How to Write Effective Meeting Agendas

Agendas are essential to the success of meetings. Check out what you need to great the agendas that work.

June 30, 2022
Press the button to generate random icebreaker questions.
There are 300 more icebreaker questions at the bottom of the article
How would you describe your job to a five year old?
What season would you be?
What is a weird food you have tried? Would you eat it again?
What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Would you go in the mother-ship with aliens if they landed on Earth tomorrow?
What is your favorite season?
Do prefer working from home or the office?
What is your earliest memory of this job?
What is the best thing you have bought so far this year?
What is the earliest book you remember?
If you had to move to another country, which one would you choose?
You are the best criminal mastermind in the world. What crime would you commit if you knew you would get away with it?
What is your favorite movie genre to watch?
What was the last thing you ate?
What person from history would you add to Mount Rushmore?
What is a weird fact you know?
What is your favorite part of working from home?
Were the Spice Girls a good team?
Imagine you can instantly learn any language. Which would you choose?
If you could live in any state, which state would you pick?
Which fictional team is the best team of all time?
What did you want to be when you grew up?
What do you usually eat for a quick lunch?
What simple food will you never eat?
Show us the weirdest thing you have in the room with you right now.
Would you rather stay at a hotel or an AirBNB?
What is your favorite movie genre to watch?
Are you more productive in the morning or at night?
Who is someone in your community that makes a difference?
Who was your most unique pet?
Choose one famous person from history you want on your team during a zombie apocalypse.
What is a good way to give back to the community?
Which song could you listen to over and over again?
Is Hugh Grant funny?
What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?
Would you want to have an imaginary friend today? Did you have one as a child?
What actor or actress would you want to play you in the movie about your life?
What is the best super power?
What is your New Years resolution?
You can only eat one food again for the rest of your life. What is it?
What is the best work holiday?
What is the first gift you remember receiving?
Would you rather join Metallica or Backstreet Boys?
What is the best example of a community you have seen?
What is an easy way to do something nice for someone?
Show us your phone background and tell the story behind why you picked this image.
What was your first job?
Pick any band to play at your funeral.
If you could have an unlimited supply of one thing for the rest of your life, what would you pick?
Which superpower would you give to your arch enemy?
What is the most obscure superpower you would want?
What emoji best describes how you are feeling right now?
If you could live in any country, which country would you pick?
Would you rather live in a city or a town?
What is your favorite holiday?
What is something you accomplished as part of a team?
What is your standard office lunch?
What is your most used phone app?
What is your favorite season?
Have you ever won something as a team?
Imagine you are a professional baseball player. What is your introduction song?
Beach holiday or ski trip?
Have you ever been to a funny comedy show?
Would you rather live at the North Pole or the South Pole?
What is your favorite song to sing?
If you could live in any state, which state would you pick?
Imagine you could teleport anywhere. Where would you go right now?
What is the most unusual job you have heard of?
What was the last thing you ate?
You can visit any fictional time or place. Which would you pick?
What do your family and friends think you do all day?
What movie do you wish you could watch again for the first time?
Show us your most-used emoji.
What was the most unique style or fashion trend you ever embraced?
What movie defined your generation?
You are stranded on a remote desert island. Are you alone or with your worst enemy?
What is your favorite knock-knock joke?
Have you ever told someone Santa is not real?
Do you know how to speak more than one language?
On a scale of 1 – 10, how much of a team player are you?
What is your #1 recommendation in this city?
What is your favorite holiday?
What bucket list item do you most want to check off in the next six months?
What is your favorite mythical creature?
What was the first way you made money?
If you could be great at any Olympic sport, which would it be?
Which song could you listen to over and over again?
When did you start liking/hating mushrooms?
Where is your favorite vacation spot?
Do you take your PTO all at one time, or another way?
Which show do you remember most from your childhood?
Which beverage goes best with pizza?
Would you want to have a personal assistant follow you around everywhere and do what you asked of them?
Have you ever met your idol?
What did you want to be when you grew up?
Would you rather live 100 years in the past or 100 years in the future?
What is your hobby?
When you are alone in the car, what volume is the music at?
Imagine you no longer have to work. How would you spend a Tuesday?
What is your favorite type of sandwich?
  • Professionals spend 2 hours a week in pointless meetings.
  • The average professional spends three hours a week in meetings – making two thirds of all meetings unnecessary or a waste of time.
  • Unproductive meetings waste more than $37 billion per year.
  • Executives view more than 67% of meetings as failures.
  • More than a third (37%) of professionals consider unnecessary meetings to be the biggest cost to their organization.
  • 65% of 182 senior managers surveyed said meetings keep them from completing their own work. 71% said meetings are unproductive and inefficient. 64% said meetings come at the expense of deep thinking. 62% said meetings miss opportunities to bring the team closer together.

