Agenda
A plan listing the topics and running order of a meeting. Sharing it in advance makes the meeting more efficient.
An agenda is a list of the items to be discussed at a meeting, put together in advance. It comes from the Latin “agere” (to act), and its original meaning is “a list of things to be done.” In an Atlassian survey (2024), 62% of workers said they frequently attend “meetings whose invitations do not state a goal.”
The components of an agenda
| Element | Content | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Topic | What will be discussed | Approval of the Q3 marketing budget |
| Purpose | One of share / discuss / decide | Decide |
| Owner | Who explains / leads it | Head of marketing |
| Time allocation | How many minutes it takes | 15 minutes |
| Pre-reading | Materials to read beforehand | Draft budget PDF (attached) |
When to share the agenda
Share the agenda with all attendees, for example, at least 24 hours before the meeting. This lets attendees read the materials in advance and come to the meeting with their views already organized. The facilitator runs the meeting along the agenda and is responsible for managing the time allocation.
The real role of the agenda
Before it is a running order, an agenda works as a tool for testing whether calling the meeting is justified. When you try to write the purpose of each topic as “share / discuss / decide,” judgments such as “if it is only sharing, an email will do” and “if it is a decision, it is pointless without the decision-maker” arise at the writing stage. A meeting you cannot write an agenda for is a meeting whose reason for being held has not yet firmed up. Also, when an unplanned topic comes up during the meeting, you can cut it off with “that is off the agenda, so let’s take it next time” only when there is a list of topics agreed on in advance.