Meeting Agenda Generator With Timed Items

Meetings cost more than they seem: eight people in a one-hour meeting spend a full working day between them. Harvard Business School professor Leslie Perlow and two co-authors surveyed 182 senior managers and reported the results in Harvard Business Review in 2017. Of those managers, 71% said meetings are unproductive and inefficient¹, and 65% said meetings keep them from completing their own work.

Write the outcome in one sentence before you invite anyone: the decision, plan or draft that must exist when the meeting ends. Steven Rogelberg studies meetings at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His test is blunt: without a clear mission or a list of agenda items, you should probably cancel².

If every item is an update, cancel and send the updates in writing. A short note takes minutes to read, and anyone with a question can reply.

Most agendas list topics. Roger Schwarz, an organizational psychologist, notes in Harvard Business Review that a topic such as "office space reallocation" leaves people wondering, "What about office space reallocation?" He suggests listing each topic as a question the team needs to answer³, such as "Under what conditions, if any, should we reallocate office space?" Once it's answered, the team knows the discussion is complete.

Next, mark what each item is for. Schwarz recommends noting whether it will share information, seek input for a decision or make a decision. This guide shortens those to inform, discuss and decide. If people think they're deciding when you only want their input, he warns, everyone is likely to leave frustrated.

For a decision, also state the rule for making it. In Schwarz's example, the leader aims for consensus but reserves the right to decide if the group hasn't reached it after an hour.

Put decisions near the top, while people are fresh. Updates are better sent out and read before the meeting, Schwarz advises, with a few minutes kept for questions. Give every item a time, and make the times add up to the meeting's length, keeping the last 5 minutes for the close.

Be generous with time for decisions. Schwarz notes that leaders typically underestimate the time an item needs. If 10 people get 10 minutes to decide something, they must reach a decision the moment each has spoken for a minute. The times are a plan, not a stopwatch: cutting a discussion off when its time runs out, he warns, contributes to poor decisions and frustration.

Invite only the people each decision needs. Rogelberg suggests a timed agenda, where people join only for the items that concern them². He also says to experiment with 50-minute meetings instead of an hour.

The same rules hold for every kind of meeting, but what goes first changes.

In a one-on-one, the other person's list should lead. At GitLab, a software company that publishes its handbook, both people add items, preferably with the team member adding most⁴. If the manager adds more than half, the handbook says, that is a sign something is wrong.

For a board, start from the startup board meeting template. For a day of planning, use the leadership offsite agenda template.

Attach the agenda to the calendar invite, with the pre-reads and what each person should bring. GitLab's handbook asks for agendas 72 hours ahead, and 24 hours at the least⁵, so people can prepare and decide whether they need to be there.

If pre-reads go unread, read them together. Jeff Bezos wrote in his 2017 letter to Amazon shareholders that the company uses six-page memos instead of slides. Everyone reads one in silence at the start of each meeting⁶, in a kind of "study hall."

Protect the close, even if an item has to wait. The Bridgespan Group, a nonprofit that advises philanthropists and nonprofit leaders, tells executive teams to leave time for a wrap-up at the end of every meeting⁷. Its template's closing questions ask what was decided, what actions follow, who is responsible and by when, and what must be communicated to whom.

Send the decisions and actions to everyone soon after, while they're fresh. The meeting minutes generator turns a transcript or rough notes into that record. For a board, the board minutes template adds resolution wording and a record of written consents.

Short on time? Paste the email thread or your notes into the box at the top of this page. River drafts the agenda around the decisions, moves updates into a pre-read and writes a note for the invite.