How to hold a strategic planning meeting: A simple, step-by-step guide for facilitators

business planning meeting template

If you’re running or facilitating a strategic planning meeting, there are many factors to consider.

It’s much more than just bringing everyone together to have an open discussion — and it doesn’t just happen on its own, either.

There are several steps you can take to ensure that your strategic planning meeting runs smoothly, but it all starts with preparation.

Today, we’ll explore a few ideas to help you hold a successful session, starting with the basics.

Try Miro’s Strategic Planning Template

  • What is strategic planning?

Strategic planning is the process of analyzing a current situation within your organization and making sure it’s aligned with your specific objectives. If it isn’t, you and your team must develop a plan to “correct the path.”

So, why is strategic planning important?

In short, strategic planning helps you get from where you are today to the future you want. It’s a way of breaking down big, daunting goals into manageable steps that address your current situation and guide your work.

Visual representation of the strategic planning process

Here’s where strategic planning meetings come into play.

Meetings are the cornerstone of the strategic planning process.

These meetings are typically held by facilitators , but anyone can lead a strategic planning meeting.

We’ll provide you with specific instructions to hold a successful meeting a bit later, but first, let’s answer a crucial question.

What is the purpose of a strategic plan meeting?

Broadly speaking, a facilitator will use meetings to either:

  • Gather specific information and feedback from team members, executives, and stakeholders.
  • Help team members work together to solve problems, think strategically, and create new ideas to improve the organization.

These meetings aim to provide clarity in decision-making.

This is not a typical meeting where participants spend time reporting out. Strategy planning is all about brainstorming and collaboration .

This way, you can develop solutions to tangible problems in your organization and set the tone and strategic direction for your team.

Who needs to be included?

The best way to ensure that you get all of the most relevant voices in the room is to create an invite list.

Include people from each relevant department, if possible.

This way, you can cover a more complete spectrum of your company’s operations and activities.

You’ll want to include upper management, but don’t stop there.

Bring in members of the sales department, investor relations, human resources, and any other relevant departments or stakeholders.

You might also consider inviting people from outside of the organization who can provide a fresh perspective.

This is particularly useful for organizations that are doing business in a new market or have started offering new products.

  • Best practices for running a successful strategic planning session

Now that you understand the importance of effective strategic planning meetings, the question becomes, how do you actually hold one?

Let’s cover a few of the best practices:

Strategic planning best practices

Build buy-in before the meeting starts

First, you’ll want to build buy-in with everyone involved.

Keep what you’re doing top-of-mind, whether that’s through casual conversations or company-wide memos.

In addition, make sure to have a clear agenda prepared, so everyone knows what they can expect out of the meeting. Start by defining the goal, then detail how you’ll get there.

Also, get all the materials you need together in advance.

That may look like coordinating with IT to make sure everyone has access to company software, sending out pertinent documents in advance, or mapping out who will be speaking at the meeting.

Make sure to communicate your expectations clearly so that everyone knows what is expected of them and why.

You’ll want to spend time in your planning stages to keep the tone positive, while at the same time being realistic about what’s possible.

Ultimately, your goal should be to align the team around a shared vision and mission so that you can move forward with a shared perspective.

Now, how can you communicate this agenda?

We suggest you use a centralized space where everyone can see your agenda.

For example, you can use Miro’s Agenda template to create and share your agenda with participants.

Miro's Agenda template screenshot

You can also use the template to keep notes during the meeting and add refinements later.

This way, everyone can see what’s been discussed and the next steps for moving forward.

Remember; this should be a collaborative effort, so consider asking for ideas from everyone about what they’d like to see covered.

Just don’t forget to actually take those ideas into consideration.

Develop a transparent strategic planning process

During the strategic process, you’re inviting employees to have meaningful discussions around the company’s vision statement, strategic goals, and strategic objectives.

It’s important to have a roadmap in place for how you will facilitate the process so that employees know what to expect.

Your meeting should be an open, engaging discussion with transparent dialog. During the meeting, everyone should get a turn to talk.

Make sure you have a clear process that allows everyone to participate and feel heard, no matter what their role is.

In the planning stage of a meeting, it’s important to have as much input as possible.

You can involve everyone by holding a virtual brainstorming session with this brainstorming template . Once you create a board, you can invite people to collaborate in real time.

Miro's brainwriting template screenshot

This template helps you create a more engaging and collaborative session while allowing every person on the team to contribute their thoughts.

Create an agenda and stick to it

We all know what happens when an agenda is not set or adhered to.

Creating an agenda for your meeting helps you and your participants stay on track. This agenda should include topics, questions, milestones, and people.

Milestones are the larger topics that will be broken down into smaller questions, and these questions should flow to the ultimate goal of narrowing down your strategic priorities.

You can create milestones by putting together a list of discussion questions that will help your participants get on topic and help you check in with the group.

Your agenda might include an opening discussion, a brainstorming session on ideas, and a closing review of the next steps.

When developing your agenda:

  • Keep it short: The last thing you want is your meeting to drag on for no good reason, so try to limit each agenda item to ten minutes or less. The whole meeting should only take an hour or two, at most.
  • Be selective: Don’t include too many topics or ideas that will bog down your meeting.
  • Create a contingency plan: You never know what might happen during your meeting, so always have a backup plan in case your agenda falls through.
  • Plan for breaks: For longer meetings or workshops, set aside at least half an hour to take a break, such as during lunchtime.

Make it interactive

As much as possible, you’ll want to make this a collaborative effort, so it’s important to get everyone involved.

For example, you might want to break the group down into smaller sub-teams to brainstorm opportunities for new product features.

You could also task each group with creating a list of opportunities for particular departments within your company.

The point is that you’ll want to encourage open and honest dialog about challenges your company is facing and, where possible, break down any barriers that might stand in the way of progress.

Make sure to collaboratively create strategy documents, provide regular updates on progress, and discuss strategic issues in real time.

Miro's collaboration features in action

This way, you can work side-by-side to improve your performance, no matter where in the world your team members happen to be.

  • How to run a strategic planning meeting in 7 steps

To get the most out of each session, you should prepare thoroughly — from the agenda to who you’ll involve and how.

Whether you’re holding a remote, hybrid, or in-person meeting, this process will help you out.

1. Define a clear outcome for the meeting

A strategic planning meeting can go totally off-the-rails if it’s held without a defined objective. That’s why the very first step is to define a clear, tangible goal for the meeting.

For example, your objective might be to better align social media with your marketing strategies .

In this case, your meeting might include a discussion on the purpose of social media, its role in the planning process, and how to better align your social media campaign with your organizational goals.

If your goal is to develop a new product , your meeting might look different.

Consider discussing who the target audience would be and how you can get in front of them. You could also discuss how the product should be positioned in the marketplace and what strategies you’ll use to get it there.

You can also set specific strategic planning meeting themes as part of your objectives, such as business growth or innovation.

The point is to be as specific as possible with your goal. That way, it’s easier for everyone to stay on task and make the right decisions.

2. Break the ice

A strategic planning meeting can be a big undertaking, so it’s important to break the ice by engaging participants in some friendly conversation.

