If I asked everyone reading this blog if you’d ever been in one of those meetings where people say a lot and nothing gets resolved, virtually every hand would go up. If you make decisions for a company, this shouldn’t be the norm.

Getting to a place where your meetings mean something once again is a process, but they will help you build a stronger company and a culture of accountability.

Every successful meeting starts with a clear purpose, and it needs to be stated in one sentence and added to the meeting’s agenda. With every purpose, there is a maximum of three possible outcomes. You must include these possible outcomes with every meeting request so people know why they’re attending and what they’re getting done in the meeting.

“No agenda, no attenda.”
If you don’t have one, you shouldn’t be having a meeting. Create a bulleted list of action items in every invitation to a meeting so that people can figure out what’s going to be covered, and in what order.

Meetings without clear agendas go off track and include people whose time would be better spent getting other important projects completed.