{"id":12230,"date":"2021-04-01T14:52:46","date_gmt":"2021-04-01T18:52:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/?p=12230"},"modified":"2026-04-21T12:58:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T16:58:48","slug":"meeting-agenda-template","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/meeting-agenda-template\/","title":{"rendered":"Best One-Page Meeting Agenda Template Plus Three Workshop Agendas"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Regardless of their personal style, experts and professionals who lead effective meetings rely on a simple, one-page meeting agenda.
\n(Templates for which we’ve included .docx and .rtf links for you to download below.)<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n
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\"Meeting<\/a>

Taking a few minutes before every meeting to prepare your simple meeting agenda can prevent wasting another hour in yet another meeting.<\/small><\/span><\/strong><\/small><\/center><\/p><\/div>\n

This meeting agenda template focuses on what DONE looks like for all meeting agenda steps. It’s all about getting DONE because nobody wants more meetings or, especially, more time in meetings.<\/span><\/p>\n

If completing this meeting agenda template only gets you to think clearer about your meeting purpose, scope, and deliverables, your preparation will have been rewarded. Once you revise the style of your meeting agenda template, you can modify or repurpose your future meeting agendas in a few minutes. Always stay focused on \u2018”right to left” thinking, which means keeping the end in mind by knowing what DONE looks like.<\/span><\/p>\n

Add Content to Your Meeting Agenda Template<\/span><\/h3>\n

Develop your meeting agenda template by adding your own content. Modify the picture below of the meeting agenda template or download a DOCX or RTF document.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Start with a clear statement of your meeting purpose. Then articulate your meeting scope, both what is included and what is excluded (IS NOT). Carefully spell out your meeting objectives, frequently called “deliverables.”\u00a0 For standard business practices, Steven Covey refers to the objectives as “the end in mind.” In Agile communities, you are expressing what DONE looks like. The Lean and Six Sigma communities may refer to it as using \u201cright-to-left thinking<\/a>,\u201d where you go to the end of the written line and work backward (in the English language), from “right” (ending) to “left” (beginning).<\/span><\/p>\n

While the first and last two agenda steps (Introduction\u00a0and Wrap) repeat themselves from meeting to meeting, modify steps two through XX<\/span> with content, questions<\/a>, and activities that complete your meeting objectives. Two secrets for building a compelling, one-page agenda template include:<\/span><\/p>\n

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  1. The best meetings generate some type of action or follow-up, so make sure that all activities are assigned to someone in the meeting, and<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. \u2018If it wasn\u2019t documented, it didn\u2019t happen,\u201d so be sure to distribute thorough meeting notes soon after the meeting concludes.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    NOTE: We are very careful of rhetoric here. We do NOT ask “Who is going to do this?” Rather, we ask, “Who will take responsibility for reporting back to this group on the status of this?” As we all know, many volunteers re-assign the tasks to somebody that works for them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Make it a 50-minute Meeting, Not 60<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

    L<\/span>earn to keep your meetings to fifty minutes by starting five minutes after and ending five minutes before the hour or half-hour. Stop treating your one-hour meetings too lightly with little or no preparation. Statistically, we waste more time and money in briefer meetings than full-day or multiple-day workshops.<\/span><\/p>\n

    All in, you cost your organization at least USD<\/span>$150 per hour. With eight of you in a one-hour meeting, your “burn rate” will be around $20 per minute. Therefore, some organizations encourage meeting participants to NOT attend if there is no agenda because meeting time represents a high probability of wasted time. For optimal productivity, here is the framework for a field-tested meeting agenda template, which you can quickly modify for your fifty-minute meetings.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    \"Meeting<\/a>

    Meeting Agenda Template<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

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    <\/i>Download .docx file Agenda Template<\/a><\/span><\/h3>\n

    <\/i>Download .rtf file Agenda Template<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

    Meeting Experts Note:<\/span><\/h3>\n