Meeting Preparation – How to Quickly Prepare Meetings for Results

Activities and Basic Agenda Approach for Meeting Preparation

In an ideal world, you have ample time for meeting preparation. But in the real world, you’re swamped. Too much work, too many meetings, not enough time. What you need is a quick reference for building your agenda steps, and that’s what we’ve provided below, along with some additional scripting to consider.

Optimally, you also have time to get your participants prepared. So, we’ve added some bonus material on conversational questions you might use for your meeting preparation. Chapter references below are from the new facilitator’s guide, “Meetings That Get Results.”

Quick Reference Guidelines: Nine Activities for Your Meeting Preparation

Use the following guidelines for every significant meeting you lead. Below you’ll find the requisite Introductory and Wrap activities to lead these meetings.

  1. Codify the purpose and scope of the meeting: What project or product are you supporting? Stipulate what the project or product is worth in currency and FTP (full-time person): Why is it important? How much money or time is at risk if we fail?
  2. Articulate the deliverables: What specific content represents the output of the meeting and satisfies what DONE looks like? What is your analogy for explaining it? Who will use it after the meeting?
  3. Identify known and unknown information: What are the goals and objectives of the organization, business unit, department, program, product, or project? What information is needed to support activities that will fill the gaps?
  4. Draft Basic Agenda Steps: Compose a series of steps from experience or other proven approaches that would be used by experts to build the plan, make the decision, solve the problem, or develop the information and consensus necessary to complete your deliverable and get DONE. See “Meetings That Get Results” for frequently used agendas.

—Gestation—

Nine activities for your meeting preparation

When possible, sleep on it. Go back and review your meeting purpose, scope, deliverables, and Basic Agenda to ensure it will yield the deliverables you need to get DONE.

  1. Review Basic Agenda for logical flow: Walk through the Agenda Steps with someone else to confirm that they will produce the desired results. Link your analogy to each of the Agenda Steps. Rehearse your explanation of the white space, why the steps exist, how they relate to each other, and how they support the deliverable to get DONE.
  2. Identify meeting participants: Determine the optimal subject matter expertise you require, the meeting participants who can provide the information required or both. Share the meeting purpose, scope, deliverables, and Basic Agenda and invite them to the meeting.
  3. Detail the procedures to capture the information required: Gather and assemble specific questions that need to be addressed. Time permitting, consider including questions for which subject matter experts are also seeking answers. Sequence the questions optimally. Build yourself an Annotated Agenda that focuses on the appropriate Tools, methods, and activities to produce the information for each agenda step.
  4. Perform a walk-through with business experts, executive sponsors, project team members, and anyone else who will listen to you (grandmothers are good for this and you might get a delicious, home-cooked meal).
  5. Refine: Make changes suggested or developed from your walk-through, edit your final Annotated Agenda, firm up your artifacts, fill out your glossary, complete your slides, distribute your handouts, and rehearse.

Quick Reference: Basic Agenda Framework

Use this Launch and Wrap for every meeting—whether your meeting lasts 50 minutes or multiple days.[1]

Launch or Introduction (chapter 5): 

  1. Introduce yourself: stress neutrality, meeting roles, and quantify the impact.
  2. State the meeting purpose and get an agreement.
  3. Confirm the meeting scope and get an agreement.
  4. Show the meeting deliverables and get an agreement.
  5. Cover the “administrivia” (for example, safety moment); have the attendees introduce themselves.
  6. Walk through the meeting agenda (preferably using an analogy).
  7. Explain the Ground Rules (Chapter 4), emphasizing duty (fiduciary responsibility).

