a discussion about the organization's future and the desired outcomes in the long run. Use the insights gained from the SWOT analysis to set realistic and achievable goals that align with the organization's vision and mission.

Ensure that the long-term goals are SMART and consider how they relate to the short-term objectives discussed earlier in the meeting. This will help create a cohesive strategy for success.

One example of setting a SMART long-term goal for an organization is to increase revenue by 25% within the next three years by expanding into new markets while maintaining our current customer base.

The goal is specific, outlining a measurable target for revenue growth through a percentage increase. It is achievable by considering both expansion and retention of customers, relevant to the organization's mission and vision and time-bound with a three-year timeline for achievement.

6. Develop Your Strategy Roadmap

With clear long-term goals in place, it's time to develop a strategic roadmap outlining the steps and milestones necessary to achieve them. This roadmap should include each step's key initiatives, responsibilities, resources and timeframes.

Encourage collaboration and input from all attendees to create a well-rounded and comprehensive roadmap. Once completed, share the strategy roadmap with relevant stakeholders to ensure alignment and commitment.

Read this comprehensive article on 11 roadmap templates and find the perfect one for your meeting.

7. Use Visual Aids and Brainstorming Tools

To enhance engagement and collaboration during your meeting, incorporate visual aids and brainstorming tools. These can include whiteboards, flowcharts, digital collaboration platforms and mind-mapping software.

Visual aids help participants better understand complex concepts while brainstorming tools encourage creative thinking and idea generation. By employing visual aids and brainstorming tools effectively, you can foster a more dynamic and interactive meeting environment that leads to better outcomes and more innovative solutions.

Choose the tools that best fit the needs of your meeting and attendees, and ensure all participants are comfortable using them.

If you are conducting the meeting online, using a whiteboard is the best way to keep everyone on the same page. Use Visme’s free online whiteboard tool to brainstorm your agenda, plan your meeting and successfully run the meeting.

The tool comes with many types of templates, such as mind maps, concept maps, flowcharts, storyboards and more. Furthermore, you get advanced yet easy-to-use features to improve collaboration, such as hand-drawing capabilities, notes, shapes, adjustable canvas and more.

And the best part is that you get access to every Visme feature, from animated graphics and illustrations to charts and graphs on the whiteboard.

11 Templates to Use for a Strategic Planning Meeting

To help you make your meetings more productive and efficient, we'll introduce you to 10 essential templates for your strategic planning meetings.

These templates cover various aspects of the planning process, including meeting agendas, project updates, sales strategies and more.

1. Meeting Agenda Whiteboard Template

Let’s begin with this meeting agenda whiteboard template. It visually represents the agenda, with different sections for each item. The whiteboard layout makes it easy to add, move and remove items as needed.

The “Agenda” section lists topics, presenters, dates and times. Learn about who will give presentations and what you can expect from them. The other sections briefly introduce the experts and information, such as organizations, places and objectives.

The template ensures that all necessary topics are covered during the meeting and that time is used effectively. It also allows for easy collaboration and brainstorming, as all attendees can see the agenda and contribute their ideas.

Visme’s collaborative design features will make your collaboration and brainstorming sessions more effective and streamlined. It will allow you to tag your team members, review, respond to and resolve comments, pin annotations, add sticky notes and more.

With the live editing feature, any collaborator can make changes to a design project and the changes will appear live.

Watch the video below to learn more about Visme’s collaboration features for teams.

2. Meeting Notes Whiteboard Template

With its sleek and modern design, the meeting notes whiteboard template is perfect for capturing and organizing the most important ideas and action items discussed during the meeting.

The complementary color combination and the presentation of the content in sticky notes give the template a neat and clean look. This will make it easy for participants to follow along and understand the most important points discussed during the meeting.

You can customize almost everything in this whiteboard template. Change the fonts, colors and text, add design elements and do whatever you need to create your own meeting notes whiteboard.

3. Project Status Report Template

The project status report template helps project managers keep track of their project status or progress. Make the most of the charts, graphs and tables in the template to display data for your project status report.

Use the line graph to demonstrate marketing expenses, bar graphs to exhibit online sales and the table to showcase your overall marketing performance.

With Visme, you can choose from 20+ types of charts and graphs for data visualization and 30+ data widgets to show your project progress.

For example, you can use a radial gauge to showcase how much progress your team has made and how much work still needs to be done.

If your meeting agenda includes assessing the current marketing strategy, you can use this template to show the project status report. However, you can customize this template and many other report templates from Visme’s library to present during the meeting.

Need help writing your project status report? Read this article on writing a project status report and learn more about it.

4. Team Plans and Status Reports Infographic Template

Whatever you’ve discussed in your meeting should be organized in a centralized document that everyone can access. This infographic template does exactly that. The project timeline section lets you outline the different phases of your project, and the bottom section acts as a checklist for the project status.

Customize the template with Visme infographic maker and replace the design elements such as illustrations, shapes and icons to fit your topic. Visme comes with 10,000+ vector icons , 3D graphics , animated illustrations and more that you can use to decorate your infographic.

5. Radar Chart Template

During the strategic planning meeting, you may need various data visualization tools to represent complex data in an easily understandable manner. This radar chart template is one of them. You can use it to present your company’s regional sales data.

To customize this template’s design, change the text and color scheme and add new design elements such as legible fonts, high-resolution photos and icons.

Visme has a shortcut feature that helps you find everything in Visme with just a press of the keyboard. Just type the “/” key on your keyboard, and a menu will pop up with everything you need.

6. Gantt Chart Infographic Template

Imagine you have been tasked with arranging a team-building retreat for your company. Your goal is to deliver a memorable experience for your colleagues by organizing engaging workshops, team-building exercises, and well-planned activities.

However, without a well-defined and comprehensive plan, you might overlook crucial aspects of the retreat, such as transportation and accommodations, or face difficulties in meeting deadlines.

The same goes for planning a strategic planning meeting. You need a clear and concise action plan to ensure everything runs smoothly and you achieve your objectives. This is where a program planning Gantt chart template comes in handy.

The Gantt chart visually represents a project's timeline, tasks and deadlines. With this template, you can organize all the necessary tasks and milestones in a clear and logical sequence.

So, if you want your strategic planning meeting to succeed, include a Gantt chart template in your toolkit.

7. Product Roadmap Whiteboard Template

Are you holding the strategic planning meeting to launch a new product or service? If yes, then you might be interested in this product roadmap whiteboard template. It comes with a modern design with bold colors and shapes that make it easy to read the content.

And since it’s in whiteboard format, you can bring everyone together to work on it and adjust the roadmap accordingly.

Use Visme's AI image generator to create stunning images, icons, illustrations and other graphics for your product roadmap. This will enhance the visual appeal of your product roadmap, making it more engaging and easier for your team members to comprehend.

8. Organizational Chart Template

In a strategic planning meeting, an organizational chart template is invaluable. It helps participants understand the company's structure and where they fit in. It enables you to identify potential communication gaps, overlaps or bottlenecks hindering the company's growth.

Depending on your company's specific needs, you must add, remove or modify positions and roles within the chart. Visme’s user-friendly interface makes it easy to perform these changes.

You can also customize the design and layout of the chart to fit your company's branding or style. Include your brand colors , brand fonts , company logo and more with Visme’s brand design tool .

Read this article about setting up your branding kit in Visme, or

9. Sales Strategy Presentation Template

This template is a powerful tool that can help you create an impactful sales strategy presentation quickly and easily. It includes all the essential elements of a successful sales presentation, including sales highlights, quarterly metrics, pitfalls and more. With this template, you can save time and effort in creating your presentation while ensuring that all critical elements are included.

It’ll help your participants understand the sales strategy and how it aligns with the company's overall goals and objectives. It enables team members to identify opportunities and challenges and develop action plans to achieve their sales goals.

You can easily customize the template to fit your needs and preferences by adding your company's branding or additional slides. It's also easy to update and modify as the sales strategy evolves.

Check out Visme’s dynamic fields feature . With this feature, you can create a sales strategy presentation that is not only visually stunning but also up-to-date and accurate. For example, you can use Dynamic Fields to automatically update your sales numbers, market data, or budget figures in real time, eliminating the need for manual updates.

10. Go-To-Market Strategy Presentation Template

Navigate the complex landscape of market entry by providing a clear and concise plan of action.

With this go-to-market strategy presentation template, you can identify your target audience, tailor your messaging, and outline the channels and tactics to reach them effectively. It provides a structured approach to launching your product or service, ensuring a successful and profitable entry into the market.

This template serves as a visual aid to guide your team's discussion and decision-making during a strategic planning meeting.

Customize the presentation with Visme’s presentation software . You can share, download or present directly with Visme’s presenter tool.

Visme’s presentation tool is loved by users from across the globe and is considered to be more powerful than other available tools.

Hear it from one of our loving users Jessica L. | Small-Business Owner.

"No need to go back to PowerPoint. Visme makes project presentations easy and fast. Lots of useful templates and excellent graphics. I enjoy the features they continue to add and update often. They make project work easy"

11. General Six-Pager Memo Plan

An Amazon 6-pager is a document that Jeff Bezo introduced to help improve and streamline Amazon's internal communication, guide meetings and help with team decision-making processes.

If you'd like to emulate the same strategic planning that Amazon implements, you can use this Amazon 6-page memo. It's customizable and can be used for a wide range of industries. It has a modern layout, which is fully customizable.

This template includes all the sections needed, such as an introduction, goal, business state, strategic priorities and more. Make this template yours by adding your logo and rebranding it with your company colors and fonts.

Best Practices for a Successful Strategic Plan Meeting

To ensure your strategic plan meeting is productive, follow these best practices before, during, and after the meeting.

Made with Visme Infographic Maker

Before the Meeting

1. prepare background materials.

Develop and distribute background materials that provide context and information relevant to the strategic plan meeting. These materials might include a summary of previous strategic plans, a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis, or an overview of the organization's current situation.

By sharing these materials in advance, participants can familiarize themselves with the context and be better equipped to contribute to the discussions. This means sharing reports, business cases, project plans, and more.

2. Establish Ground Rules

Set ground rules for participation and communication to ensure a productive and inclusive meeting environment. These may include guidelines on active listening, staying on topic or respecting differing opinions. Communicate these rules to all participants ahead of the meeting and encourage everyone to follow them during discussions.

During the Meeting

3. encourage active participation.

Facilitate open communication and collaboration by encouraging all participants to share their ideas, insights, and perspectives. This can be done by creating a comfortable environment and using engaging techniques such as brainstorming, round-robin discussions, or small group activities.

It's crucial for the meeting leader to actively listen to participants, ask open-ended questions, and provide positive reinforcement to foster a sense of inclusivity.

4. Stay Focused and Manage Time

Keep the meeting on track by sticking to the agenda and putting time constraints.

Establish time limits for each topic and use a timer to ensure discussions stay focused. As the meeting facilitator, be prepared to intervene if the discussion veers off course and redirect the conversation back to the primary objectives.

After the Meeting

5. document and share outcomes.

Record the meeting's main takeaways, decisions and action items, and distribute these to all participants. This documentation should be clear, concise, and well-organized, making it easy for everyone to understand their responsibilities and deadlines. A shared document can keep everyone accountable and informed about progress.

Using Visme’s meeting minute templates is one of the best ways to take notes during the meeting. Take important notes about what was discussed, what actions were taken, future plans and anything else you find essential.

Here’s an example meeting minute template that you can use:

6. Evaluate and Reflect

After the meeting, take time to evaluate its effectiveness and identify areas for improvement. Solicit participant feedback to gain insights into what worked well and what could be improved. Reflect on this feedback and implement changes for future strategic plan meetings to ensure continuous improvement in the planning process.

Once the meeting is over, use an evaluation report to summarize the meeting's outcomes and better understand its effectiveness. Visme offers a variety of evaluation report templates that are customizable to fit your specific needs. Here’s an example template that you can use right now:

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some of the most frequently asked questions to provide you with additional information.

Q. What Do You Discuss in a Strategic Meeting?

In a strategic meeting, you should discuss your organization's long-term goals, objectives and priorities. Review your current status, identify opportunities and threats, analyze internal strengths and weaknesses and develop action plans to achieve the desired outcomes.

Also, touch on key topics like vision, mission, values, competitive landscape, market trends and resource allocation.

Q. What Are the Objectives of a Strategic Planning Meeting?

The primary objectives of a strategic planning meeting are to establish a shared vision, set long-term goals and objectives, identify opportunities and threats and determine priorities.

These meetings are also important for allocating resources and creating actionable plans to drive organizational growth, competitiveness and sustainability.

Q. What Questions Should I Ask in Strategic Planning?

When engaging in strategic planning, ask questions that help clarify your organization's vision, mission, and critical success factors. Some questions include: What is our overarching purpose? Who is our target audience? What sets us apart from our competitors? What vulnerability?

By asking these questions, you'll better understand your organization's strategic position and the steps needed to succeed.

Q. What to Expect at a Strategic Planning Meeting?

You can expect a well-organized agenda, lively discussions, and collaborative decision-making at a strategic planning meeting. Participants will evaluate the organization's present situation, brainstorm possible solutions, prioritize initiatives and formulate action plans.

Additionally, the meeting may incorporate team-building activities and offer opportunities for feedback.

Q. How Do You Run a Strategy Review Meeting?

To run a successful strategy review meeting, plan a clear agenda and prepare materials from the previous strategic planning meeting. Find ways to adjust the plan, assign new tasks and take other necessary steps to meet your organization's goals.

Q. What is a Strategic Planning Session Checklist?

A strategic planning session checklist includes key steps such as setting objectives, selecting participants, preparing materials, designing an agenda and arranging logistics. Additionally, it covers post-meeting tasks like distributing minutes, monitoring progress, and evaluating outcomes.

You can use checklist templates from Visme’s library to prepare your own to make sure you don’t miss out on anything.

Maximize Your Meetings & Project Planning with Visme

A successful strategic planning meeting is a critical tool for any organization that seeks to achieve its long-term goals and objectives. By following the steps outlined in this blog, you can effectively plan and facilitate a strategic planning meeting that leverages the diverse perspectives and expertise of everyone involved.

From defining the meeting's purpose and objectives to setting realistic goals and objectives, Visme's templates and features can help you create compelling visual aids that communicate the plan and engage participants.

With Visme's collaboration features and sharing options, you can efficiently work with all stakeholders in real-time and share your strategic plan beyond the confines of the meeting room.

However, running a successful meeting is just the beginning. To successfully run and grow your organization, you’ll need to create a lot of visual content. Visme has specific solutions for all your team members, from marketing collaterals and sales assets to internal content and brainstorming using whiteboards .

Sign-up for Visme teams today to make your meetings more productive and achieve your business goals.

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About the Author

Raja Antony Mandal is a Content Writer at Visme. He can quickly adapt to different writing styles, possess strong research skills, and know SEO fundamentals. Raja wants to share valuable information with his audience by telling captivating stories in his articles. He wants to travel and party a lot on the weekends, but his guitar, drum set, and volleyball court don’t let him.

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• Meeting agenda examples: How to plan, w ...

Meeting agenda examples: How to plan, write, and implement

Your agenda tells your team what to expect during a meeting and how they can prepare for it. Ideally, you’ll use your agenda to connect your team with the meeting’s purpose, assign tasks or items to team members, and designate a realistic amount of time to each agenda item. A great meeting agenda maximizes the meeting’s effectiveness and keeps your team on track.

An effective agenda communicates the purpose of your meeting, gives your team the chance to prepare their agenda items, and keeps everyone on track.

Whether you’re preparing for your next board meeting, staff meeting, or business meeting, we’ll help you write an agenda that will maximize your meeting’s potential.

What is a meeting agenda?

A meeting agenda serves as a structured roadmap for your meeting, detailing the topics and activities planned. Its primary role is to provide meeting participants with a clear framework, outlining the sequence of events, the leader for each agenda item, and the time allocated for each task. By having this agenda as a guide both before and throughout the meeting, it helps to facilitate an efficient and productive flow of discussion.

How to write a meeting agenda

Crafting a meeting agenda is a key step in ensuring a focused and productive meeting. Here's how to do it effectively.

1. Clarify meeting objectives

The first step in writing a meeting agenda is to clearly define any goals. In clarifying the goal, be as specific as possible. This specificity helps guide the discussion and ensure that the meeting remains focused. It also helps stakeholders prepare for the meeting.

For example, if the goal is to finalize the budget for the next quarter or discuss new business, participants would come prepared with relevant data and insights.

A well-defined goal also helps set the meeting's tone and align everyone's expectations. This clarity leads to a more structured discussion and a more productive meeting overall.

2. Invite participant input

Inviting input from participants before finalizing the agenda is a critical step in creating a comprehensive and inclusive meeting plan. This involves reaching out to potential attendees and asking if there's anything specific they would like to discuss or add to the meeting agenda.

For example, if you're planning a meeting for a project team, you could send an email asking each member to suggest topics they feel are important to address. This could reveal issues or ideas you hadn't considered, ensuring a more well-rounded agenda.

Incorporating participant input not only makes the agenda more comprehensive but also increases engagement. When team members see their suggestions included, they feel valued and are more likely to participate actively in the meeting. It also ensures that the meeting addresses the concerns of all attendees.

Gathering input can be done through various channels, like email, shared docs, or team collaboration tools. The key is to make it easy for meeting participants to contribute and to ensure their suggestions are considered and, where appropriate, included in the final agenda.

3. Outline key questions for discussion

Making a list of important things to talk about is important for keeping the meeting on track and focused. Start by identifying the main meeting topics that need to be addressed and framing them as questions.

For instance, if the meeting is to discuss the progress of an ongoing project, key questions might include:

What are the current roadblocks in the project?

How are we tracking against the project timeline

What resources are needed to maintain the pace of work?

These questions serve as talking points and a guide for the discussion, ensuring that all relevant topics are covered. They also help in structuring the conversation, making it easier for participants to prepare and engage effectively.

4. Define each task’s purpose

Each task or topic on the agenda should have a clearly defined purpose. This transparency helps participants understand the importance of each discussion point and how it relates to the overall goal of the meeting.

For example, if one of the agenda items is to review recent client feedback and performance metrics, the purpose might be to identify areas for improvement in customer service. By stating this purpose, participants can focus their thoughts on this specific objective, leading to a more targeted and fruitful discussion.

Defining the purpose of each task also helps prevent the meeting from going off track. When participants understand why a topic is being discussed, they are less likely to veer off-topic, making the meeting more efficient.

5. Allocate time for agenda items

Effective meeting management requires allotting time for each item on the agenda. This includes determining the amount of time needed for each meeting topic or task and scheduling the meeting appropriately.

For instance, if you have five items on your agenda, you might allocate 10 minutes for a brief update, 20 minutes for brainstorming, and 15 minutes for discussing action items. This time allocation should be based on the complexity and importance of each topic.

Effective time management requires being realistic with your time estimates and factoring in extra time for unforeseen conversations or inquiries. This approach helps in keeping the meeting within the scheduled time frame, respecting everyone's time, and maintaining focus.

