One Meeting Minute Thought for Your Week
You need to know when to attend a meeting with no agenda because your time is valuable.
You get invited to more meetings than you can possibly attend so you have to decline some of the requests you receive.
And the meetings with no agenda are the first ones you say “No, thank you!” to.
In fact, you may have this strict policy on meetings: “No Agenda. No Attenda.”
It’s a catchy phrase and a cool way to avoid going to meetings you want to skip.
But, making this a rigid rule you aren’t willing to flex, is a bad idea.
Because some of the best meetings don’t have an agenda.
That may sound strange to hear from me because I highly recommend agendas for almost every meeting.
Detailed agendas budget the available time and ensure you accomplish the Purpose of your meeting.
But there are exceptions. Here’s an example.
When you see these words in a meeting invitation, I strongly encourage you to ignore the “No Agenda. No Attenda” rule.
“I don’t have a set agenda for this meeting.”
Even without an agenda I would expect this meeting to be productive and effective – not a waste of your time as you might first assume.
My hunch is based on three reasons.
1. The meeting leader is aware they don’t have an agenda.
This probably means they know most meetings are made better by having and adhering to an agenda.
The leader’s statement acknowledges an agenda’s value.
2. The meeting leader has intentionally decided to not have an agenda.
The person leading the meeting wouldn’t admit this gap if it was an oversight.
This meeting is being led by someone who does things on purpose.
3. The admission is not having a “set” agenda.
My guess is this person has a Purpose for the meeting.
And, they decided that strictly budgeting the time and topics in an agenda wasn’t the best way to accomplish the objective.
Now, I could be wrong.
This person may just be covering for not preparing.
That’s possible.
But, if I was invited to a meeting that was intentionally described as “not having a set agenda”, I’d take the risk to attend or at least get more information before I decided to decline the meeting.
I would simply ask the person who called the meeting to clarify the Purpose and explain why they didn’t include an agenda.
Hannah Yurk, an English Communication Specialist for HR (Human Resources) managers (click here to learn more from Hannah), shared these examples of responses that would help her know when to attend a meeting with no agenda.
“‘I don’t have a set agenda for this meeting, because I’d like everyone to bring their ideas for project X and I don’t want to stifle any creativity.”
or
“I don’t have a set agenda for this meeting. I really just want to get to know you better and find out more about your goals for the next year.”
As Hannah illustrates, intentionally NOT having a set agenda can create an environment that fosters open dialogue and listening.
In other words: “I don’t have an agenda. Except to listen to what you have to say.”
If I have the opportunity to attend a meeting with a clear Purpose, but no set agenda, I’m going!
I wouldn’t want to miss an exceptional meeting because I’m making my decisions based on a catch phrase and a rigid rule.
So if you’re a believer in a strict “No Agenda. No Attenda.” policy, be careful and apply this rule with caution.
Develop your own guidelines on when to attend a meeting with no agenda.
More Resources to Help You Build Your Career and Your Business
Leading with principles and guidelines is always better than managing people through the enforcement of rigid rules.
This approach applies to every area of your business including your meetings.
Click here to get this easy-to-print set of Golden Guidelines for Exceptional Meetings and post it wherever you hold meetings in your company.
And Now a Word from Our Sponsors
Stay flexible and present the most important information in your Project Review meetings using the fully editable scorecards and dashboards in the Project Review Scorecard Toolkit. Click here so you’re never again locked into using a scorecard format that doesn’t work for you.
That’s All for this Issue
Thank you so much for reading! If you liked this issue’s content, let me know what was helpful for you.
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Let’s lead with kindness and confidence!
Greg
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