How to Design a Meeting Agenda that Helps Create the Output (Deliverable) You Need
May 5, 2011 6 Comments
Purpose
To design a new meeting or workshop agenda that will effectively lead a group to its deliverable, use these steps. Following them will increase your meeting success. Before we begin, let us remember the definition of a solid structured meeting (eg, FAST) agenda:
Agenda Defined
An agenda is a series of steps that structure a group discussion during a meeting or workshop. The FAST technique’s pre-built or cookbook agendas provide solid versions of known and proven information gathering, sharing, and decision-making methods. The modifications you apply to basic agendas will enable:
- A facilitator (ie, the session leader) to lead the discussion, with . . .
- Subject matter experts (who are experts about content but NOT experts about context or meeting technique), who build understanding . . .
- That extracts required information (ie, the meeting output or deliverable including for example, decision-making or prioritization), thus
- Enabling other stakeholders (ie, project team) to use the information and decisions to support and further advance project objectives and organizational goals.
Methodological steps to create a new meeting or workshop agenda are:
- Identify the purpose, scope, and deliverables of the meeting—what are you building and what level of detail is required?
- Codify the deliverables—what is the specific content for the output of the workshop, what is the optimal sequence for gathering it, and who will use it after the meeting is complete?
- Identify known information—what is already known about the project, problem, or scope?
- Draft your likely steps—compose a series of steps from experience or analytical methods that would be used by other experts to make this decision, solve this problem, or develop the required information and consensual view.
- Review steps for logical flow—walk through the steps to confirm they will produce the desired results.
- Identify likely meeting participants—determine the most likely participants and identify their level of understanding about the business issues and the method you have drafted for them to develop the information during the the agenda steps.
- Identify any agenda steps that the participants cannot complete—modify or eliminate the steps that your specific participants may not understand, will not value, or are inappropriate for their level of experience.
- Identify what information is needed to fill the gaps from step number seven above, and determine how to get this additional information (eg, off-line)—what information or analysis is required to substitute for the missing information identified in step number seven above, that your meeting participants cannot complete?
- Detail the final agenda steps to capture required information for the open issues—build the appropriate activities to produce the information without making the participants perform unnecessary activities (eg, do NOT do team building if they already function together properly).
- Review—confirm steps number one and two above and then carefully review the detailed activities to confirm that they satisfy the purpose and provide the needed information without over challenging or intimidating your participants.
- Perform a walk-through, including documentation format or templates, with other business experts, executive sponsor, and project team members.
- Refine—make any changes identified in the walk-through and begin to build out your annotated agenda as suggested by the FAST technique.
Facilitation Skills
The FAST curriculum on Professional Facilitation Skills details the responsibilities and dynamics mentioned above. Remember friends, nobody is smarter than everybody, so consult your FAST Facilitator Reference Manual or attend a FAST professional facilitative leadership training workshop offered around the world (see MG Rush for a current schedule — an excellent way to earn 40 PDUs from PMI, CDUs from IIBA, or CEUs).
Related articles
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- How To Honor and Recognize Diversity, Ensuring Meeting and Workshop Inclusiveness (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
- How To Create and Sustain a Participatory Environment (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
- Five Problems with Meetings and What To Do About Them (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
- How To Plan Appropriate Group Processes (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
- Considerations on How to Facilitate between Europeans and Asians (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
- Facilitate Meaning, Not Words (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
- How to Facilitate Simple Prioritization (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
- Five Ways to Facilitate Quiet People and Get Them to Participate More Fully (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
- How to Get a Promising Meeting to Fail (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
- The Role of Session Leader (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
- How to Facilitate a Consensual Sphere of Concern, Influence, and Control Using the Bookend Method (facilitativeleadership.wordpress.com)
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Could I get a copy of a simple Agenda done for an example?
Below is a generic example of a simple agenda from a planning session. It is followed by examples of items that could be added depending on the deliverable, culture, project, and participant expectations:
INTRODUCTION
MISSION
VALUES
VISION
SUCCESS MEASURES
CURRENT SITUATION
PROGRAMS (WHAT)
ALIGNMENT
ASSIGNED RESPONSIBILITIES
GUARDIAN OF CHANGE
WRAP & DISMISS
Other narrative components that might be found in either a team charter or a project plan, include:
ASSUMPTIONS, CONSTRAINTS, and DEPENDENCIES
BUDGET, TIMELINE, AND RESOURCE ALIGNMENT
BUSINESS CASE OR PURPOSE
COMMUNICATIONS PLAN and TOUCH POINTS
CORRECTIVE ACTIONS
DETAILED WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE
FLEXIBILITY MATRIX
FRAMING DIAGRAM (eg, IS NOT/ IS)
ISSUE ESCALATION PROCEDURE
OPEN ISSUES MANAGEMENT
PHASE GATES REVIEWS, MILESTONES, OR DECISION POINTS
RISK ASSESSMENT AND GUIDELINES
STAKEHOLDERS DESCRIPTIONS
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I typed a reply but not sure that it got through. I believe that Agenda should consist of objectives not just topics. Thus you need a verb in each “step”. See my web site – management-me.com (Sorry I do not know how to put in a link on this reply). Check out the categories on (a) conference leading and (b)speciific techniques for specific situations – and (c) planning
I found your material of great interest
Any criticism of mine gratefully received
Dear Bill,
We agree wholeheartedly that the agenda steps should focus on describing the deliverable from each step. What does “done” look like?
The verbs (and much more detail) are required on a copy of the facilitator’s annotated agenda. The participants should only concern themselves with the simple agenda, where the verbs add no value. Nobody wants more meetings or more work. Verbs represent or capture the work. Participants want results or the objects as you stated. Objects are nouns.
If I find the deliverable for a step in the agenda in my desk and bring it to a meeting, and you as a participant are satisfied with the quality of the deliverable, the agenda step is over. The verb is not necessary (eg, “Define” or “Analyze”) because what the participants need is the definition or the analysis (ie, the object or objectives, typically a thing), and how they get it (ie, through the verb) is secondary.
We’ll take a look at some of your material, presumably found at http://managementme.wordpress.com/, and comment there.