6. Assign topic facilitators

Assigning facilitators for each topic on the agenda can greatly enhance the effectiveness of the meeting. A facilitator’s role is to guide the discussion, make certain that the conversation stays on track, and that all voices are heard.

For example, if one of the agenda items is to discuss sales strategies, you might assign this topic to a senior salesperson. Their expertise and familiarity with the subject can help steer the conversation productively.

Facilitators should be chosen based on their knowledge of the topic and their ability to manage group discussions. They should also be briefed on their role and the expectations for the discussion.

7. Write the meeting agenda

Finally, compile all the elements into a structured and comprehensive agenda. The agenda should include the meeting’s goal, a list of topics to be discussed with their purposes, time allocations, and assigned facilitators. This structure provides a clear roadmap for the meeting, ensuring that all important points are covered.

Share the agenda with all participants well in advance of the meeting. This allows them to prepare and ensures that everyone is on the same page. A well-written agenda is a key tool in running an effective and productive meeting.

Tips to create an effective meeting agenda

Let’s start with some of our favorite tips on creating great meeting agendas so you can make the most of yours:

Create and share your meeting agenda as early as possible. At the very latest, you should share your meeting agenda an hour before the meeting time. This allows everyone to prepare for what’s going to happen. Your team can also relay questions or additional agenda items to you for a potential adjustment before the meeting. Besides, when your team members have a chance to properly prepare themselves, they’ll have a much easier time focusing during the meeting.

Link to any relevant pre-reading materials in advance. This can be the presentation deck, additional context, or a previous decision. Everyone arriving at the meeting will be on the same page and ready to move the discussion forward rather than asking a ton of questions that take up relevant time.

Assign facilitators for each agenda item. Remember that feeling of being called on in school when you didn’t know the answer? It’s a pretty terrible feeling that we’re sure you don’t want to evoke in your teammates. By assigning a facilitator for each agenda item before the meeting, you allow them to prepare for a quick rundown of the topic, questions, and feedback.

Define and prioritize your agenda items. Differentiate between the three categories of agenda items: informational, discussion topics, and action items. Clarifying the purpose of each agenda item helps your team member understand what’s most important and what to focus on. You’ll also want to prioritize which items are most important and absolutely have to be discussed during the meeting and which ones can be addressed asynchronously, should the clock run out.

Use your meeting agenda during the meeting to track notes and action items. That way, all of the meeting information is in one place. If anyone has questions about decisions or action items from the meeting, they have an easy place to find it. Bonus: Do this in Asana so you can assign out action items and next steps to ensure nothing falls through the cracks. Asana also integrates with Zoom and pulls in your Zoom recording or meeting transcript directly into the meeting agenda task.

Create flow by categorizing your agenda items. To maximize productivity, you’ll want to create a meeting agenda that flows well. Batch similar items together and ensure they can build off of one another. For example, list any informational items before the discussion items so your team has all of the information going into the discussion.

Allocate enough time for each item on your agenda. Nobody will complain about a meeting that runs short—keeping everyone longer than anticipated isn’t as much fun. Plan sufficient time for each agenda item by calculating an estimated time and adding a couple of minutes as a buffer. This will help with keeping your team on track and moving on from a topic when the time runs out.

By sticking to these best practices, you can ensure that your meeting agenda is a reliable tool and does the job—before, during, and after your meeting.

Why are meeting agendas important?

Whether you work from home and take virtual calls or sit in the office and meet in person, meetings can be incredibly draining. Beginning with some small talk may be nice to get to know each other better or catch up on what everyone did this past weekend but it certainly isn’t goal-oriented or productive. A meeting agenda can help your team maximize the potential of each meeting you hold.

Our research shows that unnecessary meetings accounted for 157 hours of “work” in 2020, compared to 103 in 2019. Considering a 40-hour work week, that’s almost four weeks of wasted time. This is where your meeting agenda comes in. If you’re doing it right, writing your meeting agenda is the first and best indicator of whether or not your meeting is actually necessary. If you find that everything on your meeting agenda can be discussed asynchronously , you can cancel the meeting and share your message in a time-saving email.

That isn’t to say all meetings should be replaced by emails. If you’re sure that the meeting is justified and necessary in order to drive your team’s progress, have that meeting. However, always make sure that you create an agenda before getting together so your team members know what you’ll be discussing and why the meeting matters.

Here are a few more great reasons to have meeting agendas:

Your agenda allows everyone to prepare for the meeting. Ideally, every item on your agenda will have a dedicated topic facilitator. When everyone going into the meeting knows what their responsibilities are in advance, they have time to prepare and will be more efficient during the meeting.

It shows you’re considerate of your team’s time. When your team receives a well-thought-out meeting agenda, they’ll immediately see that the meeting is actually necessary. Besides, it’s also a roadmap that will keep you on track during the meeting and ensure no time is wasted.

An agenda sets clear expectations of what will and won’t be discussed. Think of a meeting agenda as a way of setting boundaries and ensuring that only topics on the agenda will be talked about. If anything comes up during the meeting that needs to be discussed, write it down in your minutes and return to it later. Either at the end of your meeting—if you got through it faster than expected—asynchronously, or in the next meeting.

It keeps your team on track. Your meeting agenda will prevent your team from drifting off—whether that’s discussing non-agenda topics (like the barbecue at Kat’s place last night) or taking too much time for an item that had specific time allocated.

Your agenda will provide purpose, structure, and opportunities to collaborate. With a clear plan for everyone to follow, your team will go into the meeting knowing the purpose and goal of the meeting. Your meeting agenda also allows your team to direct their attention toward opportunities to collaborate, whether that’s during a brainstorming session , a town hall, or your daily standup.

Track next steps and action items so nothing falls through the cracks. Keep your agenda open during the meeting to capture any next steps or action items . By adding them directly into the agenda, these items won’t be forgotten when the meeting ends.

Meetings are great opportunities for your team to bond but the time spent on small talk can be worked into the first few minutes of the agenda rather than surfacing every now and then during the meeting, disrupting the flow and productivity or your team’s discussion.

Meeting agenda examples

We’ve discussed what makes a good meeting agenda and what you should avoid doing but, as always, it’s easiest to learn from a real life example. Let’s take a look at a project kickoff meeting agenda created in Asana:

As you can see, each item has a timebox and a teammate assigned to ensure everyone knows when it’s their turn and how long they have to lead their discussion or give their presentation. The agenda also has relevant files attached and is shared with all team members for visibility and better collaboration.

Meetings are a staple in the professional world, each with its own unique focus and dynamics. Understanding how to tailor your meeting agenda to the type of meeting you're conducting is key to ensuring effective communication and teamwork. Here are some common types of meetings and examples of how to structure their agendas.

Team meeting agenda

Team meetings serve as a platform for team building, decision making, and brainstorming. They can vary in frequency and duration but are essential for ensuring alignment and forward momentum. Effective team meeting agendas should include recurring items for regular meetings and space for new, ad-hoc topics. It’s also vital to track next steps and responsibilities assigned during the meeting. An example of a 45-minute team meeting agenda might cover metrics, a round-table plan, identification of blockers, and recognition of team members' contributions​​.

Daily Scrum meeting agenda

Daily scrum meetings, or stand-ups , are brief, focused gatherings aimed at keeping the team aligned during a sprint. These meetings typically cover blockers, a recap of the previous day’s work, goals for the current day, and progress towards sprint goals. The agility of these meetings helps in maintaining momentum and addressing issues promptly.

Project kickoff meeting agenda

Project kickoff meetings bring together cross-functional teams to start a new project. These meetings set the tone for the project and align everyone on objectives and expectations. The agenda should cover the project brief, roles and responsibilities, meeting cadence, actionable next steps, and a Q&A session to clarify doubts and ensure everyone is on the same page​​.

Retrospective meeting agenda

A retrospective meeting is a type of recurring meeting focused on reflecting on a past period of work, usually at the end of a project cycle or sprint. Its main purpose is to share information among team members about what worked well and what didn't. During the meeting, the entire team discusses various meeting topics, including successes, challenges, and blockers that impacted their work. This process helps in identifying areas for improvement and developing strategies to address any issues. Retrospective meetings are vital for continuous team development and ensuring better outcomes in future work cycles.

One-on-one meeting agenda

One-on-one meetings , whether they are between a manager and a direct report, peer-to-peer, or skip-level, are crucial for discussing work projects, roadblocks, and career development. They are foundational for building trust.

A good agenda for these meetings should balance topics like motivation, communication, growth, and work-related discussions. Avoid status updates; those are better suited for stand-up meetings. Sample questions for a weekly one-on-one might include assessing highlights and lowlights of the week, discussing any blockers, and inquiring about work-life balance​​.

Remote one-on-one meeting agenda

Remote one-on-one meetings require a slightly different approach, with a focus on rapport-building and clear communication. Since physical presence is lacking, these meetings benefit from a shared online agenda accessible to all participants. Key points could include checking in on general well-being, discussing current work assignments, and addressing any immediate concerns or assistance needed​​.

Skip-level meeting agenda

Skip-level meetings, involving senior managers and employees not in their direct report chain, offer a chance to connect across organizational levels. These meetings are ideal for discussing broader career development and providing feedback to senior leadership. Agenda items might cover clarity on company strategies and goals, personal professional objectives, and suggestions for organizational improvements​​.

Leadership team meeting agenda

Leadership team meetings are vital for strategic decision-making and issue resolution at the highest levels of an organization. An effective agenda for such meetings might include personal updates, reviewing key metrics, sharing wins and insights, discussing important messages, addressing pressing issues, and allocating time for an open discussion or "hot seat" session where specific topics are addressed in-depth​​.

Each type of meeting, be it an all-hands gathering, one-on-one discussion, performance review, or team brainstorming session, requires a thoughtfully crafted agenda to avoid unproductive meetings and keep discussions on track.

By using these meeting agenda examples, you can ensure that each meeting, regardless of its format, contributes meaningfully to the organization's goals and enhances teamwork and collaboration.

Running an effective meeting

It’s one thing to have an amazingly organized and detailed agenda that your team can reference before the meeting—using it as a tool during the meeting is a whole other ballpark. These tips will help you make your meeting agenda as useful during the meeting as it is as a preparation tool

Stick to your agenda. The best agenda becomes useless if you don’t stick to it during the meeting. Try not to bounce back and forth between agenda items but rather stick to the priorities you established earlier.

Stick to your timeboxes. It absolutely helps release some tension and lighten the mood if you have a bit of small talk or a quick check-in at the beginning of your meeting. That’s why you should allocate three to five minutes to this—and stick to the timeframe. Pictures of Kabir’s son’s adorable Halloween costume can be shared elsewhere so you have enough time to reach your meeting’s goals now.

Designate a note taker. At the beginning of the meeting, designate a note taker who will write down any questions, feedback, tasks, and ideas that come up during the meeting. You can rotate this position so everyone on your team gets to contribute at some point. Ideally, these notes are taken in the same place as the meeting agenda—this will make it a lot easier for team members to follow the notes and link them to agenda items. Notes can also be directly entered into Asana for real-time updating and tracking

Follow up after the meeting. Typically, the note taker will be responsible for following up with the meeting notes afterward. The notes should include any decisions that were made during the meeting, tasks that need to be completed, and questions that remained unanswered. If possible, assign teammates and add due dates to action items to keep accountability high. To ensure that these action items are tracked and completed, they should be promptly added to our Asana project management tool.

Make the most out of every meeting

With Asana, you can keep your meeting agenda, meeting minutes, and meeting action items in one place. Effortlessly share the agenda with your team and assign agenda items in real time so nothing falls through the cracks.

Streamlining your meetings with one central tool will reduce the amount of work about work your team faces, connect everyone to the purpose of the meeting, and allow for productive meetings everyone enjoys.

Related resources

Your guide to RACI charts, with examples

Everything you need to know about requirements management

Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Adaptive Project Management and Reporting

How Asana drives impactful product launches in 3 steps

How to write a meeting agenda (and run better meetings!)

Learning how to write a meeting agenda that sets the stage for an effective and engaging gathering is an important leadership skill. Not only will it help you be organized and on time, but it will also help you and your team make the most of your time together.

In this guide, we’ll explore what makes a meeting productive and guide you through the process of designing a great meeting agenda . You'll also learn practical tips you can use to improve your next meeting and get every team member engaged and involved. Ready to leave behind boring, unproductive meetings? Let's dive in!

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Going into a meeting without a purpose or a clear sense of what you’re going to cover rarely results in a productive session. Writing a clear step-by-step meeting agenda is a great way to improve your management and facilitation practice. Not only will you be more effective as a team, but you can avoid frustrating or unproductive meetings and get better results too! 

In this guide, we’ll explore what makes a productive meeting and guide you through the process of designing a great agenda . Additionally, we’ll also share some sample meeting agendas so you can see some working examples you can use as the basis of your next meeting.

What is an agenda?

In short, an agenda is a breakdown of all the items that will be covered during a meeting. It should list all of the topics and tasks that will be covered during the meeting and also clearly articulate the purpose and expectations of the meeting. 

Your meeting agenda should also give everyone involved the information they need to successfully attend and adequately prepare . This means including all information relating to logistics, links and attachments and mentioning any preparations you wish everyone to do before the meeting. 

The best meeting agendas also help you effectively run the meeting on the day by giving you a step-by-step list of what to cover and timings for each major section of the meeting. 

A meeting agenda is usually created in a clear, shareable format, such as a Word document or SessionLab agenda. This makes it easy to follow and share with meeting participants.

You can see some examples of a meeting agenda template here . These meeting agendas include meeting objectives and a step by step process complete with timings so you can see how to put them together effectively.

Why is a meeting agenda important?

A meeting agenda is an effective tool for many reasons. First up, it helps ensure the meeting facilitator has everything they need to run an effective meeting. You’ll have an itemized list of every agenda item, reminders of the meeting goal and all your relevant documents attached too.

Perhaps most importantly, a meeting agenda is how you can your meeting participants can stay on track and ensure everything that needs to get done is completed.

Without it, your team meeting can quickly go off the rails or be unproductive. It helps other team members be aware of your core meeting objective, what’s going to be covered, and to give them time and space to prepare.

Preparation

By outlining what will be covered in your meeting, your agenda will ensure every team member can adequately prepare. This might mean preparing discussion topics, supplementary materials, or other items.

Creating your meeting agenda and sending it out well in advance means everyone can do what they need to come to the meeting and make it a success. If you want your meeting attendees to contribute meaningfully, give them a chance to prepare with a good meeting agenda.

Scheduling and logistics

In the most basic terms, a meeting agenda will help everyone involved align their schedules and attend. By including the location or virtual room, date and time, and any necessary links, your meeting agenda will contain all the information people need to be there and adjust their calendars.

You’ll also include information on how long the meeting will run for and timebox each section. If you have multiple people leading sections of the meeting, ensure you include clear timings for each of those sections so everyone can prepare and keep the meeting on track.

Productivity

Even the most simple meeting agenda will enable both the facilitator and participants to be productive . Going into a meeting with a clear agenda and timeboxed schedule means you and your group can be more effective and not get lost in side-discussions or unagreed topics.

In short, an effective meeting agenda clearly sets the stage for what will and what will not be included and can ensure everyone is pushing in the same direction during the meeting.

Get team buy-in

Going into a meeting without clear expectations or an idea of the talking points is frustrating for everyone involved. Make meetings work for everyone by creating and sharing the agenda with the participants and agreeing on the format. 

Getting everyone on board can massively increase the productivity of any project or meeting and by developing a standardised agenda that makes it easy for everyone to understand and attend, they’ll fit more naturally into your team workflow too!

Improve your planning

Documenting your meeting agenda is the first stage in improving the quality of your meetings. DId you find that something in your agenda plan didn’t work out? Need less time for old business and more time on new items or setting follow-up actions? Go back to your agenda and adjust. Use a collaborative agenda planner tool if you want to get comments and feedback on your meeting agenda!

Simplify a recurring meeting

In the case of recurring meetings – whether it be board meetings or a weekly meeting to catch-up – creating an agenda can simplify and streamline the process.

In SessionLab, for example, you can create a meeting agenda template or simply duplicate your session so you don’t have to start from scratch every time.

Improve meeting culture

Creating a meeting template that works for everyone and has been refined over time can help make your entire team more productive and shift the mindset around meetings. 

The work you do in meetings can and should improve all the work you do and a better meeting culture can help teams communicate better and surface issues effectively in any context.

Help identify and remove ineffective meetings

A common complaint of most teams is that they have too many meetings or that the meetings they have are ineffective.

Agenda-setting and following a process when developing your meetings can also help you and your team identify if a meeting should be run at all. We’ll cover this in more detail in our final section on how to decide if you should run a meetin g too!

What to include in a meeting invite?

Getting people to attend the meeting means sending a meeting invitation that includes all the necessary information in a simple, easy to understand format.

You’ll likely send your meeting invite as an email or Calendar invite, though you might also use other dedicated meeting software. Here’s what you should include for your next meeting.

Meeting logistics

Here, you’ll include everything your participants need to know in order to attend the meeting. Including:

• Title of the meeting
• The date and time of the meeting
• The location of the meeting
• For virtual meetings, include a link to the virtual meeting room and any necessary passwords
• The run-time of the meeting
• Host (and co-hosts) of the meeting
• Additional meeting roles such as note taker
• List of participants 

Purpose of the meeting

Ensure you include the purpose of the meeting in your agenda so everyone can understand why they’re being asked to attend and prepare adequately. You may also want to include any links to resources or co-creation documents. Additionally, include any background information to help participants understand the context of the meeting. If it’s the first in a series of meetings or a project retrospective, be sure to include that information here. 

Preparatory work 

If you have any preparations you wish participants to make before the meeting, include them here. This might include contributing ideas to an online whiteboard, reading a document that will be discussed, or preparing questions around the central topic of the meeting. Be sure to include links to any resources and make instructions completely clear.

Meeting agenda

The final section of your meeting invitation should be the agenda for your meeting. This should include a clear, simple list of the topics you will be covering. If a discussion item is led by someone other than the primary facilitator, include that information alongside each entry too. Ensure that the meeting agenda you send your participants covers everything 

What to include in a meeting agenda

Meetings of different purposes and may require different items in their agenda, though they should broadly follow the same structure in order to ensure the whole team can move through it productively.

Remember to set timings for each section so your meeting can run on time and give everyone an indication of the scope of the discussion.

It’s worth noting that while you might have a detailed meeting agenda for yourself and any co-facilitators, you might share a simplified version with your participants.

So long as you ensure that everyone attending has the information they need and a sense of each agenda item, your agenda can be as detailed or as simple as necessary. Let’s dive in!

Introductions and housekeeping 

Here, you’ll make sure everyone who needs to be in the meeting is present and make introductions where necessary. You’ll also briefly reiterate the purpose of the meeting and introduce the meeting leader too.

In a virtual meeting, allow extra time to solve technical issues and get everyone on camera.