You may want to ask participants what they think of the company’s latest direction or engage them in a fun icebreaker activity. You can also ask them what they think of the new business strategy and how they would implement it.

Or you could ask participants to complete an activity that allows them to interact with one another and develop a better understanding of each other’s unique skills.

For instance, you could assign participants to form teams, and then ask them to create a project plan to solve an issue the company might be experiencing.

You can also break the ice by having participants introduce themselves.

If you’re holding a remote or hybrid meeting, you could have participants discuss what they think in a private online chat room, or you could use an instant messaging program for the same purpose.

Make sure they feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and ideas with each other before starting the main agenda.

The bottom line? The more connected the group is prior to the meeting, the more effective the meeting will be.

3. Set clear expectations

Once you know what you want out of the meeting, the next step is to communicate any expectations of participants, such as things they should prepare in advance of the meeting.

Here are some useful guidelines to keep in mind when you’re setting expectations:

  • Provide details: The more detail you provide, the clearer it will be as to what’s required.
  • Assign roles: Make sure everyone knows their role and responsibilities within the meeting audience.
  • Use timelines: Use timelines to remind everyone of what needs to be completed before the meeting and send reminders if necessary.
  • Communicate effectively : Encourage participants to talk with their teams about the fact strategy planning is happening. They may want to set up smaller meetings to gather input for the strategy planning workshop or to share the outputs after the meeting to give employees a chance to ask questions.

4. Set ground rules for behavior

Before the meeting starts, make sure everyone knows the rules.

Values, culture, and norms

This is especially important when working with external stakeholders.

For example, you might say something like:

“The goal of this meeting is to develop the strategic plan for the next quarter. We want to minimize distractions, so please don’t check your phone during the meeting.”

Another good idea is to let participants know how they’ll be evaluated. For example, if you’re trying to make progress on a project, you might say something like:

“Let’s try and reach a consensus on the first three points. If we can do that, we’ll consider the meeting a success.”

If you’re dealing with a remote or hybrid team, you should take the time to define online behavior standards. For instance, you could say something like:

“If you have a question, please type it in the chat window. Using outside chat programs is not permitted during the meeting.”

This way, you’ll have everyone invested in the outcome.

5. Identify potential challenges

Before the meeting starts, it’s always good to identify potential areas of conflict that might derail the process.

For example, what would happen if someone had to leave halfway through? Will the meeting continue without them, or will you reconvene once they’re back?

You should also consider how to handle difficult participants. Can you remove a difficult participant from the meeting before they hijack all of your time?

What happens if a disagreement comes up and it’s not resolved?

You should prepare for all these things in advance and have a plan ready if they do happen. For example, consider using a countdown timer for specific agenda items or presentations, so that time is allocated fairly.

Interactive whiteboard with linked agenda and countdown timer shown

If you identify potential challenges early on, you can keep an eye out for them as the meeting proceeds.

6. Encourage full participation

Remember that you’re asking people to spend time — and sometimes travel — to participate in your meeting.

It’s essential that everyone feels like they have the opportunity to participate. The best way to do this is by mentioning at the beginning of the meeting that you’d like everyone’s input throughout.

Make sure to keep an eye out for people who aren’t speaking up. If it seems like they may have something to contribute, ask them for their thoughts on the topic.

Also, make sure everyone knows that participation is critical. If you need to take a vote on something, remind people what the vote is about and why it matters.

Finally, make sure you’re speaking in terms that everyone in the room can understand. If there are people who are new to the organization, spend a moment explaining any acronyms you use.

This will allow everyone to feel like they can give their input with ease, leading to a more successful meeting.

7. Use visuals and brainstorming tools to communicate ideas

Having everyone on the same page is critical, even if they can’t be in the same room.

Here’s where visuals and collaboration platforms come in handy.

Using collaborative tools, like our brainstorming templates helps you organize work and removes some of the stress of coming up with ideas on the spot.

It also encourages people to provide input and makes them feel like they have a stake in the outcome.

For instance, you can use Miro’s Reverse Brainstorming template to come up with innovative ideas and display them in real time. You can save the meeting content on the board too, so you can send it to participants after the meeting.

Miro's Reverse Brainstorming template screenshot

This can be especially useful if you have multiple participants in different locations involved at the same time. They may not be able to physically attend the meeting, but they can still provide valuable input.

Also, we provide you with a fully customizable strategic plan template .

Miro's strategic plan template screenshot

You can adapt this template to fit your exact business needs and standardize your meetings with ease.

  • Sample agenda for a strategic planning meeting

You need to make sure your strategic planning meeting agenda is detailed and thorough enough to keep you on task.

Start with an overview of what you’ll be discussing, then move into individual department updates. This is where you highlight progress against targets.

Finally, spend some time outlining your organizational goals moving forward and, of course, always leave time for questions.

To help you better understand what a strategy planning session might look like in the real world, here’s a sample agenda:

  • 10am–11am: Welcome and meeting goals
  • 11am–12pm: Leadership team updates
  • 12pm–1pm: Department updates
  • 1pm–2pm: Lunch break
  • 2pm–3pm: Analyze challenges and problems
  • 3pm–4pm: Ideate solutions
  • 4pm–5pm: Discuss and gain consensus on solutions and goals
  • 5pm–6pm: Assign tasks and responsibilities for strategy execution
  • 6pm–7pm: Q&A
  • It all comes down to solid preparation and visuals

The best way to ensure your meeting runs smoothly and effectively is to prepare it with anticipation. By creating a clear agenda, you’re able to get the most out of your session.

Also, the use of visuals and brainstorming tools helps you collaborate with your team and communicate your critical points more effectively.

You can hold your planning meetings in a more visual way by creating a board and sharing with your team.

Also, you can use the strategic planning meeting template to get started with fewer headaches.

Want an action-oriented framework to help your team continuously improve?

Try the strategic planning template, miro is your team's visual platform to connect, collaborate, and create — together..

Join millions of users that collaborate from all over the planet using Miro.

Keep reading

How to facilitate an okr planning workshop.

business planning meeting template

The hybrid collaboration field guide

business planning meeting template

How team leaders are reimagining workflows

business planning meeting template

Rebel's Guide to Project Management

Your Strategy Planning Meeting Agenda (with Template)

Have you been asked to pull together a strategy planning meeting agenda? And you’re wondering what other people do in their strategic planning sessions… I’ve been there!

In this article, I’ll explain what a strategic planning meeting can cover and share a sample agenda you can customize for your strategy sessions.

Strategy planning doesn’t just happen. You can’t put people in a room and expect there to be a 3-year plan at the end of it. The conversations need a structure to help keep the pace and ensure the meeting runs smoothly. And that’s where the agenda comes in, as part of your pre-meeting prep.

What should a strategic planning meeting include?

A strategic planning meeting should include:

  • A review of organizational objectives
  • An assessment of how you are doing against those objectives
  • Decisions around what needs to be sped up, slowed down, started or stopped in order to better align activity with the objectives.

If you think about the point of having a strategy discussion, it’s really to either define the strategy or to decide if you are on track with delivering the strategy . What you need to include in the meeting has to tie back to those points.

