Have you thought about how to schedule the meeting agenda? Or are you listing the items in random order? Are you assigning the same amount of time for each item on the agenda? How should the items scheduled?
Start the meeting with the most important item first on the agenda and continue with next most important item. Allocate time to each item in proportion. Using low priority items to warm-up and working up in difficulty (priority), even if more comfortable, is an ineffective strategy.
The bigger the relative importance, the more important it is to have it first. Most valuable, most front of mind. If all seem equally important, which do you feel you want addressed first? It is the most (relatively) important to you. It is the item which is most likely to need extra time, the most dangerous to run out of time for.
Three more reasons for placing the most important item first are:
- People are most effective on the first agenda items. They are fresher.
- The attendees are not thinking (ruminating) about the high priority item while working through the other agenda items.
- It allows for more time, if needed, to complete the discussion without having the meeting run over.
After having ranked the Agenda items, the next step is to assign time for each item. The highest ranking items should be given more time. This reflects their importance and the time they will need to get through.
For example, a one hour meeting starting at 9:00AM with five agenda items would look like:
9:00 – Opening (5 minutes)
9:05 – Highest priority item (15 minutes)
9:20 – Priority two item (10 minutes)
9:30 – Priority three item (10 minutes)
9:40 – Priority four item (5 minutes)
9:45 – Priority five item (5 minutes)
9:50 – Parking lot
Beware of the set agenda; Review and reorder if necessary. Dealing with the important is more important than sticking to habit.
An agenda should be prepared with the items in decreasing order of importance. The time assigned to them should decrease along with their rank. A meeting that has an agenda organized according to priorities is a meeting that is likely to finish on time with the important items addressed.
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