Icebreaker (optional)

Meeting icebreakers can be a great way of helping new groups get to know each other or warm-up and prepare a team for a difficult conversation ahead. Depending on your meeting format, agenda and length, you may want to include an icebreaker at the beginning.

Remember that not every meeting needs an icebreaker. A regular weekly standup doesn’t need an icebreaker to warm everyone up. A board meeting with a tight agenda may not need this step either.

On the other hand, an interdepartmental meeting where people are coming together for the first time to discuss better ways of working might benefit from an icebreaker. 

Meeting topics and items for discussion

This is the main bulk of the agenda. Here, you’ll set out all of the items to be covered in your meeting. These might include a review of what was accomplished in a previous meeting, presentations of news and information, discussions, collaborative exercises and more. These items are completely contextual depending on the nature of your meeting and in our next section, you’ll see some example meeting agendas that include all kinds of items. 

Be sure to set a time for each item in your agenda and include a short description. If someone other than the host is leading this section, include that information too. Remember that the purpose of the agenda is to not only outline these items so people can understand the meeting at a glance but also give them opportunity to prepare.

Breaks (optional)

In longer meetings, breaks can be vital in ensuring everyone stays engaged, energized and is able to contribute meaningfully. As a general rule of thumb, a break every 1.5 to 2 hours is a great way to keep everyone happy and keep up group energy levels. Remember that virtual meetings are often more draining and so the necessity for a quick break is even greater in those situations. 

Set follow-up actions

Whatever the format or purpose of your meeting, there are likely to be follow-up actions that should be agreed upon before you adjourn. These might include taking action on items discussed during the meeting, sending notes or resources, or simply agreeing the time and date of follow-ups or later meetings. The more complex the meeting, the more involved this part of the agenda is likely to be, so ensure you set adequate time for this.

When setting follow-up tasks, be sure to give each task an owner and agree with your team members when they will be completed or checked in on. Ownership and timeboxing can help ensure that items set are completed in a timely manner.

All meetings should be brought to an effective close. Give participants an opportunity to add any final items, give feedback or briefly clarify any hanging questions before closing the meeting can help ensure follow up actions are taken and that everyone is on the same page leaving the meeting.

You might even use a closing activity from our library of facilitation methods to help your group meaningfully reflect on the meeting. 

Tips for writing an effective meeting agenda 

Once you know you are running the meeting and have an idea of the framework of the agenda, you’ll want to write up your agenda so you can share it with your participants. This means getting every agenda item in order, articulating your meeting objective and designing for flow and engagement.

Creating a great meeting agenda doesn’t need to be a chore. Check out our tips below for help in writing a meeting agenda that can help your meeting be a success and improve your general meeting facilitation too.

Clearly identify and articulate your meeting goal

One common frustration point for meetings is that not everyone is on the same page regarding the goal or purpose of the meeting. Be absolutely clear on what falls under the remit of the meeting and what falls outside of it. By doing this, you can ensure all attendees are aligned going into the meeting, and you can also identify if additional work needs to be done elsewhere. 

If the goal of a meeting is to align your marketing and product teams on a specific project make sure everyone knows it. When running a board meeting, make it clear what you’re going to cover so that everyone’s time is respected. By identifying and sharing the goal and purpose of the meeting early, you’re helping everyone make it a success.

Ask participants for input

If you’re running a meeting that will benefit from the input of participants, ask them to contribute ideas or possible agenda items in advance of the meeting. Not only can you ensure that the meeting is fit for purpose, but you can also source the best ideas and get team buy-in too.

You might also find that some sections of the meeting are best led by certain team members or stakeholders. Be sure to liaise with those people beforehand and let them know what sections they’ll be running, when and for how long. Switching meeting leaders can be productive, but only if everyone has had a chance to prepare! 

List the topics you want to address

If your meeting is following a discussion format, ensure that you include a list of all the topics or questions you will be discussing in the agenda. Though you might find these changes on the day, listing all of these items ensures participants know what to expect and can begin to prepare answers or know what to think about before the meeting. 

An effective agenda should help you stay on track without effort. Having a list in place also helps with time management and prioritization during the meeting – if you know you have some key topics yet to be discussed, it helps guide the team to end one topic of discussion and move onto the next effectively.

Identify the purpose of each task

Identifying the purpose of your meeting should be the first thing you do, but when it comes to writing your meeting agenda, you’ll want to understand the purpose of each component in order to make it a success. 

Group meetings always benefit from focus and so each task or item should be selected in order to fulfill the purpose of the meeting. If you’re running a project retrospective meeting, you don’t need a section on company-wide news, for example. If you were running an all-day virtual meeting, you might include an online energizer after lunch so that people come back recharged and ready to engage. 

We often find that certain tasks deserve to be explored but a general team meeting is not the place to explore them. In these cases, it’s worth considering how best that work should be done – is it a separate meeting or could it be done asynchronously? Whatever the case, ensure that all of the items in your meeting agenda belong there, and that you’re not overstuffing or trying to combine two meetings. 

Remember that each part of the meeting should relate to your central meeting objective. Design with this in mind and your meetings will be leaner and more productive as a result! 

Meetings that are effectively timeboxed are more productive and less frustrating for all involved. Try not to overrun and set times for each and every section of your meeting agenda. This can help prevent meandering conversations and keep everyone focused. Furthermore, people are less likely to dread attending your meetings if they run on time and they can schedule around them without worry! 

Setting times for discussion items can be difficult if you’ve never run the meeting before – estimate and use your best judgement but also take notes on how much time each section took up. You can go back to your agenda afterwards and improve for the next meeting.

Be simple and clear

Meetings do not need to be complicated and neither should there agendas. Keep your meeting agenda simple, clear and short for the best results. You want your participants to get a sense of the meeting easily, understand what they need to do to prepare and attend. Remember that people tend to have more meetings than they would like – don’t make it difficult for your team members to attend yours! 

Create a reusable template

Creating a meeting agenda from scratch each time is not only a waste of time, but it means you lose the potential to iterate and improve. By creating a template for your meeting agenda , you can speed up the process, develop a standard meeting schedule and also figure out where you can make improvements.

Find that your team meeting agenda overran? Go back to the template and change the timings. Find that energy levels dip in your longer meetings? Find space to include an energizer. 

Making your agenda into a reusable and editable template is the first step to iterating and improving and is made easy in SessionLab too!

Keep it focused

A common mistake when designing a meeting agenda is to try and cram too much in. Your group will be much less effective if you attempt to cover lots of ground and don’t spend enough time where you need to. Try to think of the most important items for every business meeting and ensure your agenda is designed so you can focus on those things.

It is much better to cover key points with the relevant depth so you find solutions and make meaningful decisions rather than try and cover everything. 

Remember that focus is contextual. A daily-standup will have a different focus to a general team meeting agenda or project retrospective. Think of the purpose or goal of the meeting – if what you’re exploring is unrelated to the goal or purpose of the meeting, it shouldn’t be in the meeting. If your goal is to align on the next steps of a project or sum up progress so far, you might cover a lot of ground but it should be related to the core goal.

Get feedback

Improving your meetings can’t happen in a vacuum. Get feedback from your participants on how the meeting went in order to improve the quality and structure of them. You can achieve this by using a debriefing activity or a round of feedback at the end of the meeting.

While this is often the most effective way of getting quick, honest feedback on your meeting, you can also send out a survey afterwards. Whatever method you choose, listen to your meeting participants and make changes so that your meetings continue to be effective and useful for everyone involved. 

Meeting agenda templates

The job of meeting agenda isn’t truly complete until it’s been shared with your participants. But are you wondering what a meeting agenda template looks like and want to see how you might put the finishing touches on an agenda that you might send to clients or internal teams?

For simple meetings, an agenda that covers the main discussion topics in a simple format such as a calendar invite is likely sufficient . See our Team alignment meeting agenda for an example of a simple meeting agenda.

For more involved meetings and group processes, a more in-depth meeting agenda template should be used to adequately prepare everyone involved for the meeting ahead. We’ve included some common meeting formats that require a more complex agenda too. 

These meeting agenda examples will give you a taste of what a completed agenda looks like and hopefully give you inspiration for your own. Let’s take a look!

Team Alignment Meeting

Aligning teams and discussing possible roadblocks or team dependencies is often better in real-time. Being able to bring up ideas and concerns while also clarifying any points in a structured manner can help prevent email back and forths too!

Here’s a simple meeting agenda template made using Google Calendar. Feel free to copy the format and use it for your next team meeting!

Ready for some more complex meeting agendas? We’ve chosen a few common meeting formats and outlined an example agenda for you below. Each of these meeting agendas also features a SessionLab template so you can adjust it to your own needs too. Let’s take a look!

Project Kickoff 

Starting a new project is always worth getting together for. Even if you’re doing preparatory work in a collaborative Google document or working asynchronously for much of the project, a kick-off meeting in real time is an efficient way to align and surface any issues before getting down to work in earnest. Let’s take a look at this meeting agenda template to see how you can set off on the right foot with a short, one-hour meeting.

Project Retrospective

Large projects can take many twists and turns. A retrospective meeting is where you and your team will discuss and learn from such projects with a view to improve things next time around. In this retrospective meeting agenda , see how your group might effectively reflect on a completed project and bring up any essential learning points in less than an hour!

Lightning Decision Jam

Unstructured, meandering discussions can kill a team’s creativity and remove the appetite for future meetings. Use Jonathan Courtney’s Lightning Decision Jam method as the basis for a short meeting in which you can use a group process to make quick, effective and thoughtful decisions. See the method below for full instructions.  

One-Hour Brain Sprint

With the right process, working collaboratively in a real-time meeting can be one of the most effective ways of generating ideas and get every team member involved. Try the One-Hour Brain Sprint template to give your next brainstorming meeting a framework for success. 

How to decide if you should run a meeting?

Organized and well-facilitated meetings can be hugely productive to any group or organisation but not everything should be a meeting . In fact, some meetings can be detrimental to your team if they aren’t thoughtfully designed and run.

We’ve all felt the burnout of having too many meetings or been frustrated by a directionless meeting that feels like a waste of time. Before you set a meeting, ask yourself these questions to decide whether it is worth bringing everyone together.

Does the meeting have a clear goal or purpose?

Whenever you’re considering bringing your team together to work in real-time, it should be with a clear end result you want to achieve. 

If you need to collaborate on a topic or make a decision as a group in real-time, this is a great reason to have a meeting.  If you do not have a goal or purpose, you should reconsider whether you should run the meeting at all. Nothing is more frustrating for a group than a meeting with no reason to be run. 

Remember that a daily catch-up or weekly progress report can be a good reason for a short meeting, though only if you can clearly articulate a goal and purpose. If you can’t, go back and clarify the purpose or goal and really determine if it’s worth holding the meeting. You might find asynchronous work or a simple email is a better option for sharing information or collaborating with your team. 

Could this be summed up in an email?

You don’t need to run a meeting every time you have a small piece of information to share. If your goal is to share information quickly, effectively and without the need for discussion, perhaps that could be shared in an email or on Slack instead?

Some topics are too large for email and if you want to discuss a topic or collaborate on solutions, a meeting might still be the right approach. Before you go in this direction, ask yourself if you couldn’t transmit the information you need to share in an email and save everyone involved the time and effort of an extra meeting. 

Could the meeting work be done asynchronously?

Not all discussions or activities need to be conducted in real-time. When asking a group to collect ideas or bring items for discussion to the table, ask whether you couldn’t do so in a shared document asynchronously. 

Collecting insights in this way allows everyone to contribute in their own time and reflect on the topic meaningfully before adding to the discussion. You will still want to timebox the activity and potentially debrief over email or in a meeting, but allocating tasks asynchronously can not only save time but also make everyone more productive too.

Who needs to be at the meeting?

Some challenges do not need an entire organisation in order to be solved. When holding a meeting, carefully consider who needs to be in the room to make it a success. You might find that you only need to chat to one other person in Slack in order to make something happen. Alternatively, you might still hold a meeting but limit the attendees so it is useful for everyone involved. 

Is the meeting an effective use of everyone’s time? 

Meetings are rarely the most important part of everyone’s day. Disrupting the flow of your team’s working day should only be done if it is an effective use of time for everyone involved. Particularly in times of upheaval or heavy workload, the potential time spent in meetings can mean other work is left incomplete.

If you can achieve the same results without interrupting people whose time is better spent elsewhere, do so. Sometimes an email or invitation to a shared document is sufficient to get the work done. 

Is the meeting actually a workshop?

If the scope or the complexity of the meeting grows, it might be that you are running a workshop and not a meeting. In simple terms, the difference between a meeting and a workshop is that meetings are often where things are discussed while workshops are where groups go through a process and take action. 

Meetings are great for surfacing issues and discussions, while workshops are better at generating ideas, developing solutions and choosing the best followup actions. While both formats are worthwhile in different contexts, workshops employ group process, facilitation techniques and activities in order to be successful and do deeper, more involved work.  

Now you’ve written a great meeting agenda that is clear, simple and fit for purpose, you’re almost set to run your meeting! Here, we’ll explore what you should do next and point out some resources that can help you improve the effectiveness of your meetings too.

Distribute your agenda in advance 

Give your participants adequate time to prepare and adjust their schedules for the meeting. Sending a complete agenda the day of the meeting isn’t sufficient and will only serve to frustrate your participants and lessen the potential productivity of the meeting. 

Remember that the more complex the meeting and the greater the prep work, the more time you want to give your participants between receiving the agenda and running the meeting.

Double check the logistics

Ensure that your meeting room is booked and free if you haven’t done so already and double check that anyone assigned to lead part of the meeting is available and prepared to do so. If you’re using tech as part of your meeting, make sure you have everything you need and perform a technical test if necessary. This is especially important if running an online meeting where the success of your meeting can be entirely lost if your tech fails!

Learn how to run better team meetings

Creating an agenda for your meeting is a vital part of ensuring its success, but running the meeting and managing discussions, tasks and activities requires some additional skills. In our post on running better team meetings , find out how you can encourage better working practices and create more productive meetings too.  

Improve your facilitation skills

Becoming a better facilitator can enable you to lead better meetings and make the most out of any group process. In our post on essential facilitation skills , learn all about the role of the facilitator and what you can do to be a more effective facilitator in meetings, workshops and more! 

Over to you

Learning how to improve your meeting agendas can make all the difference when enabling groups to work together effectively and make the most of their time spent in meetings.

Did we miss something from the list above or did you find one of the meeting agenda templates especially useful? Let us know in the comments below?

James Smart is Head of Content at SessionLab. He’s also a creative facilitator who has run workshops and designed courses for establishments like the National Centre for Writing, UK. He especially enjoys working with young people and empowering others in their creative practice.

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How to Run a Productive Monthly Business Plan Review Meeting

Noah Parsons

5 min. read

Updated April 2, 2024

Most people think that meetings are a waste of time. They’re right.

Too many meetings are run poorly, have no real objective, and waste employees’ time—which kills productivity.

There’s tons of advice and information on how to run better meetings and cut down on useless meetings that are making your organization move slower. I absolutely encourage you to  be ruthless in your pursuit of fewer and more efficient meetings .

But, here at Palo Alto Software, we’ve found one meeting that is simply indispensable. It only takes an hour each month, keeps the management team up to speed on everything that’s going on in the company, and helps us plan and manage in a lean and effective way.

This meeting is our monthly plan review meeting. The meeting has been a fixture of our management strategy for years and is simply one of the most effective ways for us to continue to grow the company and adjust our course as necessary.

For us, business planning isn’t just a one-time or annual event. Instead, it’s an ongoing process where we are constantly reviewing our process and adjusting course as necessary while ensuring that we’re  staying on track toward our larger goals .

We treat planning not as a document, but as a management tool  that helps guide decisions and strategy.

Here’s a quick overview of how we structure our monthly plan review meetings and what’s worked for us over the years.

1. Let’s do the numbers

We always start with the numbers first . How did we do last month compared to our forecast? How did we do compared to the same month last year? What does our year-to-date performance look like?

We always spend time drilling into the numbers, beyond the top-line revenue and expenses, to better understand the drivers behind our performance. Did all product lines perform well? Or did some underperform? Did we spend as planned, or were there some areas that we overspent in?

Most importantly, we review our cash position and  cash flow . Did we collect money as planned? What is our cash flow forecast for the next few months?

While financial reports can be reviewed outside of a meeting, reviewing them together as a team encourages questions and discussion around our revenue and spending.

• 2. Are we there yet?

Once we review our financial performance, we review our “ major milestones ”—the big tasks we had hoped to get done in the past month and our plans for the next month.

We discuss how various teams might be working with each other on different projects and talk about the specific milestones that we have planned. Are these still the tactics that we want to work on that will help achieve our goals? Do we need to shift priorities? Is there new learning and information that would have us change our schedule?

By reviewing major initiatives on a monthly basis, we can stay agile  and make changes as needed. As we learn more about our customers and our market, we might shift strategies and develop new milestones.

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• 3. Long-range goals and strategy

Next, we review our long-range strategic goals. While this doesn’t change too often in our situation as an established company, new startups might shift their strategy frequently as they search for a business model that works.

For those early-stage startups, this step of the meeting may be the most important step and take the longest. For more established companies, this part of the meeting might typically only take a few minutes.

Instead of delving deep into a 40-page business plan document to review our strategy, we review our lean plan, or our one-page business plan. It covers our company identity, the core problem we solve for our customers, our solution, competition, and  sales and marketing strategy . It’s  all on one page so it’s easy to read, review, and change quickly .

• 4. Issues to process

Finally, anyone on the team can bring forward any issues that they want to discuss. This could include new opportunities to consider, prioritization of product features, potential partnerships, or internal HR issues.

Everything is fair game and we try to come up with resolutions and next steps for any issue that’s brought up.

We’ve found that this type of open-ended discussion really helps generate new ideas and brings different perspectives from managers of different teams.

I believe that all companies would benefit from a monthly review of their business. These types of meetings keep everyone on the same page, help share information about progress, and turn planning into a tool that helps teams make informed decisions.

To make a monthly strategy meeting successful, you also need to follow a few guidelines:

1. put the meeting on the calendar.

It’s important to make it a formal event that’s on the schedule. It can’t be optional and it has to be at a regular time so that everyone always knows when the meeting is.

For us, we started out with the meeting on the 3rd Thursday of every month. As our bookkeeping and accounting processes have become more efficient, we’ve been able to move our meeting to the 2nd Friday of the month.

2. Follow a repeatable agenda

While different topics will come up for discussion, it’s important that your plan review meeting has a repeatable agenda.

That means making sure that you have your numbers ready for review and that your team has updates on their goals.

3. Be prepared to change the plan

These plan review meetings aren’t just about staying the course and blindly following the plan. Instead, they are about adjusting the plan. Perhaps you’ll discover that you should be investing more in marketing, or that you’re going to be able to expand and hire faster than you originally planned.

The plan review meeting is about making adjustments to your goals and strategies based on what you’ve discovered in the past month.

Noah is the COO at Palo Alto Software, makers of the online business plan app LivePlan. He started his career at Yahoo! and then helped start the user review site Epinions.com. From there he started a software distribution business in the UK before coming to Palo Alto Software to run the marketing and product teams.