In other words, what do you want to get out of your strategic planning process? Is it a new strategic plan? An update to the last one because something drastic has changed? A review with some ‘light editing’ to ensure decisions are being taken that keep you on track to meet your goals?

What goes into your meeting (and therefore, your agenda) will very much depend on where you are in the strategy planning cycle.

When do strategic meetings happen?

There’s no fixed cadence for strategy conversations. Some businesses use quarterly meetings. Some might do a lot of planning during the existing structure of board meetings. As long as sufficient time is put aside for strategic thinking, you can set whatever frequency of meeting you like.

I would recommend quarterly review sessions, with a longer goal-setting session once a year, but do whatever works for you. If you are putting together your first strategy or doing a complete overhaul, you’ll need to spend a lot more time on it to get the strategic process set up and the relevant data collected.

cartoon of people standing next to an agenda

Planning a successful virtual strategy meeting

Strategy meetings tend to be quite long. You might put a full day or even two aside for your planning, perhaps another full day the following week for the follow up.

For that reason, it’s often better to do them in-person instead of remote, but do what works best for you and the team.

Personally I would prefer to meet in person as in my experience you get better engagement with the process.

If you have to hold the workshop remotely, with people dialling in, make sure you schedule enough screen breaks. I put a break in at least after every 90 minutes — people just can’t focus for that long.

You can also use breakout rooms to set people up to work in small groups (in person or remotely using your collaboration software) so they can interact more easily.

Sample strategy planning meeting agenda template

Every effective meeting needs an agenda, and the great thing about strategic sessions is that you can tailor the agenda to cover the topics that would be the most valuable to wherever you are in the planning cycle. The strategic planning agenda below assumes you are meeting in-person, and is suitable for a strategic review session.

9.30am: Welcome

Use this time for introductions. Do an ice breaker exercise if your attendees won’t think it is cheesy (mine would).

I start by sharing the meeting objectives and making it clear this is a strategic meeting so people don’t get carried away with the detail. Discuss ways of working e.g. who is capturing what actions, what you’ll do if there is a stalemate for a decision, what decision-making tools you are using.

You might want to introduce ground rules for the session such as

  • No taking calls in the room
  • Take space, make space
  • Share your experience

etc. I think my delegates would find this a little patronizing as they have all worked together for many years, but I can also see that there would be circumstances in which it is appropriate to refresh expectations.

If you think they would value having some guardrails for acceptable behavior during the conversations, then by all means add time for that into the agenda at this point.

10am: Big picture strategy

Present the overall roadmap, for example, a timeline for the 5 year plan. Make sure everyone is clear on where the organization is going and what big chunks make that up. For example, perhaps you have a couple of different portfolios that support the strategy.

You can use this time to talk about the current situation, the company’s strategy and how your department fits into that. This section should answer the question: where are we now?

Meetings template bundle contents

10.30am: Coffee break

Give people time for a bathroom break and to get something to drink. Bonus points if you provide the coffee!

10.45am: Progress review

Have each executive or leader in the room share their area’s progress against their area of the strategic plan. They can bring in team members to present specific topics if that would help, and if their expertise is needed as part of the debate.

These presentations don’t necessarily need to be formal, but they should cover what objectives the department is working to, how they link to the big picture strategy and whether they are on track. Talk about whether milestones are on track to be hit. Present the budget figures related to the area and the confidence levels around meeting those.

This section of the agenda might be long, depending on how many leaders you have to get round, so adjust the rest of the agenda to fit your timings. I’d suggest everyone gets 30 minutes but it depends on what you think they have to share and how much discussion there will be about each area. If possible, timebox the updates so you keep the meeting moving.

Alternative session: Where do we want to be?

If you haven’t got strategic progress to report, use this time to:

  • Brainstorm where you want to be
  • Agree where you are going
  • Create a vision for the next 3 years
  • Document the vision and mission.

12.45pm: Lunch break

Schedule in some time to eat and return calls. I think people get back to the meeting more quickly if you provide lunch in the room.

1.30pm: Key issues

It’s worth parking the discussion of any major issues that affect multiple areas until after everyone has had a chance to present their updates, because then it’s easier to see the bigger picture and what might be affected.

Use this time to review anything that dropped out of the morning’s conversations. There might be new opportunities, challenges, resource constraints, market changes and more.

This section of your day should answer the question: what might stop us from getting where we want to go? Think about the values, skills, culture and risks that might block your progress.

2.30pm: Revise plans

After you’ve discussed the challenges or opportunities that present themselves, go back to the plans and see how that information affects what you are committing to do for the next period.

Agree changes as required. This part of your agenda answers the question: what do we need to do? If you do need to do anything differently in order to get back on track or head off in the right direction, this is where you should be discussing and agreeing.

3.30pm: Action planning

I like action planning! Strategy meetings should be all about decision-making, so you should ring-fence some time to talk about how to turn those decisions into action items . List out what needs to be done and allocate owners and timescales to each.

One thing that should definitely be on the action list is how you are going to communicate the decisions made today to everyone else in the team. Add them to the decision log . Make sure someone is responsible for creating and circulating meeting minutes.

This is an important part of the strategy meeting and it answers the question: how will we do it?

4.30pm: Any Other Business

Use this time for the ‘one last thing’ that people want to bring up. If you’ve had a parking lot up on the wall, check that all the topics have follow up actions planned so the conversations can continue outside of the room.

5pm: Wrap up and close

Finally, wrap up the meeting, draw it to a close and if you are going to meet again, put the date in the diary. Then go down the pub!

Tailoring the strategy agenda

As you’ve probably realized, there is no one-size-fits-all strategy meeting agenda that will suit every need. If you are starting from scratch and are using the time to write your strategy, you’ll need to put time aside for brainstorming new ideas, a presentation of market research analysis or feedback from customer focus groups.

If you are reviewing the projects that make up the strategy, you might bring each project manager in to present their project, before discussing as a team what initiatives need to be brought into the portfolio to ensure the strategic goals can be met.

The important thing is to always go back to the why: why are you meeting and what do you want to get out of the time? You can’t go wrong if you start there.

5 Considerations for a strategy planning workshop

So you’re ready to draw up that meeting agenda. Here’s what to consider before you get going.

1. Set the objective

I like to write the objective for any meeting at the top of the agenda. It helps focus people’s minds and keeps the conversation on track. Think about what you are meeting for and what the leadership teams are expecting to get out of it. Here are some examples:

  • To define the 5-year growth plan for the organization
  • To establish the projects we want to focus on to meet our strategic goals for the next 12 months
  • To review the new products we intend to bring to market in the next 3 years
  • To set the IT agenda for the next 24 months

You can hold strategic planning workshops for departments, teams or for the business overall. You can plan for the long term or adopt a rolling wave planning approach to plan ongoing. So which is it for you?

2. Let people know what is going to happen

Set expectations for the meeting. Let people know what contributions are expected from them. What do they need to prep in advance? Ask them for their agenda items – you might not include them as ‘real’ agenda items but it would help to know what talking points they intend to bring up.

Share any papers, timelines, business cases, strategy documents etc that make useful background reading. The more ready people are to contribute, the more you will get done during the meeting.

