Meeting Agendas, Minutes, Action Items

In Leader Responsibilities 2 we start with saying that, “Leader must assemble and build teams of diverse and qualified leaders that can meet regularly.”

We continue on by asking and responding to the question:

How often do you need to meet?

Some teams in an organization don’t need to meet very often - maybe once a month is fine. Other teams may need to meet every day or every week. A project team may need to meet more frequently during the course of a specific project. Priorities and deadlines often impact how often teams meet. Regardless, you need to meet as regularly as you need for success.

Frequent and effective communication (both inside and outside of meetings) can create much needed momentum. Arranging systems and processes that maintain and encourage communication in between meetings will help facilitate teamwork and keep the team moving forward.

Regardless of what “regularly” looks like in your context, it is important that the leader and the team members value and commit to meeting and working together.

Now, we’ve definitely had our share of bad meetings, boring meetings, ineffective meetings… and if that becomes the norm, people will start finding excuses to avoid them or not have them. But meetings can be good, effective, and necessary to move the organization and team forward.

Three things that help meetings be more effective: Meeting Agendas, Meeting Minutes, and Action Items.

MEETING AGENDAS

Having a clear plan for what will be covered is helpful to both the person(s) leading a meeting and those attending. If everyone is clear of the few key points that need to be addressed then everyone starts on the same page.

Some people need more time to think through an idea, or gather their information for a report, or consider a decision. By having a set agenda, some of that thinking can already be underway before the meeting starts.

• Before the meeting: Our teams prepare these agendas in advance and send them out so everyone can review them beforehand. For some meetings there’s a timeframe in which people can submit agenda items for a meeting. Anything else that comes up afterwards can be discussed if there is time at the end, or in a later meeting.

• During the meeting: Having an agenda helps keep everything on track. It can be easy to get off on some point or another, but we can refer back to the agenda and refocus. There is usually someone leading a meeting. And there can be different people leading different Agenda Items.

Agenda Items may focus on “Information”, “Discussion” or “Decision”. So on the Agenda we clarify the purpose of that topic. Sometimes we manage to do all three! We provide Information up front, have a discussion, and come to a decision.

MEETING MINUTES

For our meetings we have someone responsible for taking notes and sharing them with the team afterwards. For some meetings we have, there is a specific person responsible. For some teams, they rotate that responsibility around among the team members.

The majority of our meetings these days are held over ZOOM. We’re pretty spread out! We generally record our meetings and send out those recordings to the team along with the Minutes. Sometimes the person taking notes needs the recording to finalize the minutes. Sometimes someone is unavailable to attend, so will go back to watch/listen. Since it’s so much a part of our normal processes now, some of our teams still set up and record over zoom even for in-person meetings — in particular if a part will be helpful for the team to be able to refer to later.

ACTION ITEMS

Before and during a meeting we give updates on any previous Action Items.

During a meeting we also take note of any new Action Items that come up for a particular Agenda Item. These Action Items should be given a due date and assigned to a person/team.

After a meeting it’s best to have these moved into a place where the team can track them. You don’t want to get to the next meeting and discover you’ve made no progress on those because you forgot about them.

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We have a Meeting Agenda Template we’d like to share with you. It’s one our teams use for meetings. You’re welcome to use it for your meetings, or let it inspire you to set up something that works for you.

Click below to download the free resource: