Considerations for creating team meeting agendas

An agenda for a team meeting is a schedule you create to inform participants of what you’re covering in the meeting. An effective agenda keeps the meeting on topic, ensures it’s productive, serves as a time management tool and keeps participants engaged.

Identify the purpose of the team meeting to help guide you. Having defined outcomes for your business meetings enables you to work back and determine appropriate action items during the meeting to achieve those goals. Request ideas for meeting topics from team members who will attend the meeting. Some team members might have essential topics they need to discuss with everyone during the meeting.

What to include in a team meeting agenda

Every employee meeting should be actionable and engaging to get the most out of the time. Avoid adding extra agenda items if they aren’t relevant or helpful to the team. Include all talking points you plan to use in the meeting. Some potential agenda items include:

• Company or department announcements
• Impressive employee performances
• Updates on projects
• Action items to discuss and establish
• Deadlines for upcoming projects
• Decisions about team projects
• Additional items team members would like to discuss

How to create a meeting agenda

Your meeting agenda should engage attendees and contain topics relevant to all participants at the meeting. Follow the steps below to learn how to create an effective agenda for a team meeting.

1. Email team members to ask for topic ideas

As you brainstorm ideas for the meeting, email team members to request ideas for topics. This makes them feel like they’re valuable members of the team and encourages them to be more engaged in the meeting. It also allows individuals to share important project updates that others need to know. When you send your message to employees, ask if there are any announcements they plan to make or presentations they want to give. Let team members run different meeting items to provide a varied experience and keep everyone involved.

2. Determine the goals you plan to accomplish during the meeting

Your meeting should have a reason and overall goal. For example, if you’re holding a meeting with the marketing department, your goal can be to brainstorm ideas for an upcoming campaign. Set this goal before building the agenda for staff meeting purposes, and make sure every item contributes to the overall goal. If an item is irrelevant to your goal, replace it with a more relevant topic or add it to another upcoming meeting where it fits better.

3. Estimate how long each meeting item should take

If you asked team members to contribute announcements or presentations during the meeting, ask them to estimate how long it may take to present this material. This helps you estimate more accurately how long the meeting may last. Set a time for the meeting to end and stay within that time frame.

If you haven’t discussed all the meeting items by your end time, you should still dismiss the meeting to respect the team members’ schedules and other work commitments.This allows attendees to remain on track with their individual schedules. Stay within the time estimates in your agenda, and refrain from letting items last too long. Move on to the next agenda item at its designated time, and ask attendees to email you with additional thoughts if they need to.

4. Start with announcements and employee recognition

The beginning of your meeting can start with any announcements regarding the company or your particular departments. Mention specific announcements, such as upcoming company functions or updates about a certain project.

Once you’ve made announcements, recognize employees who have achieved certain goals. Give shout-outs to employees for completing a difficult project, submitting an impressive product or receiving high praise from a client. Once you praise the employee, encourage team members to give other shout-outs to boost morale and encourage positive relationships.

Related:Team-Building Tips and Activities to Boost Employee Morale and Engagement

5. Note project updates and action items

The bulk of your meeting should focus on the main purpose. Topics you can discuss include:

• Project updates:Give updates and information regarding projects and deadlines established at the last meeting.
• Ideas for new projects:Brainstorm ideas for a new project, and encourage team members to collaborate.
• Assign new tasks:Once ideas have been developed, you can assign tasks to employees and give them deadlines for each assignment.
• Action items or important discussions:You can discuss any conversations or important decisions regarding a project or your overall goal for the meeting.

6. Request any final updates from team members

To finish the meeting, ask if anyone has final questions or thoughts regarding the discussion. Encourage team members to email or meet with you if any questions arise regarding the meeting later. This helps them feel comfortable approaching you with any ideas or questions they have.

Tips for effective agendas

The following tips help you develop strong, effective agendas for team meetings:

• Create a template: Instead of creating a brand new agenda each time, create a template that includes the major points you cover at your meetings. You can easily fill in specifics for the next meeting. This also helps create consistency in your meetings.
• Set expectations: Ensure the participants know ahead of time what’s expected of them during the meeting, such as sharing data or brainstorming ideas. Being prepared makes the employees’ contributions more useful.
• Include relevant documents: When you share the agenda before the meeting, include any relevant documents the participants might need, such as project guidelines or data charts.
• Assign talking point leaders: Share the responsibility of running the meeting by assigning different agenda items to various team members. Let the assigned leaders know before the meeting so they’re prepared to run that portion of the meeting.
• Get team feedback: Hearing from your team is an easy way to improve your meeting agendas. Encourage them to offer suggestions for future meetings on things like meeting length, agenda items and meeting frequency.

Team meeting FAQs

Below are frequently asked questions regarding running effective team meetings.

How long should a team meeting last?

The ideal meeting length varies depending on the purpose, number of action items and your team’s needs. A meeting that runs too long will likely result in a lack of engagement as people get bored and tired. Try to keep each item at a reasonable length, and try to make the overall meeting time approximately an hour or less. Effective team meetings are short and focused.

How do you keep team members engaged during meetings?

Keep employees engaged by encouraging participation throughout the meeting and making all information relevant to each attendee. Team members are more likely to stay engaged when each action item is short and you keep the schedule moving quickly. Send the agenda to the team before the meeting so they know what to expect and can prepare their contributions.

How can ensure you stay on track with the meeting agenda?

It’s ultimately the responsibility of the person running the meeting to watch the time and guide the discussion back to the agenda if things get off track. Assign someone the role of taking notes for meeting minutes and another person to serve as the timekeeper. These people should have a copy of the agenda and help keep the meeting on track. The timekeeper should understand how much time you’ve allocated to each agenda item so they can alert you if you spend too much time on one item. If the discussion leads to a topic that’s not on the agenda, your notetaker can include notes about adding that new discussion to the next meeting or following up with an email. This ensures the topic is addressed without derailing the current meeting.