3. Prepare for conflict

As the meeting facilitator, you’ll have a good idea of the topics that will come up. And the potential flashpoints. For example, there are always conversations about budget. Doing anything strategic seems to cost a lot, and investing in one area means another area doesn’t get the investment.

Try to spot any sources of potential disputes in advance so you have pre-meeting conversations to manage expectations and ensure everyone comes to the session with an open mind (and the data to support their case). Healthy debates are to be encouraged!

Think about how to resolve conflict as a team if you can’t get to consensus. There are several group decision-making techniques you could try. In my experience, it’s often the most senior person in the room who makes the final call – strategy is not always a team game. It might not feel fair, but there are often political, economic, commercial and environmental reasons for decisions that might not always be clear to everyone in the room.

Whatever you think the outcome might be, have a few phrases to help facilitate the debate if it seems attendees are getting stuck. For example:

“Ultimately, it’s Fiona’s decision. Fiona, what do you want us to do?” “Let’s continue this conversation for another 10 minutes and if we aren’t able to reach a decision at that point, I suggest that Henry and Priya book some time to review and come back to us with a recommendation next week.” “IT are the guardians of that process. Do you agree to that approach?”

4. Prepare to go off script

I’ve been in strat planning meetings where we started with an agenda and then went totally off script… and the output was all the better for it. It’s great to have an agenda, and the template above gives you a starting point, but if it feels like the right thing to do is to delve into a particular area, then do it.

Strategy is too important to shortcut. If it feels like the meeting is taking longer, just say: “This feels like an important topic. Is everyone OK with staying with it for a little longer?” or “That isn’t something we were going to cover today but it sounds like it’s important that we get into it. Does everyone agree?”

Talk about what needs to be talked about. Strategy work takes time. The agenda is there as a guide but sometimes you just need to get it all out on the table.

5. Define success

What would a successful meeting look like? Sometimes it’s going to be OK to just talk and debate until you get to the heart of your strategy. Other times you might want to go all in on a brainstorming session and success will look like 20 new ideas.

It might be that you want to gain agreement on three new projects or prepare an update to go to the next board meeting. Think about what would constitute a successful outcome and try to guide people towards that.

Your next steps

  • Agree the goals of your strategy meeting
  • Write the agenda
  • Socialize some of the ideas
  • Adequately prepare for the session so you feel ready to facilitate it

In this article you learned what to include in your strategy planning meeting agenda and what considerations go into planning a successful strategy workshop. Don’t forget to grab a free action log template to record all the good stuff that comes out of your meeting. I hope it goes really well for you!

Pin for later reading

strategy planning meeting agenda

Project manager, author, mentor

Elizabeth Harrin is a Fellow of the Association for Project Management in the UK. She holds degrees from the University of York and Roehampton University, and several project management certifications including APM PMQ. She first took her PRINCE2 Practitioner exam in 2004 and has worked extensively in project delivery for over 20 years. Elizabeth is also the founder of the Project Management Rebels community, a mentoring group for professionals. She's written several books for project managers including Managing Multiple Projects .

Filter by Keywords

Project Management

16 meeting agenda examples & free templates.

Evan Gerdisch

Content Strategist

February 15, 2024

We’ve all been a part of team meetings where most participants are clueless about the purpose of the meeting, and the speakers steer the discussion off-track. 

What follows is a true catastrophe. 

You’d find your team clocking in many unproductive hours because of the ‘said meeting’ without achieving any objective.

Good news! 

A meeting agenda can help you avoid this and be the answer to all your woes. ✌

An effective meeting agenda is a plan you share with your meeting participants. It’ll help your team set clear expectations of what needs to happen before, during, and after the meeting. 

In this article, we’ll discuss what a meeting agenda is and learn the five key steps involved in writing one. We’ll also look at 16 meeting agenda template options and explore the reasons why your entire team needs a meeting agenda. 

Benefits of an Effective Meeting Agenda

How to write a meeting agenda 5 key steps, how to use ai for meeting agendas, team meeting agenda examples, 1. weekly 1-on-1 meeting agenda template by clickup, 2. all hands team meeting agenda template by clickup, 3. scrum meeting agenda template by clickup, 4. meeting notes agenda template by clickup, 5. project post mortem template by clickup, 6. meeting minutes template by clickup, 7. sprint retrospective brainstorm meeting template by clickup, 8. team meeting agenda template by meeting booster, 9. board meeting agenda template by template lab, 10. project kickoff meeting agenda template by docket, 11. meeting dashboard template by clickup, 12. brainstorm meeting agenda template by owl labs, 13. board of directors meeting minutes template by clickup, 14. hr meeting agenda template by where, 15. marketing meeting agenda template by hugo, 16. project management meeting agenda template by hypercontext, who benefits from using a meeting agenda, cross-off stress from your work life with team meeting agendas.

If you’re more of a visual learner check out this vlog on meeting agendas!

Let’s get started.

Sitting through a meeting that doesn’t have an agenda is pretty similar to setting out on a treasure hunt without a map. 

A meeting agenda allows your team to set the meeting’s cadence , prepare for the meeting topic, ensure that everyone is on the same page, and keep them on track to hit their objectives. 

Meeting agendas:

  • Give the meeting a clear purpose
  • Help you stay on track
  • Help define responsibilities

It consists of a list of topics, action items , and activities you want to discuss during the meeting. 

A simple meeting agenda could be a short bulleted list. More detailed agendas include descriptions for each agenda item, reference material, and expected outcomes for each discussion topic. 

Formal agendas also include timing and presenter information for each agenda item.

An example of a formal agenda can be a city council agenda used in a state’s city council meeting. These agendas can have an open forum section that makes time for public comment. 

But formal meeting agendas aren’t restricted to the government. 

You can use them in your company’s meetings too. You just have to choose the agenda that suits your team the best . 

Now that you know what a meeting agenda is, let’s look at how you can write one. ✍

document everything ClickUp CTA

Here are the five easy steps you can follow to create the right meeting agenda for your team:

1. Establish the meeting type

Not informing your team about the type of meeting they’d be attending can cause a lot of confusion. 

Imagine a team member attending a regular meeting only to find out that it’s their performance review . 

The horror! 😱

To avoid catching people off-guard, make sure you all know what the meeting is about.

Meetings can be of several different types, including:

  • Team meeting: also referred to as a staff meeting, these are opportunities for your team to discuss various business aspects
  • Board meeting: a formal meeting among your organization’s board of directors. They’re generally held at regular intervals to review team performances and policy issues
  • Executive session: held by board members regularly before their routine board meetings
  • Recurring meeting: daily, weekly, or monthly meetings that repeat regularly
  • Project kickoff meeting : conducted at the beginning of every new project to inform the team about project objectives, deliverables, and timelines
  • Brainstorming meeting: used to flesh out a new idea with your teams in a conducive brainstorming session
  • Feedback meeting: hosted to gather constructive feedback from your team regarding new projects and processes
  • Agile meeting : a special meeting used to hold hyper-focused discussions for agile teams to conduct sprint reviews, share valuable project information, customer feedback, project updates, etc.
  • Scrum meeting: uses a scrum meeting agenda that may include sprint planning, daily standups, product backlog refinement, sprint reviews, etc.
  • Retrospective meeting: held after project completion to discuss what went well and what didn’t
  • Onboarding meeting : help new hires understand professional expectations in their work environment
  • Committee meetings: help a subgroup of team members from your company form a committee to achieve any special function. 

2. State the objective of the meeting

What are the top reasons you’re having a meeting with your team? 

Do you want to update them about a project? Do you want their insights on something? 

Clearly stating the meeting objective gives your team a heads-up on what’s coming their way. At the very least, they’ll know whether to bring a project report or a beer to the meeting.

3. Identify specific meeting topics

Once you have a clear meeting goal, make a list of discussion topics you want your team to cover.

We’re going to let you in on our secret to make your meetings more engaging.

Make sure to pick discussion topics that affect everyone in the meeting. 

This way, you’ll have all your team members willing to participate in the discourse. 

Related: Our remote guide to Virtual Meeting Etiquette !

4. Allocate time to discuss each topic

Meetings are expensive and can be difficult to organize. They’re only productive when they can utilize time effectively. 

That’s why it’s important to allocate a certain amount of time to discuss each meeting topic. And you won’t end up straying and spending all your available time on a single topic. 

Using a consent agenda is another time-saving trick for your meetings. A consent agenda groups recurring discussion topics into a single agenda item that you can easily cross-off. 

These measures will make sure your meetings don’t become a time-suck and a calendar clogger. 👀

5. Include a list of necessary documents

Let’s say you hold a meeting with your project stakeholders . 

One way to make the meeting more productive is to share all project documents through your team meeting agendas ahead of the meeting. 

Think of this as one of the pre-reading activities your teacher would ask you to do back in school. 🤓 This practice sets the right context for every participant in the meeting and empowers them to contribute to the discourse. 

Now that you know what to do, let’s look at some meeting agenda examples to help you see what these steps look like in action. 

Bonus: Conference agenda templates !

Artificial Intelligence (AI) can significantly streamline meeting management, turning every gathering into an efficient and productive experience. By integrating AI with project management tools like ClickUp Brain , teams can leverage automation to handle routine tasks and enhance meeting productivity. Here’s how AI can assist:

  • AI-powered Meeting Agendas : ClickUp’s AI capabilities can draft personalized meeting agendas based on the participants’ roles, previous meeting notes, and ongoing project demands. By analyzing prior meeting notes and objectives, AI can help ensure that each meeting covers all critical points without missing a beat.
  • Smart Summarization : Post-meeting, AI can condense hours of discussion notes into succinct, actionable summaries. This feature enables participants to swiftly get the gist of the meeting and review any points they may have missed, ensuring everyone is aligned and informed.
  • Instant Action Items Creation : ClickUp AI can identify potential tasks from your notes and automatically create action items in ClickUp. This seamless transition from discussion to execution means that follow-ups are clear, time-bound, and less likely to be overlooked or forgotten.

Embedding AI in your meeting processes not only saves time but also enhances the quality of your meetings. It helps to maintain focus, track progress against objectives, and foster a culture of accountability by automating routine yet crucial aspects of meeting management.

Here’s a couple simple meeting agenda example for your reference:

Design Team Meeting

Date: 02/07/24

Time: 09:00 am – 09:45 am

Meeting Participants: @SpongeBob, @Patrick, @Mr.Krabs, @Squidward

Meeting’s Purpose:

  • Develop a new website page for product testimonials

a. Before the meeting:

  • Every attendee must review the document on product testimonials

b. Discussion topics:

  • Review product testimonials document (10 min)
  • Discuss the content you want to include on the web page (10 min, @Name)
  • Present sample designs for the web page (15 min, @Name)
  • Share suggestions and vote on the website design (10 min)

c. Action items:

  • Create a timeline for design deliverables – @SpongeBob
  • Share first cut of the web page design – @Patrick
  • Schedule and make an itinerary for a second meeting to finalize design – @Mr.Krabs

Sales Team Weekly Review Meeting

Date: 04/14/24

Time: 02:00 pm – 02:45 pm

Meeting Participants: @Alice, @Bob, @Charlie, @Dana

  • Evaluate weekly sales performance and discuss strategies for improvement
  • Each participant should update the CRM with the latest sales data
  • Review weekly sales figures and trends (15 min)
  • Discuss obstacles in the sales pipeline and solutions (10 min, @Alice)
  • Brainstorm strategies for upcoming sales campaign (10 min, @Bob)
  • Set goals for the next week (10 min)
  • Compile a report of weekly sales metrics – @Charlie
  • Draft a preliminary plan for the sales campaign – @Dana
  • Organize a training session on new sales software – @Alice

HR Monthly Planning Meeting

Date: 04/21/24

Time: 11:00 am – 12:00 pm

Meeting Participants: @Emma, @Liam, @Noah, @Olivia

  • Plan HR activities for the next month and update on current employee initiatives
  • Review employee feedback from the previous month
  • Analyze employee satisfaction survey results (20 min)
  • Update on the status of current recruiting efforts (15 min, @Emma)
  • Plan employee engagement activities for the next month (15 min, @Noah)
  • Discuss updates to HR policies (10 min)
  • Implement changes based on employee feedback – @Liam
  • Finalize recruitment schedule and process – @Olivia
  • Prepare the schedule for upcoming engagement activities – @Emma

These samples should give you an idea of how you want to design your meeting agenda. To help you further, let’s look at some meeting agenda templates from the most popular online meeting tools .

16 Team Meeting Agenda Templates

Here are 16 meeting agenda templates that you can use to create your next agenda:

Keep all of your agendas, action items, and feedback all in one organized place with this Weekly One-on-One Template by ClickUp

One-on-one meetings are your chance to connect and align with the people you manage in the most effective way possible. ClickUp’s 1:1 meeting template keeps all of your agendas—tailored for each individual—in one organized place.

ClickUp all hands meeting template

ClickUp’s all-hands meeting template helps to keep communication open across the company, and ensures everyone is aligned and up to speed with individual and group goals. All hands meetings give room to share information from updates to announcements about future agendas and encourage collaboration and alignment throughout the team.

Scrum meeting agenda by ClickUp

This scrum meeting agenda template by ClickUp will make daily meetings a breeze. Daily status meetings about tasks for projects help to ensure that a team is aware of the progress on their front.

Meeting notes template ClickUp

ClickUp’s meeting note-style agenda template is the perfect place to keep all event meeting notes, key takeaways and action items.

project post-mortem template by ClickUp

Projects don’t always go to plan. Use this project post-mortem template by ClickUp to set new goals and keep your team heading in the right direction.

business planning meeting template

This collaborative template is a ClickUp Doc designed to provide the perfect outline for a successful meeting summation.

ClickUp’s Meeting Minutes Template  includes pre-built pages for organizing teams, individual meeting notes, and instructions for getting the most out of your meeting with this template!

Turn your meeting notes into a newsletter with newsletter templates !