The statistics above are based on surveys conducted by The Muse, Clockwise, and Steven Rogelberg, of the University of North Carolina. They show that most meetings continue to be a barrier to productivity and waste a lot of time and resources.

In "Stop the Meeting Madness," published in the Harvard Business Review, Leslie A. Perlow, Constance Noonan Hadley, and Eunice Eun stress the importance of establishing a clear agenda for all meetings as a way to improve productivity at meetings.

And this is the crux of our article today: How to Write Effective Meeting Agendas.

Start using the Meeting Agenda now or schedule a demo today to learn more.

Agendas are essential to the success of meetings. They provide a framework for discussion and help keep participants focused on the purpose of the meeting. 

What is a meeting agenda?

A meeting agenda is a list of the topics to be discussed at a meeting. It usually includes an outline of the topics to be addressed, time allocations, and any background information needed to understand the topic.

Why is it important to have a meeting agenda?

The purpose of an agenda is to ensure that all participants are clear about what will be discussed at a meeting before it happens so that they can prepare accordingly. An agenda that is well-written can save time and keep discussions on track. 

A good meeting agenda can also help improve overall productivity by helping participants get straight to business instead of wasting time with small talk or other distractions before getting down to business.

What are 5 things that you need to include in your meeting agenda?

  1. The purpose of the meeting.
  2. The time, date, and location of the meeting.
  3. The names of all people who will be in attendance at the meeting.
  4.  A list of items to be discussed, along with a time estimate for each item.
  5. An idea of what type of decisions to expect from attendees.

Read: How to Set Up Assembly’s Daily Agenda in 5 Easy Steps

How to write an effective meeting agenda

  1. Use a template
  2. Identify your goal.
  3. Keep it short.
  4. State the purpose.
  5. Identify the intended outcomes of the meeting.
  6. State who is invited.
  7. Establish time limits for each agenda item and overall time frame for the meeting.
  8. Prioritize agenda items from most to least important.
  9. Outline discussion activities and tasks, so participants know what to expect.
  10. Add notes, attachments, or other information needed to prepare for the meeting.

5 Meeting Agenda Examples & Templates 

  1. Marketing Team Meeting Agenda

A marketing team meeting agenda should include an overview of the goals of the meeting, as well as any logistical information that will help you get there. These agendas are great for keeping track of what has been discussed in previous meetings, and they can also help you make sure that everyone on your team has access to important information about upcoming projects and responsibilities

Here’s an example:

Date: xx July 2022

Time: 00 - 00

Attendees: @name, @name, @name, @name

Meeting Objective

Develop a strategy for our social media channels for the next quarter

Agenda
  • Review the performance of last quarter’s social media campaign - Assigned to @name
  • What was our best-performing social media content last quarter? - Assigned to @name
  • Present the report on our competitor analysis - Assigned to @name
  • Presentation of the new social media strategy - Assigned to @name
  • Thoughts on the new social media strategy - Assigned to @name
  • General recap 
Next steps
  • List next steps
  • List next steps
  • List next steps

For more tips and direction on hosting effective meetings with your team, check out our Daily/Weekly Agenda Template.

  1. Weekly One-on-One Meeting Agenda

A Weekly One-on-One Meeting Agenda is a list of topics to discuss in your weekly one-on-one meetings with your direct reports. It's important to make sure you're on the same page with your team members, sometimes it can be hard to remember what you wanted to talk about or what you talked about last week. 