Table of Contents

• 1. Let’s do the numbers

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How to hold a strategic planning meeting: A simple, step-by-step guide for facilitators

If you’re running or facilitating a strategic planning meeting, there are many factors to consider.

It’s much more than just bringing everyone together to have an open discussion — and it doesn’t just happen on its own, either.

There are several steps you can take to ensure that your strategic planning meeting runs smoothly, but it all starts with preparation.

Today, we’ll explore a few ideas to help you hold a successful session, starting with the basics.

Try Miro’s Strategic Planning Template

• What is strategic planning?

Strategic planning is the process of analyzing a current situation within your organization and making sure it’s aligned with your specific objectives. If it isn’t, you and your team must develop a plan to “correct the path.”

So, why is strategic planning important?

In short, strategic planning helps you get from where you are today to the future you want. It’s a way of breaking down big, daunting goals into manageable steps that address your current situation and guide your work.

Here’s where strategic planning meetings come into play.

Meetings are the cornerstone of the strategic planning process.

These meetings are typically held by facilitators , but anyone can lead a strategic planning meeting.

We’ll provide you with specific instructions to hold a successful meeting a bit later, but first, let’s answer a crucial question.

What is the purpose of a strategic plan meeting?

Broadly speaking, a facilitator will use meetings to either:

• Gather specific information and feedback from team members, executives, and stakeholders.
• Help team members work together to solve problems, think strategically, and create new ideas to improve the organization.

These meetings aim to provide clarity in decision-making.

This is not a typical meeting where participants spend time reporting out. Strategy planning is all about brainstorming and collaboration .

This way, you can develop solutions to tangible problems in your organization and set the tone and strategic direction for your team.

Who needs to be included?

The best way to ensure that you get all of the most relevant voices in the room is to create an invite list.

Include people from each relevant department, if possible.

This way, you can cover a more complete spectrum of your company’s operations and activities.

You’ll want to include upper management, but don’t stop there.

Bring in members of the sales department, investor relations, human resources, and any other relevant departments or stakeholders.

You might also consider inviting people from outside of the organization who can provide a fresh perspective.

This is particularly useful for organizations that are doing business in a new market or have started offering new products.

• Best practices for running a successful strategic planning session

Now that you understand the importance of effective strategic planning meetings, the question becomes, how do you actually hold one?

Let’s cover a few of the best practices:

Build buy-in before the meeting starts

First, you’ll want to build buy-in with everyone involved.

Keep what you’re doing top-of-mind, whether that’s through casual conversations or company-wide memos.

In addition, make sure to have a clear agenda prepared, so everyone knows what they can expect out of the meeting. Start by defining the goal, then detail how you’ll get there.

Also, get all the materials you need together in advance.

That may look like coordinating with IT to make sure everyone has access to company software, sending out pertinent documents in advance, or mapping out who will be speaking at the meeting.

Make sure to communicate your expectations clearly so that everyone knows what is expected of them and why.

You’ll want to spend time in your planning stages to keep the tone positive, while at the same time being realistic about what’s possible.

Ultimately, your goal should be to align the team around a shared vision and mission so that you can move forward with a shared perspective.

Now, how can you communicate this agenda?

We suggest you use a centralized space where everyone can see your agenda.

For example, you can use Miro’s Agenda template to create and share your agenda with participants.

You can also use the template to keep notes during the meeting and add refinements later.

This way, everyone can see what’s been discussed and the next steps for moving forward.

Remember; this should be a collaborative effort, so consider asking for ideas from everyone about what they’d like to see covered.

Just don’t forget to actually take those ideas into consideration.

Develop a transparent strategic planning process

During the strategic process, you’re inviting employees to have meaningful discussions around the company’s vision statement, strategic goals, and strategic objectives.

It’s important to have a roadmap in place for how you will facilitate the process so that employees know what to expect.

Your meeting should be an open, engaging discussion with transparent dialog. During the meeting, everyone should get a turn to talk.

Make sure you have a clear process that allows everyone to participate and feel heard, no matter what their role is.

In the planning stage of a meeting, it’s important to have as much input as possible.

You can involve everyone by holding a virtual brainstorming session with this brainstorming template . Once you create a board, you can invite people to collaborate in real time.

This template helps you create a more engaging and collaborative session while allowing every person on the team to contribute their thoughts.

Create an agenda and stick to it

We all know what happens when an agenda is not set or adhered to.

Creating an agenda for your meeting helps you and your participants stay on track. This agenda should include topics, questions, milestones, and people.

Milestones are the larger topics that will be broken down into smaller questions, and these questions should flow to the ultimate goal of narrowing down your strategic priorities.

You can create milestones by putting together a list of discussion questions that will help your participants get on topic and help you check in with the group.

Your agenda might include an opening discussion, a brainstorming session on ideas, and a closing review of the next steps.

When developing your agenda:

• Keep it short: The last thing you want is your meeting to drag on for no good reason, so try to limit each agenda item to ten minutes or less. The whole meeting should only take an hour or two, at most.
• Be selective: Don’t include too many topics or ideas that will bog down your meeting.
• Create a contingency plan: You never know what might happen during your meeting, so always have a backup plan in case your agenda falls through.
• Plan for breaks: For longer meetings or workshops, set aside at least half an hour to take a break, such as during lunchtime.

Make it interactive

As much as possible, you’ll want to make this a collaborative effort, so it’s important to get everyone involved.

For example, you might want to break the group down into smaller sub-teams to brainstorm opportunities for new product features.

You could also task each group with creating a list of opportunities for particular departments within your company.

The point is that you’ll want to encourage open and honest dialog about challenges your company is facing and, where possible, break down any barriers that might stand in the way of progress.

Make sure to collaboratively create strategy documents, provide regular updates on progress, and discuss strategic issues in real time.

This way, you can work side-by-side to improve your performance, no matter where in the world your team members happen to be.

• How to run a strategic planning meeting in 7 steps

To get the most out of each session, you should prepare thoroughly — from the agenda to who you’ll involve and how.

Whether you’re holding a remote, hybrid, or in-person meeting, this process will help you out.

1. Define a clear outcome for the meeting

A strategic planning meeting can go totally off-the-rails if it’s held without a defined objective. That’s why the very first step is to define a clear, tangible goal for the meeting.

For example, your objective might be to better align social media with your marketing strategies .

In this case, your meeting might include a discussion on the purpose of social media, its role in the planning process, and how to better align your social media campaign with your organizational goals.

If your goal is to develop a new product , your meeting might look different.

Consider discussing who the target audience would be and how you can get in front of them. You could also discuss how the product should be positioned in the marketplace and what strategies you’ll use to get it there.

You can also set specific strategic planning meeting themes as part of your objectives, such as business growth or innovation.

The point is to be as specific as possible with your goal. That way, it’s easier for everyone to stay on task and make the right decisions.

2. Break the ice

A strategic planning meeting can be a big undertaking, so it’s important to break the ice by engaging participants in some friendly conversation.

You may want to ask participants what they think of the company’s latest direction or engage them in a fun icebreaker activity. You can also ask them what they think of the new business strategy and how they would implement it.

Or you could ask participants to complete an activity that allows them to interact with one another and develop a better understanding of each other’s unique skills.

For instance, you could assign participants to form teams, and then ask them to create a project plan to solve an issue the company might be experiencing.

You can also break the ice by having participants introduce themselves.

If you’re holding a remote or hybrid meeting, you could have participants discuss what they think in a private online chat room, or you could use an instant messaging program for the same purpose.

Make sure they feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and ideas with each other before starting the main agenda.

The bottom line? The more connected the group is prior to the meeting, the more effective the meeting will be.

3. Set clear expectations

Once you know what you want out of the meeting, the next step is to communicate any expectations of participants, such as things they should prepare in advance of the meeting.

Here are some useful guidelines to keep in mind when you’re setting expectations:

• Provide details: The more detail you provide, the clearer it will be as to what’s required.
• Assign roles: Make sure everyone knows their role and responsibilities within the meeting audience.
• Use timelines: Use timelines to remind everyone of what needs to be completed before the meeting and send reminders if necessary.
• Communicate effectively : Encourage participants to talk with their teams about the fact strategy planning is happening. They may want to set up smaller meetings to gather input for the strategy planning workshop or to share the outputs after the meeting to give employees a chance to ask questions.

4. Set ground rules for behavior

Before the meeting starts, make sure everyone knows the rules.

This is especially important when working with external stakeholders.

For example, you might say something like:

“The goal of this meeting is to develop the strategic plan for the next quarter. We want to minimize distractions, so please don’t check your phone during the meeting.”

Another good idea is to let participants know how they’ll be evaluated. For example, if you’re trying to make progress on a project, you might say something like:

“Let’s try and reach a consensus on the first three points. If we can do that, we’ll consider the meeting a success.”

If you’re dealing with a remote or hybrid team, you should take the time to define online behavior standards. For instance, you could say something like:

“If you have a question, please type it in the chat window. Using outside chat programs is not permitted during the meeting.”

This way, you’ll have everyone invested in the outcome.

5. Identify potential challenges

Before the meeting starts, it’s always good to identify potential areas of conflict that might derail the process.

For example, what would happen if someone had to leave halfway through? Will the meeting continue without them, or will you reconvene once they’re back?

You should also consider how to handle difficult participants. Can you remove a difficult participant from the meeting before they hijack all of your time?

What happens if a disagreement comes up and it’s not resolved?

You should prepare for all these things in advance and have a plan ready if they do happen. For example, consider using a countdown timer for specific agenda items or presentations, so that time is allocated fairly.

If you identify potential challenges early on, you can keep an eye out for them as the meeting proceeds.

6. Encourage full participation

Remember that you’re asking people to spend time — and sometimes travel — to participate in your meeting.

It’s essential that everyone feels like they have the opportunity to participate. The best way to do this is by mentioning at the beginning of the meeting that you’d like everyone’s input throughout.

Make sure to keep an eye out for people who aren’t speaking up. If it seems like they may have something to contribute, ask them for their thoughts on the topic.

Also, make sure everyone knows that participation is critical. If you need to take a vote on something, remind people what the vote is about and why it matters.

Finally, make sure you’re speaking in terms that everyone in the room can understand. If there are people who are new to the organization, spend a moment explaining any acronyms you use.

This will allow everyone to feel like they can give their input with ease, leading to a more successful meeting.

7. Use visuals and brainstorming tools to communicate ideas

Having everyone on the same page is critical, even if they can’t be in the same room.

Here’s where visuals and collaboration platforms come in handy.

Using collaborative tools, like our brainstorming templates helps you organize work and removes some of the stress of coming up with ideas on the spot.

It also encourages people to provide input and makes them feel like they have a stake in the outcome.

For instance, you can use Miro’s Reverse Brainstorming template to come up with innovative ideas and display them in real time. You can save the meeting content on the board too, so you can send it to participants after the meeting.

This can be especially useful if you have multiple participants in different locations involved at the same time. They may not be able to physically attend the meeting, but they can still provide valuable input.

Also, we provide you with a fully customizable strategic plan template .

You can adapt this template to fit your exact business needs and standardize your meetings with ease.

• Sample agenda for a strategic planning meeting

You need to make sure your strategic planning meeting agenda is detailed and thorough enough to keep you on task.

Start with an overview of what you’ll be discussing, then move into individual department updates. This is where you highlight progress against targets.

Finally, spend some time outlining your organizational goals moving forward and, of course, always leave time for questions.

To help you better understand what a strategy planning session might look like in the real world, here’s a sample agenda:

• 10am–11am: Welcome and meeting goals
• 11am–12pm: Leadership team updates
• 12pm–1pm: Department updates
• 1pm–2pm: Lunch break
• 2pm–3pm: Analyze challenges and problems
• 3pm–4pm: Ideate solutions
• 4pm–5pm: Discuss and gain consensus on solutions and goals
• 5pm–6pm: Assign tasks and responsibilities for strategy execution
• 6pm–7pm: Q&A
• It all comes down to solid preparation and visuals

The best way to ensure your meeting runs smoothly and effectively is to prepare it with anticipation. By creating a clear agenda, you’re able to get the most out of your session.

Also, the use of visuals and brainstorming tools helps you collaborate with your team and communicate your critical points more effectively.

You can hold your planning meetings in a more visual way by creating a board and sharing with your team.

Also, you can use the strategic planning meeting template to get started with fewer headaches.

Want an action-oriented framework to help your team continuously improve?

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How to write an effective team meeting agenda (with templates!)

Because if there’s no agenda, there shouldn’t be a meeting in the first place.

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5-second summary

• Team meeting agendas help you prioritize important topics and keep things running smoothly and efficiently, so your team walks away from the meeting feeling motivated and aligned.
• All agendas are not created equal; read our tips to learn what to include on every agenda, and how to tailor your agenda depending on the goals of your meeting.
• Templates are a helpful jumping-off point, and can be tailored to meet the needs of your particular meeting.

Imagine you’re knee-deep in work, laser-focused, and ready to tackle the next task on your lengthy list. Nothing can stand in your way…except for the meeting you have in 10 minutes. Now imagine that you come out of that meeting inspired and motivated – exhilarated, even. And despite that dreaded context-switching , you’re able to pick up right where you left off with even more gas in the tank. This is how productive and effective meetings should make you feel. But how do you get there?

Your secret weapon might just be a team meeting agenda. Too often relegated to an afterthought, this handy tool can go a long way to help you run more effective in-person or virtual meetings. It helps with managing time, setting expectations, and staying on the task at hand. Agendas ensure that you have a clear purpose and that you can achieve the goals you set, whether you’re plotting your quarterly budget or creating a project timeline – real, shareable results. Team meeting agendas also help you prioritize the things you want to talk about, so you can guide your team through the most important topics of the week.

Leading productive, fruitful meetings doesn’t always come naturally – and that’s okay. Follow these helpful tips for creating an effective team meeting agenda, including a few free templates to get you started and a video with tips on how Atlassian approaches meeting agendas, taken from Atlassian University’s course How to Run Effective Meetings .

What is a team meeting agenda?

A team meeting agenda is an organized and scheduled list of topics and action items that you plan to discuss with your team during a meeting. It’s there to help you prioritize the most important topics and keep things running smoothly and efficiently so your team walks away from the meeting feeling motivated and aligned. But it’s not enough to jot down a simple list of topics and put a time stamp next to each one; it actually takes a fair amount of thought and effort to organize an effective team meeting agenda.

5 tips for creating an effective team meeting agenda

How to run effective meetings in the era of hybrid work

The most effective team meeting agendas are well-planned, clear, and concise. Here, it really helps to take a step back and put yourself in your team’s shoes. Be sure to consider your audience and what they already know; the purpose of your meeting (are you trying to solve a problem, brainstorm ideas, or make a decision; and how you can make your meeting as engaging and memorable as possible?

After skimming the agenda items, all team members should understand the purpose of the meeting and their roles within it, as well as anything they need to prepare for like questions about a certain project or deadline. This kind of preparation eliminates distractions and keeps the momentum going, leading to a more productive meeting. Here are five ways to create an effective team meeting agenda.

• Tailor your agenda to each meeting. Not all meetings are created equal, and not all agendas should be either. Maybe your weekly team meeting agenda needs a space for wins and shoutouts, but your workshop meeting agenda doesn’t. Because there are many types of meetings, do your best to format your agenda in a way that’s appropriate for your meeting and your team.
• Prioritize your agenda items. They’re the meat of your entire meeting – the reason(s) you’ve decided it was worthwhile to pull everyone away from their work and discuss each topic. That’s why it’s absolutely necessary to prioritize each item from highest priority to lowest priority, with the understanding that you’ll push the lowest-priority items to the next meeting if you run out of time.
• Include an icebreaker or other team-building activity . Icebreakers set a more casual tone (if that’s what you’re going for), and serve as a way to engage each person on the team. But keep in mind the size of your team and the length of your meeting. A complex icebreaker with 20 participants could take up your whole meeting.
• Hold enough time for questions and discussion. A well-planned meeting holds more than a measly 60 seconds for questions at the end. Reserve enough time to discuss the items on your agenda and encourage participation. Instead of asking, “Do you have any questions?” Try rephrasing it as “What questions do you have?” It’s a lot easier to shake your head “no” and get on with your day rather than thinking about questions for the agenda items. This could also spark healthy debate and spars.
• End on a positive note. Saving a few minutes to give team members some kudos will leave them feeling valued and motivated – when’s the last time you got an appreciative shoutout and did less work afterward? Whether it’s calling out people individually or thanking everyone as a group, your team will see that their hard work doesn’t go unnoticed.

On a more granular level, here are some characteristics at the core of most or all team meeting agendas.

What should all team meeting agendas include?

Every team meeting agenda should include the following basic elements to keep everyone in the loop:

• Date, time, and location: These details are especially important for dispersed teams. Be mindful of where everyone is and specify which time zone you’re in. As for the location, these days it might be a Zoom link or another chat channel instead of a physical location, so don’t forget to include that as well.
• Objective and goals: Use this as your North Star. Ask yourself, “What type of meeting is this? What am I trying to get out of it?” Be straightforward with everyone else about it so everyone’s on the same page and stays focused on the task at hand.
• Facilitator and attendees: You don’t necessarily have to take attendance, but keeping track of who’s running the show can orient team members about who to notify in case they can’t make it to the meeting or if they have something to add to the agenda.
• Agenda items: The purpose of agenda items is to make it crystal clear to the team what topics you’ll be discussing, what you want to accomplish within that item, and any action that needs to be taken. Keep it brief and avoid using jargon so everyone has a crystal-clear understanding of what’s to come.
• Time for each topic: Indicating an estimated time for each agenda item is crucial to keeping your meeting on track and on pace.
• Team check-in: Whether or not you do an icebreaker, find time to check in with your team members and their well-being. It’s important to show compassion and make sure they know you also care about factors that might be affecting them outside of work. Check-ins also ease your team into the meeting before diving right into business.

It’s also worth noting that agendas need to be circulated to all participants at least a day before the meeting. Doing so ensures that your team has had a chance to review what projects and assignments will be covered so that they come prepared for discussion. You might also welcome some feedback from your team in case you missed a thing or two.

Atlassian’s approach to team meeting agendas

Curious about how we approach meeting agendas at Atlassian? Check out this clip from Mark Cruth, Atlassian’s resident Modern Work expert and evangelist. Focused on practice over theory, Mark spends his days coaching both Atlassian and customer teams on new ways of working.

For more practical tips, enroll in the How to Run Effective Meetings course from Atlassian University – it’s completely free.

Team meeting agenda templates to get you started

6 types of meetings that are worth your time (and 3 that aren’t)

You might be wondering whether it’s worth your time to create an agenda. Although it can be a lot of work upfront, the amount of time you put into making a clear agenda can be compensated for by the efficiency of your now-wildly-productive meeting.

There are tons of free templates to choose from online – don’t hesitate to tailor them to your meeting’s particular needs. To start, check out our top team meeting agenda Confluence templates (downloadable with a free account) and explore how you can make each one your own.

