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Published on October 14, 2021 • Updated on June 7, 2022 • About 7 min. read
Break the ice with 50 fun games for your next virtual meeting.
Download for freeA team meeting agenda is a brief written document that explains your department's current topics and objectives. Without an agenda for a meeting, you are more likely to have an unfocused meeting and miss essential items.
For managers, a team meeting agenda is a simple document you can use to keep your direct reports focused on business priorities. For employees, a team meeting agenda can also give you a forum to share updates, raise questions and get help. Your team meeting agenda's length, detail, and format will change over time depending on your goals and objectives.
Before you draft a team meeting agenda, ask yourself some questions about your situation.
The business world is full of distractions and opportunities. Use your team meeting agenda to focus everybody's attention on your top priorities.
When new people join your team, a well-organized team meeting allows new employees to learn about your department.
Giving team members the chance to raise potential challenges at a team meeting means anticipating problems in advance.
While not a complete solution, a clear team meeting agenda can boost team cohesion. Each person will have the opportunity to share ideas, give praise and identify problems.
Highlighting team goals and objectives on your agenda template is a great way to jump-start the meeting. For example, let’s assume you have a 60-minute team meeting and plan to cover several topics. By putting your objectives and goals at the start, everybody on the team will know where they stand.
A sample meeting agenda for a sales team might cover the department's sales quota goal each week. In addition, you might take a few minutes to cover activities that contribute to success in your department, like the number of qualified leads generated per week.
There is a danger you must avoid in your team meeting agenda: one-way communication. Some managers view the team meeting as their forum to give direction to the staff. Management guidance is essential, but it is not the only factor.
When you create an agenda for a meeting, give employees the chance to provide updates. If you only have 10 minutes for updates, keep fairness in mind. Some team members might speak at length, which means that other employees have no chance to share comments. Therefore, give guidelines on sharing updates, such as limiting comments or asking team members to respect time limits. The updates section of the team meeting is also a great time to give praise and recognize team members for their hard work. Spend a few minutes highlighting projects that have been successful in recent days.
A basic staff meetings agenda template does not always make room for brainstorming. That said, brainstorming can be a great way to boost employee engagement in online meetings. Add "brainstorm ideas" to your team meeting agenda in the following situations:
You might not see "discuss expectations and responsibilities" on a simple meeting agenda, but it certainly matters. It is usually not necessary to cover these topics every time your team meets.
Whether it’s a new year or a new quarter, your team will always have new goals to work on. Discuss these openly with your team to set expectations from the beginning.
You’ll also want to discuss any upcoming organizational changes. Team members may get concerned when the company makes significant changes (e.g., reorganizing departments or changing executives). Taking a few minutes to set clear expectations in your team meeting agenda is helpful. If you add remote employees to your team, learn how to onboard remote employees with video so they get up to speed quickly.
Finally, this is a good time to mention any upcoming events or offsites. Keep your team members in the loop with a calendar of events and update it regularly.
Have you ever seen "proactively solve problems" on a sample meeting agenda online? Unfortunately, the answer is probably not. That's too bad because a team meeting agenda can be an excellent forum to bring up substantial problems and find solutions.
There are two ways to cover problem-solving in a team meeting agenda. First, you might add an agenda item, "what's on your mind?" to give staff a chance to raise problems. In a few minutes, employees can share a few quick thoughts. For simple issues, managers might offer quick solutions.
For complex problem solving, a different approach makes sense. You might organize a monthly or quarterly team meeting entirely dedicated to problem-solving. Dedicating a full-hour-long team meeting agenda to problem-solving makes sense if you have significant problems like low customer satisfaction scores.
Tip: As a manager, it is essential to be positive and supportive when team members bring up problems. If employees feel worried about being yelled at when they mention problems, nothing will be discussed until a problem explodes!
If you have a meeting agenda coming up in the next hour, you might not have much time to plan your team meeting agenda. In those cases, use the following meeting agenda examples to get started quickly.
Use the following sample meeting agenda is a good starting point for routine discussion.
The above sample meeting agenda is a good fit for meeting with employees. However, if you notice that your staff aren't engaging during your virtual meeting, don't despair! Use these seven ways to make your online meetings more engaging.
Project managers and project team members often meet weekly or daily to keep things running smoothly. For this example, let's assume you are running a daily project meeting. This daily meeting is intended to be short and focused on project-specific matters.
Project managers – take note! If a project team member raises a complex problem, always follow up after the main meeting.
At the end of a major project, take some time to celebrate your success as a team. Within a day or two of completing the project, schedule a retrospective meeting. This type of post-project meeting is an excellent way to draw lessons from the project experience.
Retrospective meeting agenda
An executive meeting agenda is both similar and different from a regular staff meeting. On one level, executives need to ask questions, request support, and discuss progress on goals. On the other level, executives also have to think beyond day-to-day execution. That's why your executive meeting agenda should also include time for strategic matters.
Use the following executive meeting agenda ideas to create your agenda.
Tip: Are you presenting an important update to your updates? Use these 6 keys to creating a compelling PowerPoint presentation.
Running a well-organized team meeting starts with creating a team meeting agenda. When you run a meeting with a team meeting agenda, you are likely to forget essential topics. At the same time, remember that a team meeting agenda is not carved in stone. If there is a crisis or a significant change to your team, take some time to discuss that development. Your team meeting agenda is best seen as a living document that changes as your organization's strategy, goals and staff evolve.
Break the Ice
50 fresh ideas will bring your team closer. These questions, games, and activities will make your meetings fun!
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