Middle Agenda Steps (Chapters 6, 7, and 8): 

Insert an Annotated Agenda that details activities and procedures for each Agenda Step and include:

    • Agenda Step name
    • Deliverable from each Agenda Step
    • Estimated time for each Agenda Step
    • Purpose scripting for each Agenda Step (and analogy)
    • Procedure for each Agenda Step (tools, methods, questions)
    • Graphical support required (such as legends, screens, definitions, and so on)
    • Closure scripting for each Agenda Step (and analogy)

Wrap or Conclusion (chapter  5):

  1. Review the final output and deliverable: Restate or summarize what the group got DONE.
  2. Parking Lot (Open Items): Assign responsibility and detail how the group can expect to be updated.
  3. Guardian of Change: Determine what meeting participants agree to tell their superiors and other stakeholders about what happened or what was accomplished during the meeting.
  4. Continuous Improvement: Use Scale It, Plus/ Delta, Where Are You Now or a more comprehensive meeting and facilitator assessment form.

Structuring Meeting Preparation with Mindful Conversations

The time it will take you to prepare the Agenda Steps between Launch and Wrap takes longer than the meeting itself. Plan on a ratio of preparation time to meeting time of 2:1 or 3:1 (or more) to thoroughly prepare yourself and others. For online meetings, experts suggest to double that amount of time. For standard 50-minute meetings, allow at least another 50 minutes to organize, invite, and prepare. A few hours may be more prudent if you are seeking exceptional results.

Conversations with Participants

Optimally you will speak with participants in advance to learn about them, the people they work with, and their pain points. For workshops, allow 15 to 30 minutes for one-on-ones. Meet face-to-face when permitted, or at least by videoconference, so that you establish eye contact before facilitating them in a meeting.

Sequence of Conversations

In sequence, meet the executive sponsor, business partners, project team, stakeholders, and meeting participants. Conduct conversations privately and assure participants that their responses will be kept confidential.

Objectives of Conversations

These conversations have the following aims:

  • Familiarize yourself with each subject matter expert’s role and competencies
  • Confirm who should, or should not, attend and why
  • Help participants show up better prepared to contribute
  • Identify potential issues, hidden agendas, and other obstacles
  • Transfer ownership of the meeting output, beginning with the meeting purpose, scope, and deliverables

Mindful Questions to Ask

For structured, stress-tested, and well-sequenced questions, use the ones below. Begin by explaining your role and asking for permission to take notes.[2] Use the following open-ended questions, sit back, and listen—discover the participant’s value and the value added by the participant to the initiative you are supporting.

Get to know participants’ subject matter expertise and attitude toward workshops with openers like “Tell me, what do you do?” and “What has worked for you in the past?” Then continue with questions in this sequence:

  • What do you expect from the session?
  • Who or what will make the meeting a complete failure?
  • What should the output look like?
  • What problems do you foresee?
  • Who should attend the meeting? Who should not? Why?
  • What is going to be my biggest obstacle?
  • Does the deliverable and agenda make sense to you?
  • Will you silence your “electronic leashes?”
  • What questions do you think we should answer?
  • What should I have asked that I didn’t ask?

The precision and sequence of the questions are important. They are all open-ended. They help manage “right-to-left” thinking; i.e., ‘expect’ and ‘output.’ Next, they focus on the hidden politics; i.e., ‘failure,’ ‘problems,’ and ‘obstacles.’ They end with a strong, closing question that emphasizes humility in the role of facilitator.

Workshop Preparation Includes Building a Participant’s Package

After structured conversations, send participants a pre-read package, especially at the kickoff of major events. If you happen to provide printed packages, place the spiral edging across the top to make the package both unique and easier for left-handed notetakers. Try to include the first five items listed here in every Participant’s Package. The other suggestions are supplemental:

  • An articulate workshop purpose, scope, and deliverables along with the Basic Agenda Steps
  • Glossary for terms used in the workshop purpose, scope, deliverables, and Basic Agenda Steps
  • Organizational and business unit strategic planning support—especially Mission, Values, Vision, and performance Measures such as objectives and key results
  • Product, project, or team charter and detail about the value being supported by the session
  • List of questions to be addressed during the meeting or workshop
  • Relevant reading materials gathered from others during your conversations
  • Responsibilities of the participants, including any overnight assignments, reading, or exercises that may be included in a multiple-day workshop
  • Sponsor’s letter of invitation—organizational strategic plan
  • Team members’ contact information

Sequencing and Personalization

The sequence of the items above is listed in order of priority. No meeting or workshop arrives at a consensual agreement if the participants do not agree at first on the purpose, scope, and deliverables of the meeting. Next, a consensual understanding of what those terms mean must be controlled and not facilitated. Third, to create a sense of importance and urgency,  show how the balance of the organization depends on the success of this meeting and its contributions (i.e., deliverable). 