• All hands meeting agenda template
• Remote team meeting agenda template
• Workshop meeting agenda template
• Brainstorming meeting agenda template
• Problem-solving meeting agenda template

Advice, stories, and expertise about work life today.

What is an effective meeting?

“This meeting should have been an email.” Emblazoned on coffee mugs, endless memes, and your colleagues’ faces on their ninth video call of the day, this sentence may end up being a catchphrase of the modern era.

As the pandemic rewrote the rule book for coworking and office culture, new processes and untested systems allowed inefficiencies to creep in —inefficiencies that included meetings scheduled for the sake of unstructured discussion or even basic human interaction rather than for productivity. While interacting might be easier than ever, value-creating collaboration isn’t—and its quality seems to be deteriorating .

Effective meetings aren’t just about keeping ourselves from going around the bend. When meetings aren’t run well—or when there are too many of them— decision  making becomes slower and the quality of decisions suffers. According to one McKinsey survey , 61 percent of executives said that at least half the time they spent making decisions—much of it surely spent in meetings—was ineffective. Just 37 percent of respondents said their organizations’ decisions were both timely and high quality. And, in a different survey , 80 percent of executives were considering or already implementing changes in meeting structure and cadence in response to the evolution of how people worked during the pandemic.

What’s more, when leaders try to solve for inefficient decision making, they too often look to organizational charts and vertical-command relationships. Rarely, in McKinsey’s experience, do they see the real issue at hand: poor design and execution of collaborative interactions. In other words, you guessed it, ineffective meetings.

It doesn’t have to be this way. When meetings are run well, they not only foster better decisions but also leave attendees feeling energized and motivated to carry the momentum forward independently. For tips on how to put a stop to video call fatigue and restart your team’s productivity, read on.

Learn more about McKinsey’s People & Organizational Performance Practice .

What does time management have to do with effective meetings?

“The only thing on Earth that never lies to you is your calendar ,” says renowned business author and McKinsey alum Tom Peters. “That’s why I’m a fanatic on the topic of time management. But when you use that term, people think, ‘Here’s an adult with a brain. And he’s teaching time management. Find something more important, please.’ But something more important doesn’t exist.”

Endless, diffuse meetings, according to Peters, take up far too much of executives’ precious working time. Half of leaders’ time, he says, citing an idea from the Israeli executive Dov Frohman, should be unscheduled. What should they do with all that unstructured time? One typically cheeky suggestion from Peters is to read more.

The reality is that effective meetings and good time management exist in a virtuous circle. Good time management means you feel empowered to turn down unnecessary meetings—and better meetings mean you spend the rest of your time feeling more purposeful in carrying out your work.

How can leaders address the problem of time scarcity?

McKinsey’s experience shows that leaders may want to stop thinking about time management as primarily an individual problem and start addressing it institutionally. Increasingly, time management is an organizational issue with roots deeply embedded in corporate cultures.

Unsurprisingly, the solution seems to be balance. Executives in one McKinsey survey  who reported being satisfied with the way their time is allocated spent 34 percent of their working time interacting with external stakeholders (including boards, customers, and investors), 39 percent in internal meetings (including one-on-ones with direct reports, leadership team meetings, and other employee gatherings), and 24 percent working alone.

Here are five ways to achieve optimal balance in allocating time :

• Have a ‘time leadership’ budget—and a process for allocating it. When adding a project or initiative, companies should analyze how much leadership attention, guidance, and intervention each will need. In our experience, this is the best way to move toward the goal of treating leaders’ time as a finite resource—one that is as precious as a company’s financial capital.
• Consider time when you introduce organizational change. Understanding the time required to achieve goals is critical to the long-term success of any organizational change. The hours needed to manage, lead, or supervise an employee can leave managers with little time left over. Getting this balance right can be tough—having too few managers could lead them to feel overwhelmed, with more direct reports than they can manage. But having too many managers can cause redundancies and unnecessary complexity.
• Ensure that individuals routinely measure and manage their time. Time analysis exercises can yield surprising results—and can inspire time management that more closely aligns with organizational priorities. Including time-related metrics in performance reviews is another driver of behavioral change.
• Refine the principal calendar. Revisit all standing meetings and make an honest assessment of which ones are being held out of habit and which ones are genuinely useful.
• Provide high-quality administrative support. In a survey of executives on how they allocate their time , 85 percent of those who considered themselves effective time managers reported that they received strong support in scheduling and allocating time. Only 7 percent of ineffective time allocators said the same. In the case of one global chemical company, the administrative assistant of the CEO considers it her responsibility to ensure that the organization’s strategic objectives are reflected in the way she allocates the CEO’s time.

Learn more about McKinsey’s  People & Organizational Performance Practice .

What are three questions you should ask yourself before scheduling a meeting?

Good meetings nurture better decision making . On the flip side, inefficient meetings not only waste time but also create distraction and confusion even when people are working independently. Here are three questions you can ask when scheduling a meeting  that can help create the clarity needed for efficient decision making.

Should this even be a meeting at all? Recurring meetings are particularly susceptible to migration from the original purpose toward something more diffuse. Check in with stakeholders to ensure that the frequency is right (weekly meetings could be changed to monthly, perhaps), or think about whether decisions could be best made by an individual—with, of course, guidance from others.

Then go deeper. Examine whether your company’s culture is to encourage meetings rather than individual decision making. To remedy this, if you’re a leader, think twice before reflexively accepting any meeting invitation as it appears in your inbox. The goal should be to treat leadership capacity as a finite resource— just like your company’s financial capital .

What is this meeting for? A meeting’s title and its purpose are not the same. When the latter isn’t clear, meetings can seem frustrating at best and futile at worst. To help avoid this, companies can appoint a “chief of staff” for certain efforts or products. This person collates materials before meetings, ensures that they are distributed ahead of time, and verifies that the due diligence has been done to necessitate a meeting in the first place. This can lead to better-informed participants, which in turn can lead to more effective time spent in meetings—and, ultimately, better decisions.

What is everyone’s role? Even if a meeting has a clear purpose, it’s of little use if there is no one present deputized to make a decision . Equally, even if it’s clear who the decider is, it’s a mistake to hold a meeting when people are unsure of participants’ roles. McKinsey analysts have seen poor role clarity stymie productivity and cause frustration, especially when decisions involve complicated business activities that cut across organizational boundaries. Blurry accountability is especially costly in an era where speed and agility confer a competitive advantage .

Meeting participants can be divided into four roles:

• Decision makers should be the only participants with a vote, and the ones with the responsibility to decide as they see fit. Sometimes decision makers will need to “disagree and commit,” to use a phrase coined by Jeff Bezos in a 2017 letter to Amazon shareholders.
• Advisers give input and shape the decision. They typically have a big stake in the decision’s outcome.
• Recommenders conduct analyses, explore alternatives, illuminate pros and cons, and ultimately recommend a course of action to the advisers and decision makers. The more recommenders the better—for the process, not the decision meeting itself.
• Execution partners don’t give input in making the decision but are deeply involved in implementation. For optimal speed and clarity, execution partners should be in the room when the decision is made so that they can envision how the implementation will evolve from the decision.

OK, I’ve eliminated all unnecessary meetings and assigned specific purposes to each one. Now what?

Great work. Now you can assign each meeting to one of the following three categories , and make specific shifts to improve the outcomes.

• Decision-making meetings. This category includes routine decisions, like quarterly business reviews, as well as complex or uncertain decisions, like decisions about investments. In order to make high-quality decisions quickly, it’s critical to clarify exactly who is going to make them. Some of these meetings can be held virtually, but complex decision-making meetings are better in person. These meetings should result in a final decision (even if not everyone agrees).
• Creative solutions and coordination meetings. These include innovation sessions—for instance, in support of a new product—as well as routine working sessions, like daily check-ins. Rather than telling people what to do, leaders should work to empower employees to make their own (supported) decisions and to spend more time on high-quality coaching sessions. As with decision-making meetings, creative solutions and coordinating meetings can be virtual—but most innovation sessions should be in person. Innovation sessions should result in potential solutions and prepare for a decision meeting, whereas routine working meetings can result in next steps.
• Information-sharing meetings. Live interaction can be useful for information sharing, especially when an interpretive lens is required or if the information is sensitive. But information-sharing meetings are often regarded as having limited value. Many organizations have recently moved to drastically improve meeting efficiency. Netflix, for example, has limited the duration of meetings to a maximum of 30 minutes  and requires that meetings involving one-way information sharing be canceled in favor of other mechanisms like a memo, podcast, or vlog. Early data from Netflix shows that the company has reduced meetings by more than 65 percent and that more than 85 percent of employees favor the approach. The goal of these meetings should be to increase awareness of the new information shared in the meeting.

What are some best practices for video meetings?

Establishing best practices for meetings might seem like common sense—but they are not commonly practiced. Here are some helpful tips from Karin M. Reed , author of the 2021 book Suddenly Virtual: Making Remote Meetings Work :

• Time: The most effective meetings are short meetings. Rather than scheduling a two-hour call with ten agenda items, cut it down to a 20-minute meeting with two agenda items. There are limits to people’s endurance and attention spans in the virtual environment.
• Participants: When determining the number of attendees for decision-making meetings, the sweet spot is five to seven. More than seven attendees in any meeting can result in an unwieldy discussion.
• Appearance: Pay attention to your appearance when hosting a videoconference. It’s not a matter of vanity—it shows respect for your conversation partner and can help you get your message across. Light your face properly: facial expressions are critical to conveying a message. And anything that takes attention away from you, whether it’s a crackly audio connection or a silly picture of Uncle Rupert in the background, will distract from your message.
• Eye contact: Look at your camera lens when you’re talking, not at your screen. This goes against our natural impulses, but eye contact is critical when you’re having a conversation. And to maintain eye contact on a video call, you need to look at your camera.
• Inclusion: Leaders should engage in proactive facilitation to ensure that everyone has the chance to say their piece. Cold calling on people—gently, and with good intention—lets people know that it’s their time to speak. Even if someone doesn’t have anything to add, they will have felt included.

For more in-depth exploration of these topics, see McKinsey’s People & Organizational Performance Practice . Also check out organizational structure–related job opportunities if you’re interested in working at McKinsey.

Articles referenced:

• “ If we’re all so busy, why isn’t anything getting done? ,” January 10, 2022, Aaron De Smet , Caitlin Hewes, Mengwei Luo, J. R. Maxwell , and Patrick Simon  
• “ Author Talks: Karin M. Reed on virtual meetings ,” April 20, 2021
• “ To unlock better decision making, plan better meetings ,” November 9, 2020, Aaron De Smet  and Leigh Weiss
• “ Want a better decision? Plan a better meeting ,” McKinsey Quarterly , May 8, 2019, Aaron De Smet , Gregor Jost , and Leigh Weiss  
• “ Tom Peters on leading the 21st-century organization ,” McKinsey Quarterly , September 1, 2014, Aaron De Smet  and Suzanne Heywood
• “ Making time management the organization’s priority ,” McKinsey Quarterly , January 1, 2013, Frankki Bevins  and Aaron De Smet

Want to know more about effective meetings?

Related articles.

If we’re all so busy, why isn’t anything getting done?

To unlock better decision making, plan better meetings

Author Talks: Karin M. Reed on virtual meetings

Business Meeting Planning Checklist: How to do it right and fast

There is one universal trait that unifies all types of meetings – people spend their time communicating to find a solution for the problem or achieve certain goals. You must prepare whether you are planning a meeting with new business partners or doing a routine gathering of the team members engaged in a project. Careful planning is the key to conducting efficient meetings that solve problems. Our business meeting planning checklist is designed to help plan meetings quickly and correctly.

Meeting preparation: Why would I waste time on that?

You might think that this process is very tiresome and complicated. It can be when you have loads of materials to prepare, key aspects to emphasize, etc. But keep your main goal above it all – if everything goes as planned, you will get to work faster and finish your current tasks sooner. Also, when it comes to how to prepare for a meeting , there are many things to consider, including building a hierarchy of the tasks at hand, setting time limits for discussing each one of them, and quickly assigning duties within the team. To make this process less tiresome and complicated, creating a business meeting planning checklist is ideal for meeting preparation.

There are tons of articles and materials explaining how to prepare for a meeting, but most of them describe typical psychological tips. Modern times require technical solutions such as automation of the information gathering routines, advanced meeting planning software , etc. When everything is implemented right, you will be saving a lot of time in the long run. Your meetings will become shorter, and you will need them less because everything will be structured and precise.

Every meeting should have its set duration based on the number of questions to discuss. This way, you won’t have to waste time on “talking” instead of “doing.” When your time bank is empty, and you still haven’t come up with a good idea, better cross out the question from the agenda for now and discuss it at the next meeting. Remember that it gets hard to find an adequate solution when everyone’s fixated on the same thing. Such little tips can also give a good insight on how to prepare for a meeting and keep your workflow efficient.

When it comes to business meetings involving several departments and multiple participants, you will need to plan even more to make every minute count. Going to a serious event without meeting preparation is the first step to failure. Here is a short-list of “nice-to-haves:”

• Checklist for the meeting.
• Prepared agenda.
• Information to support and develop the agenda.
• Distributable feedback forms to gather reviews from meeting attendees

The most important idea you must understand is that the time spent preparing is an investment. Any meeting preparation must be well-balanced so that you won’t spend hours preparing for short gatherings. Optimize your time as it is the most important resource we have in our possession. Incorporate additional planning meeting tools into your strategy to improve your time-management skills, boost working productivity, and even save some money on canceled meetings you no longer need. This alone is already a good enough motivation to learn how to prepare for a meeting.

Our Complete Business Meeting Planning Checklist

Without a well-thought-out structure, your session with the team will slide into chaos, leaving you with questions unanswered and time wasted. Furthermore, an unsuccessful meeting can interrupt the normal workflow by shifting the focus to less relevant aspects (in the current scenario). That is why you need to plan your meetings.

Every host wants to be sure that their meetings are efficient but not very time-consuming. Here we gathered the most popular tips from managers in small business and big corporations. Consider reading them to understand how to organize a meeting.

• Coordinate schedules: When you are hosting a meeting, coordinate the schedule of all meeting members.
• Prepare materials: as the meeting organizer, prepare all the needed materials to share with the team.
• Determine the purpose: Set the main goals for the session. For example, decide whether you want to inform the employees about the newest updates or need to get a solution for the concrete problem.
• Develop an agenda: Develop the appropriate agenda depending on the previous paragraph. If you intend on having a meeting that will require more time than usual, inform all attendees beforehand. Don’t forget to include bathroom breaks and time for refreshment breaks.
• Arrange a place to meet: Make all necessary arrangements to reserve a meeting room big enough to host attending people comfortably. Be sure that the schedule is suitable for all main speakers expected to participate in the meeting.
• Time & Location: Share information about the time and location of your meeting.
• Double-check the equipment you will be using during the session. A digital presentation, for example, will require a laptop, powerful projector, and a big screen. All these devices must be ready before you start, so all you will need to do is connect your computer and push the button to start presenting.
• Prepare visuals: Prepare other visual materials, print them if necessary. It is also recommended to bring handouts with the most important information, so every participant will have a chance to make their notes in a structured way.
• Simulate the beginning of the meeting: This tip is optional, but we still recommend following it. When all preparations are done according to the business meeting planning checklist, do a quick test to simulate the beginning of the meeting. Hassle-free start allows you to get right to the point of the meeting faster.
• Send a reminder: The day before the meeting, send a reminder to all attendees. Everyone needs to be at the location before the meeting, organize them gently.

Download our Full Business Meeting Planning Checklist

According to the statistics, there is one reason across the board that consumes and wastes working time on all kinds of projects like no other. It is called “too many meetings” (learn more about how to reduce unnecessary meetings ). Research shows that employees and managers in big corporations participate in 70 meetings monthly spending more than one-third of their time talking and listening instead of doing actual work.

Don’t get the wrong idea here. Meetings are important, and you need them to keep your team updated. The problem is having ineffective meetings. However, there is a simple and elegant solution to this. Download our business meeting planning checklist free of charge. Following these guidelines will help you conduct more efficient meetings that will save your resources, time, and money.

It is a good example proving that you can keep everything neatly organized. By performing the recommended actions from this meeting checklist, you will optimize the meeting routines for your team. So, no one will be feeling exhausted from emotional burnout after discussing the same project over and over again. Print our checklist or save it on your mobile device for the next meeting and see for yourself. In the long run, the effectiveness of your meets with the team will increase inevitably. Sign up for the free trial of yoyomeeting for a more advanced approach inside your Outlook 365.

Friendly advice and our conclusion

Now you understand the importance of planning and meetings preparations. To make things easier for you, we have the tool that will be of great help in your business and daily routines. It is a universal instrument for managing meetings in all aspects imaginable. Facilitate the creation of meeting minutes, meeting agendas, and assign action items with the yoyomeeting add-in for Office 365.  Start your free trial now!

Improve your meetings with yoyomeeting for Outlook

With all these tips, you might be already great at planning a meeting. But to make life easier, you might want to read how our meeting management software can help with the meeting management process .

Apart from the Outlook add-in, we offer a lot more content on meeting management with hacks on how to improve your meeting culture. So follow us on Facebook  or connect to our   LinkedIn company profile  to stay in the loop and to get the latest on meeting management excellence.

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6 Tips to Run a Highly Effective Meeting, Backed by Science

Meetings can be terrifying, especially when you don’t have a plan! Learn how to run your meeting effortlessly and effectively!

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Have you ever left a meeting that felt like it was a complete waste of your time?

Research shows that only 50% of the time spent in meetings is effective and engaging. Over $37 billion is wasted on unproductive meetings each year to make things worse.

For most of us, this isn’t a surprise. Without apparent purpose, leadership, or organization, a lousy meeting can drag on forever.

However, genuinely effective meetings leave everyone feeling organized, motivated, and clear on what they need to get done in the following days or weeks.

If you want to plan and host a successful meeting, you’ll need a proper framework and time management strategy to lead the discussion in the right direction.

Here’s how to run a meeting that will get things done. Use these 6 simple strategies to empower and organize your team to take proactive action toward your business goals.

What Makes a Successful Meeting?

Homo sapiens is a social species. For thousands of years, humans have come together in small groups or larger “tribal” gatherings to discuss matters of importance, from business to family to communal and beyond.

No matter how much technology is added to our daily lives, meetings remain vital to accomplishing a shared vision within business units. Meetings define both the cultural and strategic frameworks for our workplaces.

Whether remote or in-person, effective meetings are crucial for teamwork and productivity .

Sure, efficient meetings can speed through an agenda in a short amount of time. Still, truly effective meetings deliver a tangible result or outcome.

Everyone should leave with a feeling of clarity and confidence in exactly what they need to do, how they need to do it, and when it needs to be done.

Successful meetings should:

• Define a collective identity of a group and help each individual understand their role within the team
• Inspire creativity and cooperation amongst a team
• Take individual ideas and refine them to actionable solutions
• Clarify collective goals and deadlines so that each person sees their role in achieving them

To run an effective meeting that provides the highest ROI for your time and your staff’s wages, follow these 6 time-tested steps to get organized ahead of time.