Date: xx July 2022

Time: 00 - 00

Attendees: @name, @name

Agenda

A few questions you can ask:

  • What do you think went well last week, and what didn’t go as planned?
  • What's working well for you right now?
  • What's not working well for you right now?
  • What do you think I could be doing better?
  • What do you need from me specifically in order to do your job better?
  • Are you happy with your recent work? Why or why not?
  • Did we miss anything that you think we should address?
Actions points
  • List action points
  • List action points
  • List action points

For more tips and direction on hosting effective weekly one on one meetings with your direct reports, check out our One on One with Direct Reports Template.

  1. Retrospective Meeting Agenda

A retrospective meeting agenda helps to guide the discussion of a team in order to determine how well they are working together and if there are any problems with their process or communication. 

Date: xx July 2022

Time: 00 - 00

Attendees: @name, @name, @name, @name

Agenda
What went well?
  • List what worked
  • List what worked
  • List what worked
What fell short?
  • List what didn’t work out
  • List what didn’t work out
  • List what didn’t work out
What have we learned?
  • List lessons
  • List lessons
  • List lessons
Actions points
  • List action points
  • List action points
  • List action points

By using Assembly's Retrospective Flow, you save yourself hours of work and no project gets left behind in the process. As a team, you can have all your retrospective conversations in one place, collect feedback from everyone involved, and be on top of everything related to your features and releases. Improved communication for all!

  1. Project Kickoff Meeting Agenda

A Project Kickoff Meeting Agenda serves as a guide to ensure you have all the necessary information and resources in place before you begin a project. The agenda helps to establish a common understanding between all parties involved in a project, which will help ensure the success of the project.

Date: xx July 2022

Time: 00 - 00

Attendees: @name, @name, @name, @name, @name

Agenda
Introductions:

Let the team meet each other

Project overview:

The project lead summarizes the entire project, goals, deliverables, and timeline.

Project goals/objectives
  • List your SMART project goals 
  • List your SMART project goals 
  • List your SMART project goals 
Project duration:

What is the entire timeline for this project?

Team members/roles and responsibilities:

Assign tasks, roles, and responsibilities to each member. Here are a few examples:

  • Project manager
  • Research lead
  • Client relationship manager
  • Design lead
  • Software Development lead
  • Marketing Manager
  • Resource Manager
  • Stakeholder Management
Deadlines and milestones:

To ensure that all stakeholders are on the same page, the team needs to agree on a timeline and schedule.

Project deliverables:

Define the final outputs of your project. These are the “things” that the client or the team will be getting on completing the project. The project deliverables should be well-thought-out and well-defined.

Project bottlenecks to anticipate:

It's important to anticipate where the bottlenecks will be so you can keep them in check and get your project done on time. Here are some common issues that can slow down a project:

  • Lack of communication between team members
  • Lack of resources or support from management
  • Unclear goals or objectives
Next steps
  • List next steps
  • List next steps
  • List next steps

The traditional project kickoff meeting is usually frustrating. It's a means to an end with no real direction or purpose. Use Assembly's Project Kickoff flow instead to source ideas, perspective, context, and requirements from all of the key stakeholders in a new project.

  1. Daily Standup Meeting Agenda

The daily standup meeting agenda is one of the most important parts of your company's culture. It sets the tone for the day, and it gives you, your team, and your colleagues all a chance to stay on track with what's coming up and how things are going.

Date: xx July 2022

Time: 00 - 00

Attendees: @name, @name, @name

Agenda
What did you do yesterday?

Answer.

What will you do today?

Answer.

What blockers stand in your way?

Answer.

Start using the Daily Standup now or schedule a demo today to learn more.

Crafting The Perfect Meeting Agenda

Meeting agendas, like all other forms of communication, can have a tremendous impact on the success of the meeting itself. By thinking about the meeting's purpose, participants, and specifics ahead of time, you can craft an agenda that increases the chances for a fruitful discussion. 

All the tools and resources you need to host effective meetings, launch projects, and gather feedback—all in one place with Assembly. Book a demo to learn more.

Browse our Free Employee Recognition Guide

Get the foundational knowledge on creating an employee recognition program that boosts employee engagement and helps them feel valued.

Explore Guide
Employee recognition guide