Meeting Planning
There are different reasons for having a meeting. Usually people meet to accomplish one or more of the following goals.
Information exchange
Consensus building
Consciousness raising
Education
Generating ideas/options
Problem solving
Task completion
Relationship building
The first step is to determine why you are meeting. The following questions will help you determine the need for the meeting.
What needs to be discussed?
What needs to be accomplished?
Do people need to be in the same room to discuss?
Can the discussion be handled electronically (e.g., remote video conferencing using a web-based platform) or by phone?
Once you have established a clear purpose for the meeting, the next step is to determine what must be done during the meeting to accomplish the desired outcome.
What are the major topics to be discussed?
What is the specific desired action (discussion, decision, awareness, problem solving, idea generation, assignment, etc.)?
How much time is needed for each topic?
Do you need to expand ideas? If so what process would be useful (brainstorming, visioning, etc.)?
Do you need to cull out best alternatives? If so what process would be useful (ranking, cost-benefit analysis, force field analysis, etc.)
Do you need to solve a particular problem? If so, what process would be the most useful?
Do you need a decision? If so, how will decisions be made (consensus or majority vote)?
Who needs to present the agenda item?
Who needs to be present to participate in the meeting to achieve the outcomes?
After thinking through the above questions you are ready to create the meeting agenda.