6 Simple Steps to Run a Successful Meeting

• Define the Meeting Objectives
• Create an Agenda + Send Calendar Invites
• Create a Safe Space for Collaboration
• Strategically Choose Attendees + Appoint Important Roles
• Best Practices to Stay on Track
• End With Clear Actions, Owners, and Timelines

Have you ever showed up to a meeting and wondered, “why the heck am I here?”

Successful meetings have a clear purpose. Without an objective, there is no reason for holding a meeting.

As a leader, you must differentiate between the need for essential communications (which can be done through email, Slack, or phone call) versus the need to call a strategic meeting to accomplish an important goal (like project planning, solving a problem, setting a goal , making a decision, or mapping out a customer journey).

There are two primary types of meetings:

• Routine meetings (ex: Monday morning recap and projections, Friday team meetings, etc.)
• Strategic meetings (ex: task force meetings, problem-solving, creating a plan, etc.)

Although each type of meeting may be run differently, they require an objective. 

To clarify your objectives, jot them down! Better yet, send the meeting objectives out with the agenda, so everyone is on the same page.

Be as clear and concise as possible with your meeting objective, for example:

• Brainstorming session for how to reduce customer cart abandonment
• Explore third-party solutions to increase efficiency in online search traffic
• Present first quarter project progress and determine next steps
• Hindsight meeting with key stakeholders to celebrate wins and identify opportunities to improve

If you can’t describe why you’re holding a meeting in a sentence or two, you probably don’t need to have the meeting.

The meeting objective should have results-oriented terms and actionable goals. There may be several goals within the more significant objective. Still, these should all be defined for the team to understand ahead of time.

This is your north star and the guiding purpose of the meeting.

Watch our video below to learn ways to make your meetings better and more efficient:

Next comes your agenda, which is like your compass pointing you toward that north star objective. Without a compass to guide you, the entire team will feel like a ship lost at sea.

We all know that time is a precious resource. An agenda should directly support progress towards meeting your objectives. At the same time, sticking to a meeting agenda demonstrates that you are an effective and organized leader, which means more trust and dedication from your team.

We’ve all been in one of those meetings that were far too short to cover everything that needed to be discussed.

On the flip side, there is nothing worse than a meeting that gets derailed into off-topic conversations and goes on for far longer than anticipated.

Find a happy medium between the two by scheduling the meeting length and time around achieving the specific objective at hand.

Bonus Tip for Introverts : If you have introverts on your team who need to speak up, use the agenda to give them some time to prep. Introverts appreciate being able to prepare for speaking or brainstorming sessions. Learn more about how to make introversion into a superpower . 

Meeting Length

The length of an effective meeting should reflect how many people are involved and how in-depth the project is.

Each agenda item should have a clear amount of time allotted to it, for example:

• Introduction/call to the meeting (2 minutes)
• Review previous meeting notes (2 min.)
• Present objective or problem at hand (3 min.)
• Open brainstorming/group discussion (10 min.)
• Report from team 1 (10 min.)
• Questions for team 1 (3 min.)
• News from team 2 (10 min.)
• Questions for team 2 (3 min.)
• Updates from the chief executive (5 min.)
• Closing statements / clarify Actions, Owners, and Timelines (5 min.)

This agenda reflects a complex team project with 10 or more people. A smaller team should not require as much time.

In general, meetings should never last more than 60 minutes because people might lose focus and interest.

Keep it short and to the point!

You can always have a further discussion later on.

Meeting Scheduling Time

The timing of the meeting should be chosen based on what needs to get done. Research shows that brainstorming, creativity, and strategic thinking are best in the mornings when the prefrontal cortex is most active and we have the most mental energy.

On the other hand, we are typically better at creative problem solving later in the day because we are less distracted and more relaxed.

Don’t forget to consider time zone differences (if you’re a remote team ) and respect other calendar items within your organization.

Keep the agenda as simple as possible to keep your team engaged. Each agenda item should be allotted a specific amount of time so that everyone can know their time constraints for discussions or presentations.

Send Agenda With Calendar Invite

It is best practice to send the agenda out ahead of time if possible! Include the text or document linked in the Calendar Invite. You can also display the agenda on a projector screen or whiteboard during the meeting to keep everyone on the same page.

Be sure that only necessary team members are on the invite list for maximum productivity.

Collaboration can only happen when people feel safe and comfortable. These are the best tips for creating a safe space that yields truly effective meetings every time.

Lay Out the Guidelines

Establish guidelines when the meeting starts to ensure that participants feel comfortable speaking and sharing their ideas while remaining respectful of others and not getting too off-topic.

You can also note that you prefer cell phones to be silent to minimize distractions.

It’s essential to make sure each team member feels heard while encouraging balanced participation. Consider a “round table” approach where everyone gets a moment to speak.

Pro Tip: Want to level up your meeting game? Whether working remotely or in person, choosing the right communication tool is vital for optimum collaboration.

Psychological Safety

Ineffective meetings allow one person or a handful of people to dominate the conversation while others sit on the sidelines.

A great meeting invites a feeling of safety amongst team members by welcoming new ideas and removing the fear of public criticism.

A Harvard Business Review study found that the highest performing teams with the most successful meetings have trust, confidence, and curiosity. Their work environments do not promote punishment for mistakes.

Pro Tip: The most productive teams receive appreciation regularly. Learn more about the 10 Must-Know Productivity Secrets of High Performing Teams .

In other words, to run effective meetings, you need to be a positive leader that is collaborative and kind. You can do this by keeping to a few steadfast rules both in and out of meetings:

• Use positive reinforcement to recognize achievements rather than magnifying shortcomings.
• Never publicly reprimand an employee in front of the team.
• Avoid blaming any specific team or individual for a problem. Research shows that this destroys trust and confidence in a leader. Instead, opt for curiosity and stay solution-oriented.
• Ask for feedback. Asking for feedback increases people’s trust in their leaders .

Comfortable Ambiance

Research has shown that over a third of workers are unhappy with the ambiance of their offices.

Nobody wants to meet in one of those horrible, dimly lit, cold, dreary board rooms!

Create a pleasant ambiance (such as open windows or a decorated room) or consider providing beverages to help people relax a bit more.

Details like temperature, light, comfortable chairs, and even a few indoor plants can help create calmer, more effective meetings.

Consider an Icebreaker

Would your team like a non-awkward icebreaker ? For meetings where you want to encourage bonding and creativity, try a specifically chosen icebreaker, like one of the 8 in the video below:

Meetings are expensive and time-consuming. Avoid inviting anyone who is not needed to achieve the meeting objective.

At the same time, be sure that you have enough participants for a productive open discussion with diverse perspectives. A good meeting strikes a balance between minimizing attendees and maximizing the creative potential of a group.

Harvard Business Review has an excellent Meeting Cost Calculator that can help you figure out who is best included on your attendee list.

Choosing Roles

Running effective meetings always requires appointing roles ahead of time.

Who are the key decision-makers in your meeting?

As the host, will you be the facilitator? Will team leaders also be reporting about their department or projects?

Who is the notetaker? They will be responsible for keeping track of the discussion and recording every good idea or action plan agreed on.

They are also responsible for sending out a meeting recap with actions, owners, and timelines that were agreed on during the meeting.

Who is the timekeeper? They can help keep everyone on track with the agenda plan.

If you are running a project management meeting, be sure that key stakeholders from each department or project unit are ready to report on their area of responsibility. Allot a specific amount of time for each presentation in the agenda items.

So, after all this planning, how are you going to keep everyone on topic and focused for the whole duration of your meeting?

Surveys show that executives consider 67% of all meetings to be failures .

Failed meetings can be caused by a lack of objectivity, a poorly planned agenda, bad discussions, an unengaged team, or all of the above.

Regardless of the problem, it’s generally your job as the leader to fix them. Keep meeting participants on track by laying ground rules and keeping things interesting.

Pro Tip: Some meetings can crash and burn due to a phenomenon known as Zoom Fatigue. Here’s how to combat it: 20 Scientific Tips to Beat Zoom Fatigue, According to Your Personality

Avoid Side Discussions

Establish ground rules in your introduction to minimize side discussions, and everyone knows the core topic at hand.

If side discussions begin to happen, kindly re-route the team back to the objectives and promise to revisit those ideas in the future.

Use a whiteboard or chat recorded by the notetaker to jot down unrelated topics that can be reviewed in future meetings. 

Keep ’em Engaged

To run an effective meeting, you need your team to be engaged.

Good meetings are exciting and provide plenty of mental stimulation. 

Here are a few tips for leading engaging meetings:

• Don’t drone on and on in a monotone.
• Use visuals or slides on a screen.
• Keep the meeting short and to the point.
• Ask questions periodically so participants can contribute and remain interested.

Engagement is especially challenging in remote meetings where participants are often distracted or multitask. Research has shown that using video is one of the easiest ways to keep people engaged.

Drawing in virtual attendees through regular question asking (“Leah, could you share your thoughts on this?”) is especially important in remote meetings.

Ultimately, the most effective meeting strategies come to a crux at the very end when everyone is about to leave, and they wonder, “why the heck did I go to that meeting?”

Before the meeting adjourns, align on actions, owners, and timelines:

• Actions : What is going to get done? What are the key metrics? How does the assignment fit into the broader objective?
• Owners : Who is going to accomplish which action?
• Timelines : When is it due? What are the deadlines? Where should people report to with their final product?

If you forget this part, your entire meeting was in vain. People need crystal clear direction for what to do next.

Be sure also to discuss the general time frame of your next meeting.

Most importantly, thank everyone for coming and reminding them of their excellent work. 

Always end on a positive note!

Deal With Difficult People

Sometimes, you might encounter a difficult person (or people) in your meeting. These types of people are toxic and can alter the dynamics of any meeting—usually for the worse. Luckily, there’s an efficient way to deal with these types of people.

How to Deal With Difficult People At Work

Do you have a difficult boss? Colleague? Client? Learn how to transform your difficult relationship. I’ll show you my science-based approach to building a strong, productive relationship with even the most difficult people.

Meeting Mini-FAQ

The best meetings are highly organized ahead of time. Define a clear objective, create an agenda, and send both out with your calendar invites. Be sure only to invite relevant team members and keep the meeting time as brief as possible to retain engagement. Don’t forget to end every meeting with actions, owners, and timelines to get your team crystal clear on what needs to get done before the next meeting.

Conducting a meeting should always be done from a servant leadership mindset. Approach your team with kindness and create a culture of trust wherein everyone feels safe to speak and participate. Remain positive and inspirational while speaking with authority and focusing on the objectives. Stay true to your agenda to respect everyone’s time.

How to Run a Meeting Key Takeaways

If you’ve been nervous about running a meeting, remember that most of the work happens beforehand through organization and schedule planning. 

Don’t forget to: 

Most meetings are scattered and feel like a waste of time. Set yourself apart and establish yourself as a strong leader by putting in the work upfront.

Take the time and effort to prepare for a productive meeting. You will have a high-functioning team that meets your business goals and works in a culture of trust and collaboration.

Next thing you know, people will be looking forward to meetings rather than dreading them!

For further reading, check out this article: 17 Easy Ways to Make Your Meetings Better

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Planning a Meeting: A Step-by-Step Guide to Effective Meeting Planning

Home Blog Project Management Planning a Meeting: A Step-by-Step Guide to Effective Meeting Planning

Effective meeting planning is highly important for the success of any project or initiative. It involves setting clear objectives, ensuring the right people are in attendance, and creating an agenda that fosters productive discussion. 

When executed properly, meeting planning transforms what can be monotonous and inefficient gatherings into streamlined, collaborative events that drive program success. Planning a meeting can be enhanced by going for the Project management courses and getting globally recognized accreditations authenticating your project leadership skills.   

What is Meeting Planning?

Meeting planning is a strategic process that involves the organization of a professional gathering (either in-person or online) where individuals deliberate on specific topics, devise directions toward achieving aimed solutions, or make decisions for steps ahead of an organization or a strategic program. These meetings can come in various forms with varied objectives. They should be strategically planned based on the specific objectives that are expected from the meeting. One can refer to several sources on the internet for a meeting plan example, which can be used as a starting point.

Types of Meetings

Meetings could take several shapes, and some of the prevalent ones include:

Strategic Planning Meetings:  Running an effective strategic planning meeting is crucial for shaping the long-term direction of an organization or project. These meetings bring together executive leadership or strategic teams to discuss and decide on high-level objectives and strategies. Key topics covered include setting goals, determining growth strategies, identifying risks, and allocating resources. The main goal of these meetings is to align stakeholders towards a shared vision and strategic path, fostering coordinated efforts toward achieving organizational or project objectives.

In a scaling tech start-up, a strategic planning meeting sets the growth strategy for the next fiscal year. Attendees, including the CEO, CTO, and CFO, review the previous year, analyze feedback, and assess market position. New goals for customer acquisition, product development, and revenue targets are established, addressing challenges like competition. Resource allocation is discussed for initiatives such as hiring and marketing campaigns. The meeting concludes with a clear direction, specific targets, and action plans for the upcoming year.

Operational or Tactical Meetings: Along with the know-how of how to run a planning meeting discussed above. Organizational or Tactical Meetings form the backbone of daily operations within a company. Regular tactical meetings are essential for managing short-term tasks and executing strategies smoothly. These meetings, similar to Agile Scrum's daily standups, involve resource allocation, problem-solving, decision-making, and progress monitoring. Effective planning is crucial to maintaining focus and productivity.

In IT services firms, we hold daily 15-minute tactical meetings. The Program Manager reviews the previous day's tasks and addresses any obstacles. Each team member then shares their specific tasks for the day, and resources are allocated accordingly. The session concludes with problem-solving and decision-making discussions to ensure alignment with project goals. This Agile-inspired approach fosters a productive environment and adaptability to immediate changes.

Problem-Solving Meetings: Problem-solving meetings primarily focus on addressing specific challenges or issues that a team or organization is facing during the progress of their program. These gatherings offer a collaborative platform to break the problem into workable parts, explore its roots, and brainstorm potential solutions for the problem. Participants collaborate by pooling their knowledge, experiences, and approach to generate diverse ideas and solutions. 

The goal of these meetings is to arrive at a consensus on the most effective course of action, enabling faster and more efficient issue resolution. A well-orchestrated problem-solving meeting can harness creative problem-solving, which enhances team collaboration and stimulates innovation.

Let us say, for example, during the launch of a new software platform, the tech team of a company identified a recurring glitch that affected user experience. The team held a problem-solving meeting, where the team members dissected the issue, traced its root, and brainstormed potential solutions. By tapping into the team's collective knowledge and experience, the team members would be able to design an innovative patch, unanimously agreed upon, that resolves the glitch and improves the platform's overall performance.

Project Planning Meetings: Project Planning Meetings are a significant means for better management and execution of any project. These meetings bring together all relevant stakeholders and enable them to collectively agree upon the project's roadmap, including critical milestones and deliverables. During these sessions, responsibilities are delegated to stakeholders, ensuring that everyone understands their specific responsibilities. In addition, these meetings set the project's timeline, creating a shared schedule that aligns all stakeholders.

Project Planning meetings are generally done at the start of the project. For example, during the initial phase of constructing a new eco-friendly building, a project planning meeting will be held with architects, construction managers, environmental consultants, and client representatives. 

During this session, the stakeholders will agree on key milestones like design finalization, securing permits, starting construction, and completing interior fit-outs. Tasks should be assigned, ensuring each stakeholder knows their responsibilities and a timeline should be created, aligning everyone towards a shared goal.

The planning procedures and requirements might differ based on the type of meeting you're orchestrating, which is where the usefulness of a versatile yet thorough meeting preparation checklist becomes apparent.

Why is Planning a Meeting Important in Project Management?

Efficient meetings form the core of any successful project management endeavor. They promote communication, stimulate collaboration, enable decision-making, and ensure alignment among team members. By implementing a project planning meeting template, project managers can streamline the meeting process, ensuring every attendee comprehends their roles and responsibilities. Enhancing your knowledge in project management through PMP certification will greatly benefit your ability to plan strategic meetings.

Additionally, planning meetings in project management facilitates transparency and accountability among stakeholders. This process helps to eliminate ambiguity by setting clear goals and discussing potential challenges. A well-structured meeting nurtures problem-solving and innovation by providing a platform to discuss ideas openly and constructively. Scheduled meetings also set a regular rhythm for the team, fostering a sense of consistency and reliability. 

Furthermore, integrating stakeholder feedback becomes much simpler when a meeting provides an avenue for open discussions and proactive engagement. So, it can be summarised that meticulous planning of meetings is a non-forgettable part of project management.

How to Conduct a Strategic Planning Session? (Step-by-Step)

Effective strategic planning meetings are vital to the success of an organization or a project. Here's how to orchestrate a strategic planning session as a part of their project meeting plan:

Step 1: Discuss the Goals of a Meeting

Each meeting should be planned to have a clear purpose or goal. Be it is on generating new ideas, making crucial decisions, or discussing project progress, having a defined goal for the meeting helps the meeting organizer steer the meeting in the right direction.

Step 2: Decide a Meeting Committee

Assigning a team to be responsible for conducting the meetings yields the best results for the program's success. And this team is termed as Program Management Office in most of the leading organizations. This meeting committee or the program management office should consist of a meeting leader, a note-taker, and any other roles that are deemed to be necessary based on the meeting's nature.

Step 3: Create a Meeting Agenda

Creating a meeting agenda is an important activity in the process of meeting planning. It serves as a roadmap for the discussion aimed at the meeting. It ensures all necessary topics are addressed. A meeting agenda also assists in managing time effectively. It is recommended to utilize planning meeting agenda examples to structure your agenda.

Step 4: Gather Necessary Equipment and Tools

The meeting organizer or the team should ensure that all the required tools and equipment are prepared to be ready for the meeting. The necessary equipment and tools range from presentation equipment, brainstorming whiteboards, or specific video conferencing platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Cisco for virtual meetings. While planning a meeting template, one should keep in mind that there should be fields that include entries of necessary equipment and tools.

Step 5: Send Invitation and Meeting Agenda to all Stakeholders (Send Prep Materials)

It is recommended that the program team that organizes the meeting dispatches meeting invitations and the agenda to all participants well in advance. Recommended time for sending pre-reads for the meeting is at least 2 days ahead of the meeting. This allows participants to prepare for the discussion, which enhances the productivity of the meeting.

Step 6: Decide the Location of the Meeting

The meeting organizer should select the right location which is able to accommodate all required attendees, and the location should be arranged in such a way that it supports the meeting's purpose. If you are conducting a virtual meeting, make sure that all participants have access to the required video conferencing platform. The location of the meeting should also be given priority while planning a meeting template.

Step 7: Start the Meeting on Time

An important aspect of the meetings to be effective is beginning and ending them at the right planned time. This gesture from the meeting organizer demonstrates respect for the meeting participants' time and helps them maintain focus and be engaged throughout the meeting.

