Team Meeting Agenda Template - How to Write it Effectively?
The team meeting agenda is one of the essential things regarding office interactions. Here, you have to make everyone understand what you’re trying to accomplish and how everyone will go about it.
It’s not like another maybe-maybe kind of water cooler conversation, but a strict plan that can get everyone on the same page and save lots of money for the company. Especially if you think about it this way - effective team meeting agenda = effective workflow. And from that, you can potentially see all the necessary components of a successful company.
This guide will go over one of the essential elements of creating a great team meeting agenda. We’ll go over what to include, why it is critical, and why it’s necessary to develop it. So, without further ado - let’s get into it!
Team Meeting Agenda - What Software to Use?
As per usual, we start with the software selection. It’s not obvious, of course, as there are many different software providers on the market, some of them more, some less advanced, but overall - it’s a choice that needs to be made.
Here, at Royal Cd Keys, we recommend using one of the many Microsoft Office options to get all the essential elements on that digital piece of paper.
In this case, we highly recommend using Microsoft Word. It has one of the best templates for this kind of work in the industry. It is also one of the most popular software ever created, so you will never feel like any team member cannot understand it.
And if you’re worried about the price - don’t be! Here, at Royal CD Keys, we’ve prepared some affordable Microsoft Office options for your personal and professional use.
It’s an investment in the future, so there is no reason to waste it - you’ll probably use it anyway!
In the case of the weekly team meeting agenda templates, we’ve prepared some, especially for you, so that you can see them yourself.
Template #1
Meeting agendas does not always have to be boring. Here, we’ve prepared some bright orange templates with detailed starting and ending points. This meeting agenda template is popular in design offices where you need to be precise and effective and add some style to the meeting.
Like most of those templates, it’s downloadable for free on the Microsoft page. You can easily open them up by just clicking on them and picking Microsoft Word as the default software to use.
Template #2
Here’s something called the “blue curve agenda.” As you can see, it has a more subtle tone and is excellent for more official conversations.
This staff meeting agenda template is excellent in corporations, universities, and overall - a rather formal part of society. The blue color is calming, and the font is strict and precise - as your next meeting should probably be.
You can also download it from the official Microsoft website.
Template #3
Here, we have the most informal of the weekly meeting agenda templates. It’s bright, colorful, and screams informality all over it.
This one is best to use in a minor team, where everyone knows each other and wouldn’t mind some more “loose” take on the whole agenda situation. A productive meeting is not always rigorous and formal, so that template works well to loosen up the people.
You can find this team meeting template on the Microsoft page as well.
What is a Team Meeting Agenda?
Team meeting agenda is a great way to introduce the weekly topics to the team. Here you can easily give all the necessary information to all the parties involved in one meeting. If you do it right and effectively, all the people will clearly understand what you’re trying to accomplish.
It's also a great place to brainstorm ideas and get to know each other in more detail, especially work-wise. Working with people who understand their position and what they need to do is excellent, but you have to prepare them for it as a manager.
Here are some of the most important reasons to create a detailed team meeting agenda.
Effectiveness
As a manager, you are all about effectiveness. Effective team meetings can be a significant part of the whole strategy.
Suppose every employee knows what they’re supposed to do, why they’re supposed to do it, and what are each employee's responsibilities - you can easily see the benefits coming from a week after implementation. It’s a more innovative way of accomplishing tasks and can be significantly appreciated by the board of directors and the employees themselves.
If everyone knows what to do, they feel safer and better in the work environment.
Progress
Managers tend to think they know the answers to all the questions. Sometimes they see a lot, but it’s always good to have a little perspective from time to time. And - team meetings are a great way to accomplish that.
While creating a team meeting agenda, try including some elements of brainstorming. It can be beneficial to you and the company as a whole. It’s always best to look at an issue from multiple perspectives, and by doing it this way - you can easily accomplish this task. With brainstorming during a team meeting, you can correct something in your approach or even find a solution to a company’s problem that you have had for years now. It’s a win-win for sure!
Transparency
It is no surprise that in this day and age, people have much more detailed job descriptions than ever before. It’s not only that, their job as part of the team includes so many different things that they need to remember, like never back in the history of humankind.
Therefore, a team meeting agenda is a great way to introduce team members to the expected goals you want them to achieve and the key metrics by which you’ll be judging their performance.
Additionally, as it is a team meeting, another participant will also gain access to the employee’s expertise to check some troublesome elements with them and know what part of the chain they are working on.
It gives a whole team transparency on what we’re trying to achieve, and according to modern office ideologies, an employee who knows what they’re doing is the most effective one.
Information
As we’ve mentioned before, the fact that most of the employees involved can listen to the list of tasks can benefit the workflow.
For example, if an employee X has a multifaceted task and has cornered themselves and can’t go past a certain point - they can always ask someone they know to take care of this thing in the company.
How do they know it? Well, because of a team meeting agenda they participated in. It’s a win-win-win situation for all the parties involved.
Honesty
Tough situations happen in every office. We all know that, as we’ve all been in one. It’s stressful to work, and it will be even more challenging if it’s a toxic office situation.