ClickUp sprint retrospective meeting template

Save time and gain valuable insights with this simple Sprint Retrospective Template . Whether you are running an agile team meeting or a project management meeting, this template will help you build a crystal-clear picture of what went well, what didn’t go so well, and what to change moving forward.

team meeting agenda template

The main objective of team meetings is to share important information with team members, align on goals, and call out any blockers. This team meeting agenda template helps the team stay focused on the goals of the meeting.

board meeting agenda template

Board meetings tend to run over time. Use a schedule template for your next board meeting using this board meeting agenda to stay on track and finish your meeting on time.

project kick off template

It’s important to set the tone for a new project from the start. Use this project kickoff meeting agenda template to facilitate a successful project launch!

Meeting agenda dashboard

Use this ClickUp meeting dashboard template as an agenda for your next meeting. This template makes it easy to see the status of different tasks during a meeting.

Brainstorm meeting agenda template

This creative brainstorming meeting agenda is a great way to keep your brainstorming meetings on track from week to week. This template makes it easy to run your meeting and stay focused on brainstorming.

business planning meeting template

Create structure with this ClickUp Board of Directors Meeting Minutes Template . Record and tag your attendees, organize agenda action items, and take detailed notes for each agenda.

HR meeting agenda template

HR departments have a lot to keep track of. This HR meeting agenda template will give your HR team a way to come together for a productive meeting that isn’t complicated or stressful.

Marketing meeting agenda

Use this marketing meeting agenda to bring your marketing department together to celebrate wins, align on goals, and identify project blockers.

project management meeting agenda template

This project management meeting agenda template will help you identify objectives, risks, and deadlines for your next team project.

When it comes to planning a meeting, creating a thorough and well-organized agenda is crucial for ensuring that the meeting runs smoothly and achieves its objectives. Here are some of the key beneficiaries of using a meeting agenda:

  • Project Managers: Project managers often have to lead team meetings and having a well-planned agenda helps them to stay on track, cover all necessary topics, and keep the meeting focused.
  • Project Status Meeting Agenda
  • Project Coordinators Meeting Agenda
  • Lessons Learned Meeting Agenda
  • Post Mortem Meeting Agenda
  • Leadership Teams: Meeting agendas are also beneficial for leadership teams, such as executive boards or management teams. They can help to ensure that important topics are discussed, decisions are made efficiently, and everyone is on the same page with regards to company goals and strategies.
  • Leadership Offsite Meeting Agenda
  • Executive Leadership Meeting Agenda
  • Board of Trustees Meeting Agenda
  • Executives Meeting Agenda

An effective meeting agenda will make team collaboration seem like a cakewalk. 

And when collaboration becomes easy, your team can focus on amping up their productivity and getting their creative juices flowing. 

With the help of a project management tool like ClickUp, writing effective meeting agendas and managing meetings are easier than ever!

ClickUp lets you document every meeting, manage agendas, take down effective meeting minutes , assign comments to your team, and so much more.  

Ready to watch your team ace teamwork and hit all their objectives? 

Get ClickUp for free today and say goodbye to meeting disasters. 👋

Questions? Comments? Visit our Help Center for support.

Receive the latest WriteClick Newsletter updates.

Thanks for subscribing to our blog!

Please enter a valid email

  • Free training & 24-hour support
  • Serious about security & privacy
  • 99.99% uptime the last 12 months
  • Project management |
  • Meeting agenda examples: How to plan, w ...

Meeting agenda examples: How to plan, write, and implement

Team Asana contributor image

Your agenda tells your team what to expect during a meeting and how they can prepare for it. Ideally, you’ll use your agenda to connect your team with the meeting’s purpose, assign tasks or items to team members, and designate a realistic amount of time to each agenda item. A great meeting agenda maximizes the meeting’s effectiveness and keeps your team on track.

An effective agenda communicates the purpose of your meeting, gives your team the chance to prepare their agenda items, and keeps everyone on track.

Whether you’re preparing for your next board meeting, staff meeting, or business meeting, we’ll help you write an agenda that will maximize your meeting’s potential.

What is a meeting agenda?

A meeting agenda serves as a structured roadmap for your meeting, detailing the topics and activities planned. Its primary role is to provide meeting participants with a clear framework, outlining the sequence of events, the leader for each agenda item, and the time allocated for each task. By having this agenda as a guide both before and throughout the meeting, it helps to facilitate an efficient and productive flow of discussion.

How to write a meeting agenda

Crafting a meeting agenda is a key step in ensuring a focused and productive meeting. Here's how to do it effectively.

1. Clarify meeting objectives

The first step in writing a meeting agenda is to clearly define any goals. In clarifying the goal, be as specific as possible. This specificity helps guide the discussion and ensure that the meeting remains focused. It also helps stakeholders prepare for the meeting.

For example, if the goal is to finalize the budget for the next quarter or discuss new business, participants would come prepared with relevant data and insights.

A well-defined goal also helps set the meeting's tone and align everyone's expectations. This clarity leads to a more structured discussion and a more productive meeting overall.

[inline illustration] how to state the purpose of a meeting in an agenda (infographic)

2. Invite participant input

Inviting input from participants before finalizing the agenda is a critical step in creating a comprehensive and inclusive meeting plan. This involves reaching out to potential attendees and asking if there's anything specific they would like to discuss or add to the meeting agenda.

For example, if you're planning a meeting for a project team, you could send an email asking each member to suggest topics they feel are important to address. This could reveal issues or ideas you hadn't considered, ensuring a more well-rounded agenda.

Incorporating participant input not only makes the agenda more comprehensive but also increases engagement. When team members see their suggestions included, they feel valued and are more likely to participate actively in the meeting. It also ensures that the meeting addresses the concerns of all attendees.

Gathering input can be done through various channels, like email, shared docs, or team collaboration tools. The key is to make it easy for meeting participants to contribute and to ensure their suggestions are considered and, where appropriate, included in the final agenda.

3. Outline key questions for discussion

Making a list of important things to talk about is important for keeping the meeting on track and focused. Start by identifying the main meeting topics that need to be addressed and framing them as questions.

For instance, if the meeting is to discuss the progress of an ongoing project, key questions might include:

What are the current roadblocks in the project?

How are we tracking against the project timeline

What resources are needed to maintain the pace of work?

These questions serve as talking points and a guide for the discussion, ensuring that all relevant topics are covered. They also help in structuring the conversation, making it easier for participants to prepare and engage effectively.

4. Define each task’s purpose

Each task or topic on the agenda should have a clearly defined purpose. This transparency helps participants understand the importance of each discussion point and how it relates to the overall goal of the meeting.

For example, if one of the agenda items is to review recent client feedback and performance metrics, the purpose might be to identify areas for improvement in customer service. By stating this purpose, participants can focus their thoughts on this specific objective, leading to a more targeted and fruitful discussion.

Defining the purpose of each task also helps prevent the meeting from going off track. When participants understand why a topic is being discussed, they are less likely to veer off-topic, making the meeting more efficient.

5. Allocate time for agenda items

Effective meeting management requires allotting time for each item on the agenda. This includes determining the amount of time needed for each meeting topic or task and scheduling the meeting appropriately.

For instance, if you have five items on your agenda, you might allocate 10 minutes for a brief update, 20 minutes for brainstorming, and 15 minutes for discussing action items. This time allocation should be based on the complexity and importance of each topic.

Effective time management requires being realistic with your time estimates and factoring in extra time for unforeseen conversations or inquiries. This approach helps in keeping the meeting within the scheduled time frame, respecting everyone's time, and maintaining focus.