Step 8: Send out the Meeting Summary

After the meeting completes, the meeting organizer or the team should send a summary that includes meeting minutes and action points to all attendees. This post-meeting document should underline key points, decisions made, and actions to be undertaken, along with the target dates. The best meeting summary also includes the next meeting date if a follow-up meeting is required. The meeting summary can also be included in the process of planning a meeting template.

Enrolling in PRINCE2 course is an effective way to acquire the skills necessary for meticulous and result-driven meeting planning.

Benefits of Standardized Meeting Process

Adhering to a standardized meeting process leads to several hidden benefits. It cultivates consistency, ensuring all meetings are productive and abide by the same standards and practices. By planning a meeting template for project planning, we can make sure that all important points are addressed. 

This will be reducing the likelihood of overlooking critical aspects. In addition, standardizing the procedures helps in setting clear expectations for attendees, boosting participation and overall effectiveness.

Boosts Productivity: Adhering to a standardized meeting process can drastically enhance productivity. With a clear structure and agenda in place, attendees can come prepared and contribute effectively, making the most of the allocated time.

Enhances Consistency: The use of a standardized meeting template ensures that each meeting abides by the same set of practices and rules. This leads to a more consistent approach to decision-making and problem-solving within the project team.

Improves Coverage of Critical Aspects: With a well-planned meeting template, project managers can make sure that all significant aspects of the project are addressed. This systematic approach reduces the risk of overlooking critical details or tasks that are essential to the project's success.

Sets Clear Expectations: The implementation of a standardized meeting process allows for the setting of clear expectations for all attendees. This can boost participation and engagement as team members understand their roles and the contributions they're expected to make.

Promotes Effective Communication : Standardizing the meeting process improves communication by providing a clear and organized platform for team members to share ideas, raise concerns, and provide feedback.

Encourages Accountability: With clearly defined roles and tasks distributed in the meeting, each team member becomes accountable for their responsibilities. This can significantly improve task completion rates and overall project progress.

Saves Time: A well-structured meeting process, with its agenda set beforehand, avoids irrelevant discussions and focuses only on the vital points. This efficiency saves valuable time, which can be utilized for other important project tasks.

Best Practices for Planning Meetings Effectively

While we have covered the steps in planning a meeting, there are a few additional best practices to make your meetings run smoothly:

Have a Clear Objective: Every meeting should have a specific and clear objective. This prevents deviation and keeps the meeting on track.

Invite Relevant Stakeholders: Only those necessary for the meeting should be invited. This prevents overcrowding and ensures everyone present can contribute.

Encourage Participation: All participants should be given the chance to contribute to the discussion. This fosters a sense of collaboration and can result in more varied and innovative ideas.

Respect Everyone's Time: Start and end meetings on time, and try to keep them as concise as possible. Long, drawn-out meetings can lead to decreased focus and participation.

Effective meeting planning extends beyond merely setting a date and time for a discussion. It involves meticulous preparation, execution, and follow-up to ensure the meeting is productive and achieves its intended goals. With these steps and practices, you'll be on your way to orchestrating effective and efficient meetings that can propel your projects and organization toward success.

Looking to delve deeper into effective meeting planning and project management methodologies? Check out KnowledgeHut's top Project Management certification programs . We provide in-depth, practical training to help you master these skills and more.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

It is important to have proper planning for a meeting as it helps in setting clear objectives, ensuring that all necessary topics are addressed and that every participant understands their roles and responsibilities. It helps meetings be more efficient, productive, and goal-oriented.

The 5 key elements of a meeting are a clear purpose, a well-planned agenda, relevant participants, necessary equipment and materials, and a designated leader or facilitator.

One should be prepared for a meeting through a set of preparatory activities which involves understanding the meeting's objective, creating an agenda, inviting the right participants, preparing any necessary materials or tools, and making logistical arrangements such as deciding the location or platform for the meeting.

Nithin Kumar Peratla

Nithin, an MBA from IIM Bangalore and M.Tech from IIT Madras,  has 10+ years of experience in product management, within data analytics, cloud, ERP and CRM domains. He works for Cognizant currently and is an adept writer in these domains of work.

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How to run effective Strategy Meetings

Learn how to run effective strategy meetings with tips on setting objectives, encouraging participation, and driving accountability to achieve your goals.

Set Clear Objectives

Choose the right format, encourage active participation, focus on execution and accountability, regular reviews and adaptability, wrap up with clear communication.

Before diving into discussions, it’s essential to establish the primary goal of the meeting. Whether you're creating a new strategy or reviewing progress, having a clear objective helps keep the conversation focused. For example, you might aim to define a 5-year growth plan or evaluate quarterly results. Clarity on the purpose ensures participants are aligned and productive.

Strategy meetings come in different forms, depending on their frequency and depth:

• Annual Strategic Planning focuses on big-picture goals, setting the overall direction for the year.
• Quarterly Strategic Refreshes  review progress, adjust priorities, and keep teams connected to the long-term strategy.
• Monthly or Ad-hoc Meetings solve specific problems or adjust tactics as needed.

Each type of meeting requires a different level of preparation and follow-up. For example, an annual meeting may take days of brainstorming, while weekly or monthly check-ins can be shorter and more focused.

See The Power of Strategy: Unleashing Growth Through Effective Meetings for more insight into different types of strategy meetings.

For strategy meetings to be effective, all stakeholders must actively contribute. Ensure participants are well-prepared with background materials and understand their role in the discussion. Engage team members in problem-solving, not just status updates. Involving diverse perspectives, especially from different departments, can lead to more innovative solutions.

Strategy meetings should lead to clear, actionable decisions. It's not enough to set high-level goals; teams must define how they will achieve them. Every action item should have an owner and a timeline. This helps drive accountability and ensures follow-through on strategic initiatives.

Regular check-ins, whether monthly or quarterly, are crucial for ensuring that strategies remain relevant. These reviews give teams the chance to adapt to market changes, reassess resource allocation, and fine-tune their approach to meet long-term goals. Without regular reviews, the strategy risks becoming outdated or misaligned with reality.

Once decisions are made, it's vital to document and communicate them clearly across the organisation. Meeting minutes, action logs, and timelines should be shared with all relevant parties to ensure transparency and alignment.

Incorporating these best practices can make your strategy meetings more productive and impactful, ensuring your team is aligned and your goals are met efficiently.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the purpose of a strategy meeting.

The main purpose of a strategy meeting is to align teams on organisational goals, assess progress, and create a roadmap for future actions. It helps evaluate the current state of the business, address challenges, and define the next steps to achieve long-term objectives.

How can you ensure active participation in strategy meetings?

To encourage active participation, share background materials beforehand, set clear expectations, and foster open discussions. It's important to involve diverse perspectives, and ensure that all team members have a role in decision-making and problem-solving.

How often should strategy meetings be held?

Strategy meetings can be held on various schedules: annually for high-level planning, quarterly for reviewing progress and adjusting strategies, and monthly or as needed to tackle specific issues.

What are the key components of an effective strategy meeting?

An effective strategy meeting should have a clear objective, encourage active participation, focus on action items, and involve regular follow-ups. Each meeting should end with decisions documented, tasks assigned, and timelines set to ensure accountability.

How do strategy meetings help drive accountability?

Strategy meetings drive accountability by assigning specific owners to tasks, setting clear deadlines, and reviewing progress at regular intervals. This ensures that strategic goals are met and teams remain focused on execution.

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Published: 2024-09-17  |  Updated: 2024-09-17

• Planning an effective meeting agenda
• Community development
• Leadership development

Key concept

To convene a meeting that makes progress, take time beforehand to clarify its purpose and plan an agenda. Planning a thoughtful agenda with tasks and processes that engage group members will help create more effective meetings and good results.

How can you plan for an effective meeting?

Tip: Create an agenda with a purpose

Public meetings should make progress toward the goal of solving public problems. Learn in the following sections an important way to plan public gatherings that help groups achieve goals.

Consider purpose and process

When you are leading a meeting, it is your responsibility to plan the agenda. If you have been asked to facilitate someone else's meeting, meet with conveners ahead of time to plan it. If you are a group member, judge whether it is appropriate to offer help creating an agenda beforehand.

Whoever is involved, the key early step to designing an effective meeting is to be very clear about its purpose. Once the purpose is clear, communicate it to those involved, and plan meeting strategies that support the thoughtful involvement of those attending.

Sending an agenda before a meeting lets participants know what will be discussed, and gives them time to think about what you will discuss. If that's not possible, an agenda created on the spot as the meeting starts still gives the meeting important focus.

Steps for planning a meeting agenda

Here's the sequence of steps to plan an effective meeting agenda.

Define results first . What are the results your group needs to achieve by the end of the meeting? Write them down. If there is not a defined purpose, consider whether there really is a reason to meet.

Identify the meeting's time frame . What kind of meeting time is needed for the meeting's purpose? Different time frames fit different purposes — from the five-minute daily check-in to the two-day retreat. Match the amount of time to the needs and the frequency of the group's gathering.

List the meeting's topics . Identify the topics that need to be covered to accomplish the results. Think through what has to be done, consider a logical order for discussing the topics or making decisions. Consider the information that the group needs in order to discuss a topic or make a decision knowledgeably. A good agenda considers the following:

What topics do we have to cover to accomplish our goal?

What outcome/s do we want for each topic?

What information do we need?

Who will make the decision/s?

Allot time frames by topic . Considering the total time available, assign realistic time slots for each item. During the meeting, if the group hasn't reached a decision within the time provided, suggest next steps or refer the item to the next meeting or committee.

Plan participation strategies to address each topic . Different methods of discussion can be used to make the best use of the group for each topic. Be clear about expectations for involving participants to assure that involvement builds trust and gets authentic action.

Do a sanity check . After you review your agenda, consider whether what you want to do is really "doable" in the amount of time you've got. If not, scale back expectations or schedule another meeting to address some of the topics.

Suggested participation strategies

To get feedback , do a survey in advance or collect ideas at the meeting. The meeting leader can go around the table and ask each participant to share an idea until the list is complete. Listing ideas on a flip chart as they are mentioned helps everyone at the meeting see them all easily.

To get greater involvement in decisions , consider listing all ideas and giving participants several votes to cast. For example, each participant could place three votes among six-to-eight ideas. In the end, the group's preferred priorities are evident.

Kearny, L. (1995).  The facilitator's tool kit: Tools and techniques for generating ideas and making decisions in groups.  Amherst, MA: HRD Press.

Scheffert, D., Anderson, M., Anderson, S., et al. (2001).  Facilitation resources, volume 3: Getting focused: Vision/mission goals.  St. Paul, MN: University of Minnesota Extension.

Author: Lisa Hinz , Extension educator, leadership and civic engagement

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Extension leadership and civic engagement (LCE) educators work across the state of Minnesota. They provide educational programs and consultations that help communities solve problems and make decisions.

Contact an educator near you or program leader Holli Arp .

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Master Meetings with Clients: A Comprehensive Guide for Small Business Owners

Are your client meetings hitting the mark? Or do they sometimes feel more like a chaotic juggling act, leaving you and your clients feeling frazzled?

Let’s face it: as a small business owner, your time is precious. Every meeting counts. You must ensure those interactions are productive, building trust and leading to closed deals.

But how do you consistently achieve that? How do you turn every meeting into a win-win situation?

This comprehensive guide is here to help you do just that. We’ll walk you through the ins and outs of mastering prospective client meetings, from the initial preparation to the follow-up. 

What are Effective Client Meetings?

Effective client meetings are well-prepared, focused interactions that foster clear communication, build trust, and move projects forward. They’re not just about presenting information; they’re about creating a collaborative environment where both you and your client feel heard and understood.

For small business owners, these meetings are essential. They’re your chance to showcase your expertise, address concerns, and strengthen the client relationship. Effective meetings can lead to increased client satisfaction, repeat business, and valuable referrals – all crucial for the growth of your business.

Why You Should Master the Art of Client Meetings

Think of your upcoming meeting as building blocks for your business. When these meetings are effective, they lay a solid foundation for growth. Positive interactions lead to satisfied clients who are more likely to continue doing business with you and recommend you to others.

Strong relationships aren’t built overnight and don’t happen by accident. They’re cultivated over time through clear communication, mutual respect, and a genuine understanding of your client’s needs. Each next client meeting is a step towards building that trust and connection, creating a partnership that benefits both of you.

When clients feel heard, understood, and valued, they’re more likely to be satisfied with your services. And satisfied clients are more likely to stick around. Mastering client meetings helps ensure your clients feel appreciated, reduces churn, and leads to long-term partnerships.

Consistently conducting effective client meetings will set you apart as a true professional. You’ll build a reputation for being organized, meetings prepared, and dedicated to delivering exceptional service. This positive impression can open doors to new opportunities and further solidify your standing in the industry.

Automating Booking & Scheduling

Research indicates that 97% of businesses view process automation as essential for digital transformation, and global spending in this area is projected to reach $1.8 trillion by 2025. Automating scheduling processes can save a significant amount of time and contribute to the success of client meetings. By utilizing automation tools, businesses can ensure a high level of organization and preparation, ultimately maximizing the value of client interactions. 

In addition to automation, it’s crucial to make scheduling information easily accessible to clients. If in person, you should use a meeting room booking system that provides comprehensive details about the meeting location, nature, and objectives, along with timely invites and reminders, to enhance client engagement greatly.

When working remotely, utilizing an automated scheduling system can streamline the process of booking meetings and sending clients videoconferencing links. Clear and convenient scheduling information can greatly influence clients’ motivation to attend and fully engage in meetings.

How to Conduct Successful Client Meetings: A Step-by-Step Guide

The success of any successful client meeting hinges heavily on the preparation you do beforehand. It’s about more than just showing up; it’s about showing up ready to make a real impact.

1. Pre-Meeting Preparation: Set Yourself Up for Success

Think of this phase as laying the groundwork for a successful meeting. The effort you invest here will pay off significantly when sitting across from your client.

Research the Client’s Background and Needs

Before you walk into any meeting, take the time to understand who your client is and what they need. Look into their industry, company, current challenges, and goals. The more you know, the better equipped you’ll be to tailor the conversation and offer relevant solutions.

Create a Clear and Organized Meeting Agenda

An agenda acts as a roadmap for your meeting, keeping everyone on track and ensuring you cover all the essential points. Share the agenda or talking points with your clients beforehand so they know what to expect and can come prepared with any questions or concerns.

Gather Necessary Materials and Visual Aids

If you’re presenting information, ensure you have all the necessary materials ready. This might include presentations, reports, samples, or other visual aids to help illustrate your points and keep your client engaged.

Choose the Right Meeting Location or Platform

The setting of your meeting can significantly impact its effectiveness. If you’re meeting in person, choose a quiet, comfortable location where you won’t be interrupted. If you’re meeting virtually, ensure you have a reliable platform and a strong internet connection.

2. Kickoff: Start Your Meeting on the Right Foot

First impressions matter, and how you kick off your client meeting sets the tone for the entire interaction. It’s your opportunity to create a positive atmosphere and establish a connection with your client.

Whether you’re meeting in person or virtually, ensure you’re ready to go well before the scheduled start time. This lets you address any last-minute technical issues, arrange the meeting space, and gather your thoughts.

A friendly greeting and a genuine smile can go a long way in building rapport. Before diving into the meeting agenda, take a few minutes to engage in light conversation and create a comfortable atmosphere.

Briefly reiterate the purpose of the next meeting and what you hope to accomplish. This ensures everyone is on the same page and sets clear expectations for the discussion.

Review the agenda with your client and confirm the allocated time for the meeting. This helps manage expectations and ensures you stay on track.

3. Active Engagement: Make the Most of Your Time Together

This is where the real work happens. It’s about more than just delivering information; it’s about creating a dialogue and fostering a true understanding of your client’s needs and perspectives.

Practice Active Listening Techniques

Active listening goes beyond simply hearing the words your potential client is saying. It involves paying close attention to their body language, tone of voice, and underlying emotions. Show that you’re fully present and engaged by making eye contact, nodding, and paraphrasing what you hear to ensure you understand correctly.

Ask Open-Ended Questions to Gather Information

Encourage your client to share their thoughts and feelings by asking open-ended questions that can’t be answered with a simple “yes” or “no.” This will help you gain valuable insights into their needs, challenges, and expectations.

Address the Client’s Concerns and Pain Points

Take the time to acknowledge and address your client’s concerns or pain points. Show them that you understand their challenges and are committed to finding solutions that work for them.

Present Solutions Tailored to the Client’s Needs

This is your opportunity to shine. Showcase your expertise by presenting solutions that directly address your client’s specific needs and goals. Be clear, concise, and confident in your delivery.

4. Wrapping Up: End on a High Note

How you conclude your meeting is just as important as how you start it. It’s your chance to leave a lasting positive impression and ensure everyone knows what happens next.

Clearly define the next steps and assign specific action items to both you and your client. This provides clarity and accountability, keeping the momentum going after the meeting ends.

If necessary, schedule follow-up meetings or establish a timeline for future communication. This demonstrates your commitment to the project and keeps the lines of communication open.

Always end the meeting by thanking your client for their time and valuable input. A sincere expression of gratitude goes a long way in building strong relationships.

5. Post-Meeting Follow-Up: Solidify Your Relationship

The meeting may be over, but the relationship-building continues. Your post-meeting follow-up is crucial for reinforcing the positive impression you made during the meeting and demonstrating your commitment to the client’s success.

• Send a Thank-You Note or Email: A simple thank-you note or email goes a long way in showing your appreciation for the client’s time and business. It’s a small gesture that can make a big difference in building goodwill.
• Provide Meeting Notes and Action Items: Send a meeting recap, including key takeaways, decisions made, and action items. This ensures everyone has a clear record of what was discussed and what needs to be done.
• Follow Through on Promised Deliverables: Follow through promptly if you commit to providing any deliverables or information after the meeting. This demonstrates your reliability and professionalism.
• Maintain Regular Communication: Stay in touch with your client after the meeting. Regular communication helps you stay top-of-mind and ensures they feel supported throughout the project.

Key Considerations for Successfully Conducting Client Meetings

While the step-by-step guide provides a solid foundation, additional nuances exist to consider when navigating the diverse landscape of client interactions. 

From adapting your approach for different meeting types to leveraging technology and handling challenging situations, these considerations will help refine your skills and achieve even greater success in client meetings.

Mastering Different Types of Client Meetings

Not all client meetings are created equal. Each type serves a unique purpose and requires a slightly different approach to ensure maximum effectiveness.

• Introductory Meetings: These are all about making a positive first impression. Focus on building rapport during an introductory meeting, understanding the client’s needs, and setting the stage for future collaboration.
• Discovery Meetings: This is where you dive deeper into the client’s challenges and goals. Active listening and insightful questions are key to uncovering valuable information that will inform your solutions.
• Proposal Meetings: Here, you present your proposed solutions and demonstrate how they address the client’s needs. Clarity, confidence, and persuasive communication are essential.
• Regular Check-ins: These meetings are about maintaining momentum and ensuring the project stays on track. Provide updates, address any concerns, and celebrate progress.
• Troubleshooting Sessions: When challenges arise, these meetings are crucial for finding solutions and keeping the project moving forward. A collaborative approach and a focus on problem-solving are essential.