We also recommend that you provide each invitation with a cover letter. If assembling “relevant reading material” that contains too much bulk, many participants won’t look at it. Some will perhaps when the meeting commences. Rather, attach a cover letter to each participant. Stipulate which pages are essential for them to read based on their ability to make significant contributions.

Meeting Preparation Completion

If you can answer yes to the following questions, you are ready to proceed:

  • Can you describe a potential deliverable from each Agenda Step?
  • Is your Annotated Agenda comprehensive and scripted?
  • Does a walk-through of your Annotated Agenda provide the right deliverable?
  • Can the participants answer the questions for each Agenda Step?
  • Have you had conversations with stakeholders?

Tooling for Each Agenda Step Requires Scripting

Scripting furnishes an anchor during workshops by telling you precisely what to say to be clear, helping you when you forget where you are going, and providing additional support when you have trouble getting there. We all need help at one time or another. Therefore, for every Agenda Step, in every agenda, a well-scripted Annotated Agenda compels you to anticipate and visualize the tools, activities, and procedures you need.

An Annotated Agenda provides tremendous predictive power. From reviewing the rigor and thoroughness of an Annotated Agenda, I can easily predict how well your session will progress, regardless of your talents and skills (or lack thereof, because someone not highly skilled but thoroughly scripted will outperform anyone not well-scripted but relying on their “natural” talent).

Do not rush your effort. Skimping on the Annotated Agenda ensures suboptimal performance. Next—please use it. Do not build it, set it down, and forget about it. We prefer a leader who is holding a piece of paper, reading to us, and being clear over one who speaks extemporaneously and leaves us a bit confused.

For workshops and significant meetings, some facilitators include details about real estate management (where they are mounting their large format paper, legends, grounds rules, and so on) and online technology instructions such as which type of screen share to use.

When you have completed the procedures above during your meeting preparation, your confidence and ease will rise. According to Amy Cuddy, confidence plus ease increases executive presence, and meeting preparation may be the best way to demonstrate executive presence during meetings and workshop facilitation.

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[1] A few exceptions might include daily Scrum sessions, regularly conducted staff meetings, and meetings conducted using Robert’s Rules of Order, such as meetings of boards of directors, community governments, and so on.

[2] Please do not tell someone that your conversation is confidential and then take copious notes without asking permission. I have had two people say no, they would rather I not take any notes. I’ve had dozens compliment me on the question itself because rarely have others extended the courtesy to ask for permission to take notes.

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Don’t ruin your career by hosting bad meetings. Sign up for a workshop or send this to someone who should. MGRUSH workshops focus on meeting design and practice. Each person practices tools, methods, and activities daily during the week. Therefore, while some call this immersion, we call it the road to building high-value facilitation skills.

Our workshops also provide a superb way to earn up to 40 SEUs from the Scrum Alliance, 40 CDUs from IIBA, 40 Continuous Learning Points (CLPs) based on Federal Acquisition Certification Continuous Professional Learning Requirements using Training and Education activities, 40 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from SAVE International, as well as 4.0 CEUs for other professions. (See workshop and Reference Manual descriptions for details.)

Want a free 10-minute break timer? Sign up for our once-monthly newsletter HERE and receive a free timer along with four other of our favorite facilitation tools.

Go to the Facilitation Training Store to access proven, in-house resources, including fully annotated agendas, break timers, and templates. Finally, take a few seconds to buy us a cup of coffee and please SHARE with others.

In conclusion, we dare you to embrace the will, wisdom, and activities that amplify a facilitative leader. #facilitationtraining #MEETING DESIGN

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