How can the team agenda meeting help out in this situation? As studies suggest, many employees feel like they are the only ones doing any substantive work in the company, and, as they put it themselves, the whole thing would stop working without them.
It is not valid, but staff members can have their ideas on what makes the company function well.
With a well-planned meeting agenda, other team members can see what their colleagues work on and relate to it in this or another way.
This can help them better understand their value to the company and - their colleagues.
Team-Building Exercise
Even if it’s a remote meeting, people need to interact with each other. We are social creatures, and for that reason - we need to work together.
For too long, many companies have created this weird cubicle ecosystem where everyone is working in their little lane with no regard for what the others are doing.
As it turns out - it’s not the right approach. Many scholars have noticed that by opening the workspace, you raise the workers' efficiency and overall productivity and well-being.
Also - if people regularly have a meeting date, they tend to look for it and can better face company goal challenges in the long run. So, creating those meetings for them and having a detailed plan in mind is excellent.
Team Meeting Agenda - What To Include?
Some meetings are better; some are worse. In this guide, we’re trying to inform on what elements are essential and suitable for the schedule and what elements should not be included.
The worst situation you can imagine is the whole team unprepared, most of the people are late, no one pays attention to the meeting, and the manager improvises instead of having a detailed plan.
This kind of situation is often seen in the workplace and is sub-optimal. It wastes the company’s time, employees, and managers on top of it. So, it’s the opposite of what we’ve learned before - a lose-lose-lose situation for the entire team.
With that in mind, we’ve prepared a list of elements to include in your team meeting agenda to keep the participants focused and to guard you against unproductive meetings.
Here’s how to write a compelling meeting agenda.
Create Clear Objectives
It's the first, so it must be important. It’s not an easy task to create an agenda for a weekly meeting that is concise and precise, but it’s doable. You need to remember that the objectives you set out must be understandable.
Of course, it could be tempting to show some erudite way of speaking in a very formal and professional tone, but sometimes - the simpler, the better. In the case of meeting objectives - the most important thing to remember is that everyone needs to understand it. Only then can they start to make those objectives reality.
Avoid vague terms and agenda elements that can be interpreted in multiple ways. Be precise so your team can do their job the best way possible.
Create Clear Expectations
And ad hoc to the previous point - be sure to make the people know what you expect from them. The worst-case scenario in every company is a boss that wants something from the employees, but it would be best if they knew it themselves.
As it turns out - no, they don’t. And - as they can’t mindread, it would be best if they would be notified on what they need to do and how they need to do it. It’s great to talk to them as well, describe each point in more detail and overall - lead them through their experience, not only tell them to do it.
Be Realistic
When creating a plan, be realistic about what you’re trying to accomplish together. Do not become the manager who sets out unrealistic goals and standards for their employees and expects them to follow through.
During the meeting, it’s best to go point by point and ask everyone what would be their estimated time during which they can accomplish the tasks at hand. If you are open about it, so will they.
Get Feedback
This is one of the most critical items on this list. You must always get feedback from your team.
As we’ve mentioned before, you will not only get out of the loop of thinking that you and only you have any idea on what is right and what is wrong, but also - your work can benefit from getting feedback on how to run stuff. Be sure to do some Ask Me Anything segments at the end of every team meeting. Your employees will be grateful.
Team Meeting Agenda - Examples
Now that we know why we need to do some team meetings and what to include, let's go over what kind of meetings there are.
Update Meeting
This one is the most common one of them all. It usually works well in editorial offices and places where many things are discussed daily/weekly. Because of this kind of work, you need to check in every now and then to see what things should be done in the following days or hours.
The plan does not have to be that detailed; it’s more about the conversation and getting the facts straight. It’s a great opportunity for sure to meet each other as well and discuss the topics together with the team.
Team Wide Retrospective
This one is something completely different. In case of a retrospective meeting, employees leave their insights and things they’re working on during the week, and the manager compiles them and then delegates the responsibilities accordingly.
The retrospective meeting agenda is mainly filled with blanks that employees must inform the manager about.
Executive Meeting
The main goal of an executive meeting is to make the necessary changes and decisions that have to be made that can change the whole organization.
Every agenda item must be detailed as it will take some time until the next team meeting, and people who participate in that meeting are usually pretty busy.
Team Meeting Agenda - Conclusion
As you can see, team meeting agendas are an essential part of the workflow. If done right, they can benefit the participants and the whole company in the long run. It helps people know what is demanded from them, their motivation, and what kind of improvement can be made in the company’s structure.
With a great team meeting agenda, you can change the outlook of your work and company. We highly recommend checking it out yourself.
Thanks For Reading!
As usual - thanks for checking out our article. We hope you’ve found all the information you needed in it, and now you can proudly be a team manager who knows a thing or two about agendas.
We have many great articles on software, gaming, and other digital-related elements, so be sure to check out our library to find some exciting or helpful stuff!
If you have any questions or feel like we need to address your problem, be sure to let us know! We'd be more than happy to do so.
Also, if you can shout us out, it would mean a lot. Until next time!