Blog
How to write a meeting agenda
How to write a meeting agenda people follow: items phrased as questions, an owner and a time on each, a template you can copy, and how Cedric keeps the time.
Benjamin Ben HattarMost agendas are a list of topics. "Marketing. Hiring. Q3." A topic tells people what the meeting will talk about. It does not say what the meeting has to produce, so the meeting talks about marketing until the time runs out and ends without deciding anything.
An agenda people follow turns each topic into a question the room has to answer, puts a name and a number of minutes next to it, and arrives early enough for people to think. The rest of this post is the detail, a template, and the part an AI teammate can take off your hands.
- Write each item as a question with a verb: decide, choose, agree, review. "Hiring" is a topic. "Do we open the second engineering role now or in January?" is an item.
- Give every item an owner and a time box. The owner brings the context, and the time box tells the room when to stop.
- Start from the last meeting's open items, put the decisions first, and keep five minutes at the end to read back the actions.
- Send it the day before with anything people need to read. An agenda seen for the first time in the room is a list of surprises.
- Cedric can propose the agenda from last week's open items and, if you hand him the chair, keep the time and park what does not fit.
How to write it
- 01
Write the purpose in one sentence
"Give the Q3 forecast an owner and settle the vendor review." If you cannot write this sentence, the meeting may not need to happen. A status update can go in the channel.
- 02
Start from what is still open
Open last meeting's minutes. Every open question and every action that did not close is a candidate item. This is how meetings stop repeating themselves. If your minutes do not have an open-questions section, here is how to take them.
- 03
Turn each topic into a question
Ask what the room must leave with. A decision, a choice between options, feedback on a draft, or just information. Write the item as that question, and mark which kind it is.
Information-only items are the first to cut. If nobody has to respond, a written update does the job faster.
- 04
Put an owner and a time on each
The owner is the person who brings the context and proposes an answer. The time is a number of minutes. Add them up. If they exceed the meeting, cut items now, before the meeting does it for you.
- 05
Order by what needs everyone
Decisions that need the whole room go first, while everyone is there and fresh. Updates go last. End with five minutes to read back the actions, with names and dates.
- 06
Send it the day before
Attach or link what people need to read, and say so on the item: "read the spend report before". Ask for missing items by a set time, so nothing gets added in the room.
- 07
Keep a parking lot
A line at the bottom for things raised in the room that are not on the agenda. They go there, and to the next agenda if they matter. It lets the chair say "parked" instead of "not now".
A meeting agenda template you can copy
Paste this into the invite or the channel. Each line is the format to fill in.
- 01
Header
[Meeting name], [date], [start time] to [end time]. Purpose: [one sentence]. Attendees: [names]. Chair: [name]. Notes: [name].
- 02
Read before
[Document], [link]. Needed for item [number].
- 03
Carried over
From last time: [open item or action], [owner]. Closed, still open, or on the agenda below.
- 04
Decisions
1. Decide: [question]? Owner [name], [minutes] min.
Decisions first, updates last. If the minutes add up to more than the meeting, cut before you send.
- 05
Discussion
2. Discuss: [question]? Owner [name], [minutes] min.
- 06
Updates
3. Update: [what changed]. Owner [name], [minutes] min.
- 07
Actions and owners
Last 5 min. Read back every action with an owner and a date.
- 08
Parking lot
[Raised in the room, not on the agenda]. Next step: [next agenda / someone looks into it].
The template, filled in
Leadership call, Monday, 9:00 to 9:30. Purpose: give the Q3 forecast an owner and settle the vendor review. Attendees: Hannah, Devin, Tomas, Lena, Sophie. Chair: Hannah. Notes: Cedric.
Read before: last week's minutes.
Carried over: the Q4 hiring plan, closed last week. The pricing page test, running, on the agenda as an update.
1. Decide: who owns the Q3 forecast rewrite, and by when? Owner Hannah, 10 min.
2. Decide: vendor security review this week or next? Owner Sophie, 8 min.
3. Update: pricing page test, day 9 of 14. Owner Lena, 5 min.
Actions and owners, 5 min. Parking lot: empty so far.
Running the meeting against it
The agenda only works if someone holds the room to it. That job is the chair's, and it is awkward. Calling time on a senior colleague mid-sentence costs something, so most chairs let it slide and the last item gets three minutes.
Two habits help. Say the time box out loud when you open each item: "ten minutes on this one". And when a new subject comes up, write it in the parking lot where everyone can see it, and move on.
How Cedric runs the agenda
Cedric takes the parts of this that are pure bookkeeping. Before the meeting, he proposes the agenda from last week's open items and from what came up in the channel since, each with an owner and a time. You edit it, and it goes to the attendees on your yes.
In the call, he joins as a visible participant. Hand him the chair and he moves through the items, calls time at natural gaps, and parks what does not fit. If you keep the chair yourself, he stays quiet until someone says his name, and answers from your connected tools when they do.
When the call ends, the notes go out with each decision written down, an owner and a date on each action, and the open items kept apart. Before the next meeting, he nudges the owner of any item that has not moved, so the next agenda opens with what closed. Cedric as AI chief of staff shows a full week of it.
Monday, 8:30
The agenda, proposed from what is still open.
Hannah Berg9:14 AM
@Cedric propose the agenda for the 9:00 leadership call.
CedricAPP9:15 AM
30 minutes, from last week's open items and this week's channel. 1. Decide: owner for the Q3 forecast rewrite, you, 10 min. 2. Decide: vendor security review, this week or next, Sophie, 8 min. 3. Update: pricing page test, day 9 of 14, Lena, 5 min. 4. Actions and owners, 5 min. The Q4 hiring plan closed last week, so it is not on it. Two minutes spare.
The agenda jobs, by hand and with Cedric
| Job | By hand | With Cedric |
|---|---|---|
| Build it from last week's open items | Dig out the minutes | Proposed from the open items and the channel |
| An owner and a time on every item | If you remember | On every item he proposes |
| Send it before | When you find ten minutes | Drafted, sent on your yes |
| Keep time in the room | The chair, while also talking | If you hand him the chair |
| Park what does not fit | If someone writes it down | Parked, when he holds the chair |
| Chase the owners after | A reminder in someone's head | A nudge before the next meeting |
What still needs a person
Deciding what matters. Cedric can list what is open. Which of those items deserves the room this week is the chair's call.
Cutting someone off. Cedric calls time when he holds the chair. Whether a point gets two more minutes because it is the important one is still a judgment, and people in the room should make it.
Telling the room he is there. He is a visible participant, and saying so at the start is courteous and, in many places, required.
FAQ
The purpose in one sentence, the attendees, anything to read before, then each item as a question with an owner and a number of minutes, and five minutes at the end for actions.
The day before for a weekly meeting, so people can read what they need. For a short daily meeting, a standing agenda is enough.
As many as fit in the time boxes, and usually fewer than you think. For a 30-minute meeting, two or three decisions and one update is plenty.
Cedric can propose the agenda from last week's open items, and if you hand him the chair he keeps the time and parks what does not fit. Otherwise he stays quiet until someone says his name. See Cedric in meetings.
The agenda is what the meeting plans to decide. The minutes record what it did decide, who owns what, and what is still open. The open items become the next agenda.
100,000 free credits, no card.