6. Assign topic facilitators

Assigning facilitators for each topic on the agenda can greatly enhance the effectiveness of the meeting. A facilitator’s role is to guide the discussion, make certain that the conversation stays on track, and that all voices are heard.

For example, if one of the agenda items is to discuss sales strategies, you might assign this topic to a senior salesperson. Their expertise and familiarity with the subject can help steer the conversation productively.

Facilitators should be chosen based on their knowledge of the topic and their ability to manage group discussions. They should also be briefed on their role and the expectations for the discussion.

7. Write the meeting agenda

Finally, compile all the elements into a structured and comprehensive agenda. The agenda should include the meeting’s goal, a list of topics to be discussed with their purposes, time allocations, and assigned facilitators. This structure provides a clear roadmap for the meeting, ensuring that all important points are covered.

Share the agenda with all participants well in advance of the meeting. This allows them to prepare and ensures that everyone is on the same page. A well-written agenda is a key tool in running an effective and productive meeting.

Tips to create an effective meeting agenda

Let’s start with some of our favorite tips on creating great meeting agendas so you can make the most of yours:

Create and share your meeting agenda as early as possible. At the very latest, you should share your meeting agenda an hour before the meeting time. This allows everyone to prepare for what’s going to happen. Your team can also relay questions or additional agenda items to you for a potential adjustment before the meeting. Besides, when your team members have a chance to properly prepare themselves, they’ll have a much easier time focusing during the meeting.

Link to any relevant pre-reading materials in advance. This can be the presentation deck, additional context, or a previous decision. Everyone arriving at the meeting will be on the same page and ready to move the discussion forward rather than asking a ton of questions that take up relevant time.

Assign facilitators for each agenda item. Remember that feeling of being called on in school when you didn’t know the answer? It’s a pretty terrible feeling that we’re sure you don’t want to evoke in your teammates. By assigning a facilitator for each agenda item before the meeting, you allow them to prepare for a quick rundown of the topic, questions, and feedback.

Define and prioritize your agenda items. Differentiate between the three categories of agenda items: informational, discussion topics, and action items. Clarifying the purpose of each agenda item helps your team member understand what’s most important and what to focus on. You’ll also want to prioritize which items are most important and absolutely have to be discussed during the meeting and which ones can be addressed asynchronously, should the clock run out.

Use your meeting agenda during the meeting to track notes and action items. That way, all of the meeting information is in one place. If anyone has questions about decisions or action items from the meeting, they have an easy place to find it. Bonus: Do this in Asana so you can assign out action items and next steps to ensure nothing falls through the cracks. Asana also integrates with Zoom and pulls in your Zoom recording or meeting transcript directly into the meeting agenda task.

[inline illustration] 3 types of agenda items (infographic)

Create flow by categorizing your agenda items. To maximize productivity, you’ll want to create a meeting agenda that flows well. Batch similar items together and ensure they can build off of one another. For example, list any informational items before the discussion items so your team has all of the information going into the discussion.

Allocate enough time for each item on your agenda. Nobody will complain about a meeting that runs short—keeping everyone longer than anticipated isn’t as much fun. Plan sufficient time for each agenda item by calculating an estimated time and adding a couple of minutes as a buffer. This will help with keeping your team on track and moving on from a topic when the time runs out.

By sticking to these best practices, you can ensure that your meeting agenda is a reliable tool and does the job—before, during, and after your meeting.

Why are meeting agendas important?

Whether you work from home and take virtual calls or sit in the office and meet in person, meetings can be incredibly draining. Beginning with some small talk may be nice to get to know each other better or catch up on what everyone did this past weekend but it certainly isn’t goal-oriented or productive. A meeting agenda can help your team maximize the potential of each meeting you hold.

Our research shows that unnecessary meetings accounted for 157 hours of “work” in 2020, compared to 103 in 2019. Considering a 40-hour work week, that’s almost four weeks of wasted time. This is where your meeting agenda comes in. If you’re doing it right, writing your meeting agenda is the first and best indicator of whether or not your meeting is actually necessary. If you find that everything on your meeting agenda can be discussed asynchronously , you can cancel the meeting and share your message in a time-saving email.

That isn’t to say all meetings should be replaced by emails. If you’re sure that the meeting is justified and necessary in order to drive your team’s progress, have that meeting. However, always make sure that you create an agenda before getting together so your team members know what you’ll be discussing and why the meeting matters.

Here are a few more great reasons to have meeting agendas:

Your agenda allows everyone to prepare for the meeting. Ideally, every item on your agenda will have a dedicated topic facilitator. When everyone going into the meeting knows what their responsibilities are in advance, they have time to prepare and will be more efficient during the meeting.

It shows you’re considerate of your team’s time. When your team receives a well-thought-out meeting agenda, they’ll immediately see that the meeting is actually necessary. Besides, it’s also a roadmap that will keep you on track during the meeting and ensure no time is wasted.

[inline illustration] be considerate of your team's time in a meeting (infographic)

An agenda sets clear expectations of what will and won’t be discussed. Think of a meeting agenda as a way of setting boundaries and ensuring that only topics on the agenda will be talked about. If anything comes up during the meeting that needs to be discussed, write it down in your minutes and return to it later. Either at the end of your meeting—if you got through it faster than expected—asynchronously, or in the next meeting.

It keeps your team on track. Your meeting agenda will prevent your team from drifting off—whether that’s discussing non-agenda topics (like the barbecue at Kat’s place last night) or taking too much time for an item that had specific time allocated.

Your agenda will provide purpose, structure, and opportunities to collaborate. With a clear plan for everyone to follow, your team will go into the meeting knowing the purpose and goal of the meeting. Your meeting agenda also allows your team to direct their attention toward opportunities to collaborate, whether that’s during a brainstorming session , a town hall, or your daily standup.

Track next steps and action items so nothing falls through the cracks. Keep your agenda open during the meeting to capture any next steps or action items . By adding them directly into the agenda, these items won’t be forgotten when the meeting ends.

Meetings are great opportunities for your team to bond but the time spent on small talk can be worked into the first few minutes of the agenda rather than surfacing every now and then during the meeting, disrupting the flow and productivity or your team’s discussion.

Meeting agenda examples

We’ve discussed what makes a good meeting agenda and what you should avoid doing but, as always, it’s easiest to learn from a real life example. Let’s take a look at a project kickoff meeting agenda created in Asana:

[Product UI] Meeting agenda, project kickoff in Asana (Tasks)

As you can see, each item has a timebox and a teammate assigned to ensure everyone knows when it’s their turn and how long they have to lead their discussion or give their presentation. The agenda also has relevant files attached and is shared with all team members for visibility and better collaboration.

Meetings are a staple in the professional world, each with its own unique focus and dynamics. Understanding how to tailor your meeting agenda to the type of meeting you're conducting is key to ensuring effective communication and teamwork. Here are some common types of meetings and examples of how to structure their agendas.

