✦Teams · 14 records · for a shared workspaceRun meetings with an agenda

Meetings without an agenda expand to fill the hour and end without anybody sure what was decided. This sets a simple agenda template with a purpose and a desired outcome for each item, sends it a day ahead, records decisions and actions with owners in the meeting itself, and reviews the recurring meetings to cancel the ones that no longer earn their slot.

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Free on any plan. You will see this list again in the app, and nothing is created until you press install.

✦ Everything it creates

The whole plan, before you install it

Goal

Every recurring meeting with an agenda and clear actions Month 2

Agendas ahead, decisions recorded, and meetings that do not earn their slot cancelled.

Set the standard Week 2

One template and one rule, agreed with the team.

  • List every recurring meeting I run or attendDo firstDay 2
  • Write the agenda and notes templateDo firstDay 4
  • Agree the rule with the team: no agenda, no meetingDo firstDay 8
  • Put the template somewhere everyone can find itDay 10

Make it stick Month 2

Checked until it is simply how meetings work.

  • Send the first agendas a day aheadDo firstDay 12
  • Send notes with actions within an hour of each meetingDo firstWeek 2
  • Review which meetings could be a messageDo firstWeek 6
  • Cancel or shorten the ones that do not earn their slotWeek 7

Routines

  • Send tomorrow's agendasdaily
  • Review the week's meeting actionsweekly
✦ It comes with a note

Agenda and notes template

Meeting: Purpose: Desired outcome:

Items 1. Item, owner, minutes, and whether it needs a decision, input or information 2. 3.

Decisions

Actions Action, owner, due date

If every item is information only, send it as a message instead.

✦ Questions

Run meetings with an agenda, answered.

The purpose of the meeting, each item with an owner and the time it gets, and what the item needs from the group: a decision, input, or just information. Items that only need information are often better sent as a message.
At least a day before, so people can prepare or decline. An agenda shared as the meeting starts does very little, because the value is in the preparation and in the chance to realise the meeting is not needed.
Record decisions and actions, each action with an owner and a date, rather than a summary of the discussion. Sending them within an hour, while everybody remembers, is what gets the actions done.
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Install it and start this evening

It takes one press. Everything it creates is tagged, so if it turns out not to suit you, it is easy to find and remove together.

Install this template