Showing up to a meeting unprepared is never a good choice. It’s especially harmful when you’re the meeting organizer and everyone is looking to you for direction. The best way to avoid the stumbling and stalling and getting off track is by implementing a business meeting agenda sample that you can revise for each session. There are many ways to adapt one of these from a casual meeting agenda template all the way up to a formal meeting agenda template. You will likely find that they will make your meetings more effective, productive, and enjoyable for everyone involved.
Many platforms exist that can help you develop the best meeting agenda template for your workplace. Whether you build your meeting agenda template in Word, Google Docs, Docket, or another software is entirely up to you and what works best for your team. Here are some reasons why a meeting agenda template doc is important to have and how you can make it the most successful for your organization’s unique needs.
Why is an agenda so important?
We’ve all been part of meetings that get off track quickly and end up lasting twice as long as they should. Having an effective meeting agenda is the best way to avoid these issues. Building a staff meeting agenda template provides a variety of benefits to each session.
When you share a meeting agenda PDF, meeting agenda template Google doc, or a Docket agenda template with others beforehand, it helps them to prepare since they know what will be discussed. If your sales manager is unaware that you expect to see this quarter’s earnings, it can derail the productivity of the meeting. And without a board meeting agenda template (Word), board meeting agenda (PDF), or a board meeting template (Word), ensuring board members are prepared and ready to work in the short time they are brought together may be challenging and less impactful.
A team meeting agenda template also prepares yourself as the organizer so you can schedule the right amount of time to discuss everything that needs to be discussed while also keeping the meeting on track during the session.
Building and sharing an agenda with your team clarifies the need for a meeting. A team meeting agenda template PowerPoint makes it easy to revise and prepare for the meeting.
Effective board meeting agendas ensure all the right people are available to attend the meeting.
How do I create a good agenda?
If you are building your first team meeting agenda or a meeting minutes template (Google doc), you may be wondering where to start. There are a variety of ways to begin implementing one of these. Here are a few of them:
You can search the Docket template library or Google for a team meeting agenda template doc that you like and copy it to make it your own. You may also want to find an agenda items example so you know what to include. You’ll be able to test and revise this as necessary.
If you upload a meeting agenda template to Google doc, you can ask others to help you fill it in. This way takes a simple meeting agenda and personalizes it so everyone can make sure their area is covered.
If you are wondering how to create an agenda for a board meeting, you may want to build one from scratch. Certainly, you can find or create a board meeting agenda template for Word, Google, or Docket, but as these tend to be highly personal to each business, you’ll want to modify it for your organization.
Once I have an agenda I like, now what?
After you’ve built a creative meeting agenda template, your next step is to put it to good use. In order for it to be successful it has to be implemented properly. This may be well-defined within your organization, or you may be a bit of a maverick with this new idea. Depending on who is going to be attending your meeting, you may have a few options.
You will likely want to share a formal meeting agenda template doc with the higher level staff in attendance. For example, the C-suite and other department directors. Other attendees can receive the template on an as-needed basis. For a more casual setting, a weekly team meeting agenda template can be used with just about everyone. Docket offers a customized agenda view for your attendees that can even be branded with your logo, brand color, and social media links.
If you choose to save your agenda template in Google docs or Docket, you will have easy access to a variety of revisions throughout the use of the template. If you think a board meeting template in Word is more your style, you will need to create separate files for each meeting.
Build Your Agenda Today!
We hope these tips for building and implementing a successful meeting agenda have been helpful for you. You can get started today by designing a meeting agenda sample PDF from a Docket meeting agenda and trying it out at your next session. Once you see how well it works, you can develop a meeting agenda template PDF that is reusable for each type of meeting you have. You may need to create a separate document for each session which may include a nonprofit board meeting agenda template, formal meeting agenda template sample, or a meeting minutes template in Google docs. Finding the right version for you may have a bit of trial and error but once you find what works, you’ll see that your meetings become far more productive, engaging, and enjoyable for all attendees.
