What's Your Agenda?

One of the first things I learned in business was to come to meetings prepared. Everybody's time is precious, so use it carefully. One way that I use people's time wisely and come to meetings prepared is to write, share, update and stick to an agenda.

First, an agenda is a kind of contract without getting lawyers involved, what's known as a social contract. Social contracts have been around since cave people. The function of a social contract is quite simple; it establishes a mutual understanding for keeping things smooth and easy.

Sometimes these social contracts become actual laws. An example of this is knowing what side of the road to drive on. In the U.S., oncoming traffic is on the left, you're on the right. That was originally a social contract that (probably) is now written as a law (extra points to readers who know which countries have oncoming traffic on the right, why and what it indicates about the social psychology of those countries). A typical social contract that usually doesn't become law is "Let's get together at noon for lunch. I'll meet you in front of The XYZ Grill."

The social contract is accepted when people agree to meet. It is violated when people fail to show up and don't get in touch to alert others there's been a change in plans.

So agendas are simple social contracts for coming to meetings prepared and being temporally conservative, two good things in business.

Writing the Agenda

Someone has asked to meet you to discuss something. Excellent. But discuss what?

Ask them. "Happy to get together. What'll we talk about?" You may want to simply ask "What's the agenda?" and leave it to them to produce one for your perusal. No agenda? Warning, Will Robinson! Danger! Danger! This could be a fishing expedition. Such are fine when you have the time but if you're running a business, do you have the time?

What if you request the meeting? You must have a reason for the request, so what is it? You can lay out the basic agenda when you request the meeting with "I'd like to get together to discuss..." Follow up their verbal buy-in with something in writing. "Thanks for accepting my meeting. Here's the agenda we discussed. Let me know what I've missed or if there's something you'd like to add."

Sharing the Agenda

You probably noticed that right after writing down the agenda was getting buy-in from others involved. That buy-in can only come from sharing the agenda once it's written down.

And I'm serious about that "writing down" part. Nothing formal, yes, and yet something either on paper or in e-mail (and printed out ahead of time and in hand during the meeting) demonstrates that time is precious and not to be wasted. You are on a schedule, stick to it and you'll have more time for relaxation later.

Updating the Agenda

Having an agenda agreed to and written down doesn't equate to having the third tablet from Mt. Horeb. Sometimes life occurs when we least expect it. This was noted above in "...get in touch to alert others there's been a change in plans." People may not be able to make a meeting, schedules change, items may come and go from your list.

Update the agenda and send it out again. I have a rule that I'll update an agenda three times before I toss it over to the other folks involved. Doing so indicates I want them to take ownership and responsibility. This lets me know if they're still serious. If they are, they'll make things happen. If they're not, lessons are learned.

Sticking to the Agenda

You're in the meeting, everybody's there, you've said your hellos and made your introductions. Time to get down to business. Bring out that agenda and extra copies. Ask "Does everybody have a copy of the agenda?" or "Would anybody like a list of what we're going to cover today?"

Sticking to an agenda signals that business is going on, we may laugh and smile and we're still here to get some work done. Producing and distributing the agenda indicates who's in control of the meeting. And probably, most importantly, gives people an idea of when the meeting will adjourn (that time thing again).

Summary

Let's review our agenda for this post:

• Write an agenda down so you and others will be clear regarding what's going on.
• Share the agenda to get feedback and ensure all participants are (literally) on the same page.
• Update the agenda as required to achieve your goal.
• Stick to the agenda so others will know you value their participation.

Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics. Upcoming Trainings:

• 17 Sept 2010 - Know How Someone Is Thinking in 10 Seconds or Less in Bedford, NH
• 21 Sept 2010 - Social Media Messaging with Meaning in Concord, NH
• 22 Oct 2010 - Mastering Push and Pull Writing (Writing Headlines that Cause Action) in Bedford, NH

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