Leveraging Technology for Effective Virtual Meetings

In today’s digital age, virtual meetings have become increasingly common. Make the most of these interactions by harnessing the power of technology.

• Choose the Right Video Conferencing Tools: Select a reliable platform with features that support clear communication, screen sharing, and collaboration.
• Ensure a Stable Internet Connection: A robust and reliable Internet connection is vital for seamless virtual meetings. Test your connection beforehand and have a backup plan in case of technical difficulties.
• Use Screen Sharing and Collaborative Features: Use screen sharing to present visual aids or walk through documents together. Utilize collaborative features like virtual whiteboards or shared note-taking to enhance engagement and productivity.
• Maintain Professionalism in a Virtual Environment: Even though you’re not at a client meeting in person, it’s important to maintain a professional demeanor. Dress appropriately, choose a quiet and well-lit location, and minimize distractions.

Handling Challenging Situations in Client Meetings

Even the best-prepared meetings can encounter unexpected hurdles. Knowing how to handle challenging situations gracefully and effectively is a valuable skill.

Dealing with Difficult Clients

Stay calm, listen actively, and try to understand the root of the client’s concerns. Address their issues empathetically and professionally, and focus on finding mutually agreeable solutions.

Managing Time for an Effective Client Meeting

Stay mindful of the agenda and time constraints. If the conversation veers off track, gently steer it back to the main topic.

Addressing Unexpected Issues or Objections

Be prepared to address any unexpected questions or objections that may arise. Anticipate potential concerns and have thoughtful responses ready.

Turning Negative Experiences into Positive Outcomes

View it as a learning opportunity even if a meeting goes differently than planned. Reflect on what happened, identify areas for improvement, and strive to create a more positive experience next time.

Taking it to the Next Level: Advanced Strategies for Client Meetings

Once you’ve mastered the basics, you can elevate your client meetings even further by incorporating advanced strategies that demonstrate your expertise and build long-term relationships.

Incorporating Data and Analytics into Your Meetings

Numbers speak volumes. By incorporating data and analytics into your meetings, you can provide tangible evidence of your impact and make a compelling case for your solutions.

Use metrics to demonstrate value. Showcase the results you’ve achieved for other clients or highlight key performance indicators that demonstrate the effectiveness of your approach.

Present complex information in an accessible way. Use charts, graphs, and other visual aids to make complex data understandable and digestible.

Leverage data to guide decision-making. Use data-driven insights to inform your recommendations and help clients make informed decisions.

Building Long-Term Client Relationships Through Strategic Meetings

Your client meetings shouldn’t be isolated events. By strategically planning your interactions, you can foster long-term relationships that benefit both you and your clients.

Create a consistent client meeting cadence. Establish a regular schedule for check-ins and progress updates. This helps maintain momentum and ensures your clients feel supported throughout the project.

Align meetings with the client’s business goals. Ensure your meetings focus on helping the client achieve their broader business objectives. Show them how your solutions contribute to their overall success.

Anticipate future needs and opportunities. Proactively identify potential challenges or areas for growth. Offer insights and recommendations that demonstrate your commitment to the client’s long-term success.

Alternatives to Traditional Client Meetings

While face-to-face and virtual meetings are valuable, they’re not the only way to connect with your clients. Explore alternative communication methods to stay engaged and build relationships.

Asynchronous Communication Methods

Utilize email, project management tools, or messaging platforms for ongoing communication and updates. These tools allow for flexible communication and ensure that important information is documented and easily accessible for both you and your clients, even across different time zones or busy schedules.

Client Portals and Collaborative Workspaces

Provide a central hub where clients can access project information, share files, and collaborate with your team. This fosters transparency and streamlines communication by keeping everyone on the same page and eliminating the need to search through endless email threads.

Video Messages and Personalized Updates

Send personalized video messages to provide updates, share insights, or express appreciation. These videos add a human touch to your communication and make clients feel more connected and valued.

Informal Check-ins and Relationship-Building Activities

Schedule casual catch-ups or plan social events to strengthen your connection with clients and foster a sense of community. These interactions go beyond the transactional nature of business and help build genuine relationships that can lead to long-term loyalty and advocacy.

Final Thoughts on Mastering Meetings with Clients

Mastering the art of client meetings isn’t about following a rigid script; it’s about cultivating a genuine connection, fostering open communication, and demonstrating your commitment to your client’s success. Implementing the strategies and tips outlined in this guide will transform your meetings from mere formalities into powerful opportunities to build trust, showcase your expertise, and drive business growth. 

Remember, every interaction with your clients, whether in person or virtual, is a chance to leave a lasting positive impression. So, invest the time and effort to prepare thoroughly, engage actively, and follow up thoughtfully. The rewards – stronger relationships, increased client satisfaction, and a thriving business – will be well worth it.

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Understanding the 4 Ps of a Meeting Agenda

The Process for the Meeting

Promoting better decision-making and collaboration, following through post-meeting, noise cancellation for clearer communication.

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The 4 Ps—Purpose, Product, People, and Process—are crucial elements of a well-planned meeting. They provide a roadmap for structuring meetings to ensure that they are both efficient and effective. Let’s break down each P to understand how they contribute to the overall success of a meeting.

The Purpose of the Meeting

The first and most important element of any meeting is its purpose. What is your first task before holding a meeting? Defining the purpose. Every meeting should have a clear objective or reason for being held. Whether the goal is to brainstorm new ideas, make decisions, or provide project updates, the purpose sets the direction for the meeting.

Defining the Objective

The purpose answers the question, which of the following is not a purpose of meeting management? Without a clear objective, the meeting risks becoming a waste of time. In the corporate environment, professional communication is vital to the success of the projects, as it includes both the actual meeting and the thought and consideration put into planning it. Defining the objective helps align everyone’s expectations and ensures all participants work towards a common goal. When planning a meeting, you should first clarify the objective so that the rest of the meeting can be structured around it.

Communicating Purpose to Participants

For meetings to be effective, the purpose must be communicated to all participants beforehand, in the meeting invitation email or a follow-up communication. When attendees know the objective, they can come prepared with relevant questions, information, or ideas. This is particularly important for high-level meetings, such as a board meeting, where discussions are often decision-driven. Making sure everyone understands the purpose from the beginning is a key factor in the success of a meeting.

The Product of the Meeting

The product of the meeting refers to the tangible or intangible outcomes that should be achieved by the end of the session. Whether it’s decisions made, action items outlined, or a strategic plan drafted, defining the desired “product” of the meeting ensures there is a clear target.

Clarifying Meeting Deliverables

A successful meeting results in concrete outcomes. Which of the following should you do if you want to have effective meetings? Clearly define what needs to be accomplished. For example, if you’re running a project management meeting, the product might be a list of assigned tasks or a decision on the next steps. Product meeting outcomes should be defined in advance and communicated clearly.

Aligning Expectations for Outcomes

When you are planning a meeting, aligning expectations about the outcome is crucial. Everyone should leave the meeting knowing exactly what was accomplished and what comes next. This is where effective meeting planning becomes critical. Clarifying deliverables ahead of time ensures accountability and minimizes post-meeting confusion.

To capture these deliverables effectively, consider using a simple meeting minutes template to keep track of key decisions and action items.

The People Involved in the Meeting

The people who participate in a meeting are not just attendees, they are the key to its success. Ensuring you have the right people in the room, each with a significant role to play, is essential for achieving your desired outcomes. Each P plays a significant role in determining the meeting’s success, and the active involvement of the right people is fundamental.

Identifying Key Participants

Not everyone needs to be invited to every meeting. To ensure good meetings, identify who will be directly involved in achieving the meeting’s objectives. For example, in a team meeting, invite only those who have valuable input or will be directly affected by the meeting’s outcomes. This will prevent the meeting from becoming too large and unmanageable.

Assigning Roles and Responsibilities

To have more effective meetings, managers should assign specific roles to participants. Common roles include:

• A facilitator to guide the meeting.
• A timekeeper to ensure the meeting stays on track.
• A note-taker to capture meeting minutes and action items.

Assigning these roles ahead of time helps keep the meeting organized.

Ensuring Engagement and Participation

An effective meeting structure promotes active participation. Ensure that each person in the room has a role in contributing to the meeting’s outcomes. For example, asking open-ended questions or assigning individuals to present updates can keep everyone engaged. Which of the following is a helpful ground rule for planning meetings? Encouraging active participation from all attendees.

For asynchronous work environments , ensuring team collaboration and involvement is still crucial.

The final P—Process—refers to the structure and flow of the meeting. A well-organized process ensures that the meeting stays on topic, runs efficiently, and achieves its purpose.

Structuring the Agenda

A well-defined agenda is a critical part of how to have an effective meeting. What are the 4 Ps of a meeting agenda? They are Purpose, Product, People, and Process. The meeting agenda should be distributed ahead of time and should include the discussion topics, time allocations, and any materials participants need to review beforehand.

Keeping the Meeting on Track

Meetings often get derailed by off-topic discussions or lengthy debates. To avoid this, follow the agenda closely. Stick to the timeline and ensure each agenda item gets the attention it needs without straying into unrelated territory. The facilitator plays a key role in maintaining focus and managing the meeting process.

Adapting the Process as Needed

While structure is important, flexibility is also key. Meetings may need to adapt if new, urgent issues arise. However, it’s essential to recognize when deviating from the agenda is necessary and when it’s best to table discussions for another time. Finding a balance between structure and adaptability is important for successful meetings.

Pro tip : For technology that can streamline your meeting process, consider using an AI meeting assistant to manage scheduling, take notes, and track action items efficiently.

The Benefits of Using the 4 Ps Framework in Meetings

Improving meeting efficiency.

By following the 4 Ps, you can significantly improve meeting efficiency. Clearly defining the purpose, product, people, and process helps reduce wasted time and ensures that meetings stay focused on their objectives. Which of the following can make a meeting more successful? Having a well-structured agenda that adheres to the 4 Ps.

Enhancing Accountability and Clarity

There is greater accountability when everyone understands the meeting’s purpose and expected outcomes. Participants are clear on what is expected of them, both during and after the meeting.

Effective meetings foster better collaboration and decision-making. By following the 4 Ps, you can ensure that meetings are structured to encourage productive discussions and thoughtful decision-making.

Practical Tips for Implementing the 4 Ps in Your Next Meeting

Planning the agenda.

To implement the 4 Ps, start by planning your meeting agenda with clear objectives and desired outcomes in mind. Ensure you have the right participants and assign specific roles to keep the meeting on track.

Effective meetings don’t end when the meeting is over. A meeting should end with a clear set of action items and a follow-up plan. Ensure that meeting minutes and meeting recap materials are distributed promptly, and follow-up is tracked to maintain accountability.

How Krisp Boosts Meeting Productivity

Krisp is a powerful tool designed to enhance the productivity of your remote meetings. With its innovative AI-driven features, Krisp helps eliminate distractions, improve clarity, and streamline the meeting process. Here’s how Krisp can transform your meetings into more productive and efficient sessions:

Creating a Meeting Agenda 

Krisp offers a robust agenda feature designed to streamline your meeting preparation and execution. Through the Meetings page in the account dashboard, available for users on Free and Pro plans, you can create, manage, and share meeting agendas with ease. This tool allows you to organize your meetings by adding key discussion topics directly to each scheduled session.

Meeting Transcription and Note-Taking

Keeping track of key points and action items during a meeting can be a challenge. With Krisp’s automatic meeting transcription feature, you can capture every word of your meeting without manual note-taking. This not only ensures accuracy but also allows participants to stay focused on the conversation instead of multitasking, instilling a sense of confidence and efficiency. The transcripts can later be reviewed for important decisions, next steps, and action items, leading to more efficient follow-ups.

AI Meeting Assistant for Time Management

Managing time during meetings can be difficult, especially when discussions go off track. Krisp’s AI Meeting Assistant can help by monitoring the flow of the meeting, recording meetings for future bookkeeping and sending time reminders when topics exceed their allocated time. This feature ensures that you stay on schedule and cover all the essential agenda items, making your meetings more time-efficient and allowing you to feel more in control and less rushed.

Seamless Integration with Communication Platforms

Krisp seamlessly integrates with a wide range of popular communication platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and more. This flexibility allows you to use Krisp’s productivity-enhancing features without having to switch between apps, creating a seamless meeting experience. Whether for board meetings, team syncs, or client calls, Krisp helps you manage meetings more effectively across different platforms.

Improving Remote and Hybrid Work Collaboration

In an era of remote and hybrid work, Krisp is crucial in keeping teams connected and productive. By ensuring clear communication, recording important discussions, and improving time management, Krisp facilitates smoother collaboration. This leads to faster decision-making and better alignment among team members, even when they are not physically present.

By leveraging Krisp’s features, managers and teams can not only hold more effective meetings but also ensure that every minute contributes to achieving tangible outcomes. The benefits of using Krisp are clear: improved communication, streamlined processes, and more productive meetings. 

Background noise can be a significant distraction in any virtual meeting. Whether it’s the sound of typing, traffic, or other participants’ surroundings, these interruptions can slow down discussions and impact the flow of communication. Krisp’s advanced noise cancellation technology filters out all unwanted noise, ensuring everyone in the meeting hears and is heard clearly. This leads to fewer misunderstandings and more focused discussions, which are essential for running effective meetings.

The four Ps of a meeting agenda—Purpose, Product, People, and Process—are essential tools for running effective and successful meetings. By focusing on these key areas, managers can ensure that their meetings are purposeful, efficient, and productive. Whether you are conducting a project management session or a strategic planning meeting, applying the four Ps can help you achieve your desired outcomes and avoid wasting time.

What are the 4 Ps of a meeting agenda? The 4 Ps of a meeting agenda stands for Purpose, Product, People, and Process. These elements help guide the structure of a meeting, ensuring that it stays focused, efficient, and productive. Purpose defines the objective, Product refers to the desired outcomes, People identify key participants, and Process outlines the agenda and flow of the meeting. Why is defining the purpose of a meeting important? Defining the purpose of a meeting is crucial because it sets the direction and goal of the meeting. Without a clear purpose, meetings can quickly become unfocused and unproductive, leading to wasted time. A well-defined purpose aligns with participants’ expectations and keeps the discussion on track. How do the 4 Ps help in improving meeting efficiency? The 4 Ps framework helps improve meeting efficiency by ensuring that the meeting has a clear objective (Purpose), a targeted outcome (Product), the right participants (People), and a well-structured agenda (Process). By focusing on these aspects, meetings can stay on time, cover essential topics, and lead to actionable results without wasting participants’ time. How can I ensure that everyone is engaged during a meeting? To keep everyone engaged during a meeting, ensure that each participant has a clear role and responsibility. Assign tasks such as presenting updates, facilitating discussions, or taking notes. Additionally, encourage participation by asking open-ended questions and creating an inclusive environment where all voices are heard.

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Latest Market News

The Fed is finally about to cut interest rates. What took so long?

It’s a pivotal week for the US economy, with the Federal Reserve expected to cut interest rates for the first time since 2020. The move would mark a major milestone both for the central bank’s long fight with inflation and for Americans battling a higher cost of living for the past two years.

But it’s also an expectation that is coming to fruition much later than the Fed and Wall Street expected in the beginning of the year.

Fed officials and investors have long anticipated that borrowing costs would come down in 2024 — at some point — according to their economic forecasts. At the end of last year, the air was brimming with hope that the Fed would start cutting rates early in 2024, easing pressure not just for consumers, but also for businesses of all sizes hampered by higher costs. A spring rate cut seemed to be in the cards around the turn of the year, according to the futures market, and most major Wall Street banks estimated the first rate cut’s arrival sometime before the summer.

But nine months in, rate cuts still haven’t happened, drenching Wall Street’s parade and leaving US consumers squeezed by elevated interest rates . All that could start to change on Wednesday.

Here’s why the Fed didn’t cut sooner

It’s simple: The Fed didn’t cut interest rates sooner because it could have reignited inflation or left it stuck above the central bank’s target.

While it was a steady (but grueling) journey getting inflation down from its 2022 peak of 9.1% , the bumpy first half of this year proved otherwise, vindicating the Fed’s patience.

In 2022 and 2023 “inflation was coming down without any major impact to employment conditions or the US consumer,” Oscar Muñoz, chief US macro strategist at TD Securities, told CNN. After that, Fed officials likely realized that “the level of interest rates after the July rate hike last year was probably enough for inflation to lose momentum while maintaining the economy,” Muñoz said.

Related article Consumer inflation slows to lowest rate since February 2021

Then came the dreaded bump that Fed Chair Jerome Powell had predicted long ago when describing inflation’s journey to the Fed’s 2% target. In January, inflation came in hotter than expected. Then it happened again, and again. By the time central bank officials gathered for their April 30-May 1 policy meeting, they had to admit in their statement that “in recent months, there has been a lack of further progress toward the Committee’s 2 percent inflation objective.”

That rough patch is precisely why Americans have only recently begun to get some relief. Bond yields, which move in anticipation of the Fed’ decisions on rates, have come down over the past several weeks based on signs encouraging the Fed to cut rates, such as weaker-than-expected employment data and cooling inflation. That has resulted in tumbling mortgage rates , which are now down more than 1.5% from their two-decade high last fall.

A September rate cut wasn’t even in the bag until late August, when Powell gave his strongest signal that inflation had come under control just enough for the Fed to finally feel comfortable dialing back policy, in his keynote speech at the Kansas City Fed’s annual economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Powell also noted the job market’s fragile health as a key reason why the Fed is poised to act.

Pressure on the Fed

The Fed wields a powerful tool. Its benchmark lending rate, which influences borrowing costs broadly, either puts the US economy in a chokehold when rates are high, or it stimulates economic activity whenever rates are loosened. That’s how the Fed wrangles runaway inflation or rising unemployment. And now, after years of inflation taking the spotlight, the job market’s health has come into greater focus.

Related article Dow closes more than 450 points higher after Fed’s Powell hints rate cuts are coming

But with such power comes great scrutiny. As an independent and apolitical agency, the Fed can nonetheless be subject to immense pressure from Wall Street, Capitol Hill and the White House. Under Chair Powell, appointed by then-President Donald Trump, then re-appointed by President Joe Biden, that has also been the case. But Powell has stayed the path, emphasizing at all times that the central bank’s decisions are data dependent.

“Jerome Powell’s Fed has navigated both market and political pressures rather well,” Philipp Carlsson-Szlezak, global chief economist at Boston Consulting Group, told CNN. “Bashing the Fed is sort of everyone’s pastime, but nothing in the economy has broken.”

Investors and lawmakers have called for the Fed to lower rates several times over the past year or so, citing impending doom in either the banking sector, the job market or housing if the Fed did not heed their demands. But the Fed never did. Its policy decisions have all been guided by the story that economic figures tell.

A soft landing, a situation in which inflation is tamed without a recession, seems to be in clear view — at least for now.

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