Creating the best meeting agenda

by | Nov 23, 2021 | Meetings

Meetings make the world go ‘round—and in Meetings.io®, your meeting agendas are specifically designed to minimize prep work, stay on-track and clarify next steps at the click of a button. 

How, you ask? We’re happy to share! 

When creating a meeting in Meetings.io, you can customize your agendas to best fit your team’s needs. This blog will take a deep dive into the different components of a Meetings.io meeting and how to use each section to benefit your team.

Remember: All our meeting agendas are customizable. You’re free to move sections around and restructure meetings however you’d like. The order we give below isn’t a hard-and-fast rule—it’s just our favorite way to run things around here! Blog copy

 

Table of contents

Section 1: Welcome team
Section 2: Share news
Section 3: Review tasks
Section 4: Review performance
Section 5: Prioritize topics
Section 6: Check team goals
Section 7: Share a website
Section 8: Collaborate
Section 9: Meeting wrap-up

Section 1: Welcome team

What it is: This is a dedicated section to check-in at the start of your meeting. Each team member takes a turn during the check-in to share their news (good and bad), and the section ends when every attendee has shared.

Using it to benefit your team:  Every team member enters the meeting from a different place (emotionally, mentally, professionally…the list goes on). By checking in, you’re leveling the playing field, encouraging transparency and growing trust. Rather than just jumping into the nitty gritty right away, this gives you and your team a chance to be real with each other, and acknowledge accomplishments, setbacks and new developments. At Meetings.io, we use this section to share our best personal and professional moments from the last week—but how you use this is entirely up to you! For example, you can ask, “What superpower would you have wanted this week and why?” Or, “What is your personal weather status (sunny, foggy, rainy etc.)?” 

Section 2: Share business news 

What it is: This is a time to share info on relevant topics with your team. Do you have a promising new client? Upcoming events? Accomplishments of major goals? Share away!

Using it to benefit your team: Keeping your team in-the-know is paramount to getting insights, action items and topics from different perspectives. (Plus, this is a great time for accolades for a job well done!)

Section 3: Review tasks

What it is: We all strive towards action-driven meetings. This meeting agenda section focuses on the team’s action items. Read through the tasks and ask yourself questions like, “Does this task complete the project? If not, how do we keep it moving forward?” Then, add topics that you think should be discussed. 

Using it to benefit your team: By taking time to identify blockers, you keep your team and your business moving forward. And if you achieved 100% task completion, this is a great opportunity to motivate your team with some kudos. 

Section 4: Review performance

What it is: Welcome to problem gathering time. Using this agenda section, you and your team can easily identify the most important topics related to your KPIs. KPI’s are your weekly or monthly metrics that help predict future problems and opportunities. 

Using it to benefit your team: By reviewing your team’s performance over the last week, you can drive a strong, action-oriented topics list. By combining your team’s brainpower and unique perspectives, you’ll be able to identify opportunities in a snap!

Section 5: Prioritize topics

What it is: Prioritize which topics you’d like to discuss first by selecting “add to priority.” Then, you can drag and drop topics in the order you’d like to review them—after that, it’s time to put your heads together! 

Using it to benefit your team: Once you’ve created topics from your reviewed tasks, your team might realize that they can’t discuss all of the listed topics in the same meeting. By prioritizing the most relevant topics, your team will tackle hard-hitting, time-sensitive issues first without losing track of the rest. Taking the time to discuss the topics with the highest relevance helps you get to the root cause of blockers, issues and ideas. And once you know the root cause, you can figure out the next steps by creating more tasks!

Section 6: Check team’s goals

What it is: This section is a designated space for tracking team goals. In it, each goal owner will give a high-level overview of their progress, including wins, blockers and next steps.

Using it to benefit your team: True leaders and great teams think beyond tomorrow; they think about the next two months, three months and even the next year! This agenda feature allows you to keep track of these long-term goals to ensure they’re on track for completion. This section should be reviewed as a team to ensure bases are covered and resources are accounted for.

Section 7:  Share a website

What it is: Ever try to share a website link or Google Sheet during a meeting? In this section, you can share any URL you’d like with the knowledge that you’re all looking at the same information.

Using it to benefit your team: Waiting for everyone to boot up a URL can waste precious seconds—especially if access permissions need to be changed. In this section, there are no blurry screenshots or troubleshooting a screen share. Now, you can share resources and streamline discussion in a snap!

Section 8: Collaborate 

What it is: This section is a blank canvas where everyone can collaborate in real-time, and it’s a must-have for every simple meeting agenda.

Using it to benefit your team: Whether they’re in a notebook, Google Doc or whiteboard, notes are key for tracking conversation and contextualizing follow-up. And in the Collaborate section, everyone can work together to take notes—meaning no one has to scramble to type while keeping up with the convo.

Section 9: Wrap-up meeting

What it is: The very last section! This lets you recap the decisions and action items of your team before concluding the meeting. You can also discuss what worked and what didn’t work during the meeting. Lastly, while you’re all together, take some time to schedule the next meeting.

Using it to benefit your team: By spending time wrapping up the meeting, your team will get aligned on the next steps, save time by scheduling the next meeting in advance, and shed transparency on how the meeting went. Did it go well? Keep that in mind when you run your next meeting. Are there areas for improvement? Create a Topic to discuss how the meeting could be improved next time.

Register here for our webinar to get a full introduction to Meetings.io by our meeting expert! 

 

 

 

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