Team meeting agenda

Team meetings serve as a platform for team building, decision making, and brainstorming. They can vary in frequency and duration but are essential for ensuring alignment and forward momentum. Effective team meeting agendas should include recurring items for regular meetings and space for new, ad-hoc topics. It’s also vital to track next steps and responsibilities assigned during the meeting. An example of a 45-minute team meeting agenda might cover metrics, a round-table plan, identification of blockers, and recognition of team members' contributions​​.

Daily Scrum meeting agenda

Daily scrum meetings, or stand-ups , are brief, focused gatherings aimed at keeping the team aligned during a sprint. These meetings typically cover blockers, a recap of the previous day’s work, goals for the current day, and progress towards sprint goals. The agility of these meetings helps in maintaining momentum and addressing issues promptly.

Project kickoff meeting agenda

Project kickoff meetings bring together cross-functional teams to start a new project. These meetings set the tone for the project and align everyone on objectives and expectations. The agenda should cover the project brief, roles and responsibilities, meeting cadence, actionable next steps, and a Q&A session to clarify doubts and ensure everyone is on the same page​​.

Retrospective meeting agenda

A retrospective meeting is a type of recurring meeting focused on reflecting on a past period of work, usually at the end of a project cycle or sprint. Its main purpose is to share information among team members about what worked well and what didn't. During the meeting, the entire team discusses various meeting topics, including successes, challenges, and blockers that impacted their work. This process helps in identifying areas for improvement and developing strategies to address any issues. Retrospective meetings are vital for continuous team development and ensuring better outcomes in future work cycles.

One-on-one meeting agenda

One-on-one meetings , whether they are between a manager and a direct report, peer-to-peer, or skip-level, are crucial for discussing work projects, roadblocks, and career development. They are foundational for building trust.

A good agenda for these meetings should balance topics like motivation, communication, growth, and work-related discussions. Avoid status updates; those are better suited for stand-up meetings. Sample questions for a weekly one-on-one might include assessing highlights and lowlights of the week, discussing any blockers, and inquiring about work-life balance​​.

Remote one-on-one meeting agenda

Remote one-on-one meetings require a slightly different approach, with a focus on rapport-building and clear communication. Since physical presence is lacking, these meetings benefit from a shared online agenda accessible to all participants. Key points could include checking in on general well-being, discussing current work assignments, and addressing any immediate concerns or assistance needed​​.

Skip-level meeting agenda

Skip-level meetings, involving senior managers and employees not in their direct report chain, offer a chance to connect across organizational levels. These meetings are ideal for discussing broader career development and providing feedback to senior leadership. Agenda items might cover clarity on company strategies and goals, personal professional objectives, and suggestions for organizational improvements​​.

Leadership team meeting agenda

Leadership team meetings are vital for strategic decision-making and issue resolution at the highest levels of an organization. An effective agenda for such meetings might include personal updates, reviewing key metrics, sharing wins and insights, discussing important messages, addressing pressing issues, and allocating time for an open discussion or "hot seat" session where specific topics are addressed in-depth​​.

Each type of meeting, be it an all-hands gathering, one-on-one discussion, performance review, or team brainstorming session, requires a thoughtfully crafted agenda to avoid unproductive meetings and keep discussions on track.

By using these meeting agenda examples, you can ensure that each meeting, regardless of its format, contributes meaningfully to the organization's goals and enhances teamwork and collaboration.

Running an effective meeting

It’s one thing to have an amazingly organized and detailed agenda that your team can reference before the meeting—using it as a tool during the meeting is a whole other ballpark. These tips will help you make your meeting agenda as useful during the meeting as it is as a preparation tool

Stick to your agenda. The best agenda becomes useless if you don’t stick to it during the meeting. Try not to bounce back and forth between agenda items but rather stick to the priorities you established earlier.

Stick to your timeboxes. It absolutely helps release some tension and lighten the mood if you have a bit of small talk or a quick check-in at the beginning of your meeting. That’s why you should allocate three to five minutes to this—and stick to the timeframe. Pictures of Kabir’s son’s adorable Halloween costume can be shared elsewhere so you have enough time to reach your meeting’s goals now.

Designate a note taker. At the beginning of the meeting, designate a note taker who will write down any questions, feedback, tasks, and ideas that come up during the meeting. You can rotate this position so everyone on your team gets to contribute at some point. Ideally, these notes are taken in the same place as the meeting agenda—this will make it a lot easier for team members to follow the notes and link them to agenda items. Notes can also be directly entered into Asana for real-time updating and tracking

Follow up after the meeting. Typically, the note taker will be responsible for following up with the meeting notes afterward. The notes should include any decisions that were made during the meeting, tasks that need to be completed, and questions that remained unanswered. If possible, assign teammates and add due dates to action items to keep accountability high. To ensure that these action items are tracked and completed, they should be promptly added to our Asana project management tool.

Make the most out of every meeting

With Asana, you can keep your meeting agenda, meeting minutes, and meeting action items in one place. Effortlessly share the agenda with your team and assign agenda items in real time so nothing falls through the cracks.

Streamlining your meetings with one central tool will reduce the amount of work about work your team faces, connect everyone to the purpose of the meeting, and allow for productive meetings everyone enjoys.

Free Meeting Agenda Templates

By Kate Eby | March 15, 2016

  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on LinkedIn

Link copied

In this article, we’ve sorted through all meeting agenda templates in Microsoft Word to provide you with the best, most comprehensive listing, so you can effectively plan the outline and order of topics for your next meeting. 

Included on this page, you’ll find a variety of downloadable templates, including a classic meeting agenda template , business meeting agenda template , conference agenda template , and more.

How would you like to create your agenda?

Classic meeting agenda template.

Classic Meeting Agenda Template

Download Classic Meeting Agenda Template

Word | Smartsheet

This classic meeting agenda template offers a simple outline with room for any amount of detail you might want to include. The classic format is easy to read and can be customized to fit your needs.

We’ve also provided templates in Smartsheet, a work execution platform that increases meeting productivity with automated alerts and update requests, and is more collaborative than Word.

Business Meeting Agenda Template

Business Meeting Agenda Template

Download Business Meeting Agenda Template

This business meeting agenda template boldly lists all the essentials: attendees, objectives, agenda schedule, and roles and responsibilities. Creating a concise agenda is the first step toward having a productive business meeting. Stating clear goals for the meeting, prioritizing agenda topics, and limiting the agenda to one page will help attendees stay focused and engaged.

Conference Agenda Template

Conference Meeting Agenda Template

Download Conference Meeting Agenda Template

Make conference planning easier with this free conference agenda template. Fields for date and time, event names and presenter names are clearly marked. All you have to do is fill in the information, which might be a simple schedule of the day’s events or include more elaborate descriptions of keynote speeches and conference sessions.

Meeting Agenda Format Template

Meeting Agenda Format

‌   Download Word Template

This meeting agenda format template is a great example of how to create an agenda that looks professional and orderly. The format would work well for a business or board meeting agenda. Use the lines at the top of the template to record vital information about the meeting, including its title and subject or objective. Agenda items are organized by starting time as well as duration to help keep the meeting on schedule.

Informal Meeting Agenda Template

Informal Meeting Agenda Template

Download Informal Meeting Agenda Template

Whether you need to create an agenda for a PTA meeting, community meeting, or workplace meeting, this free template offers a lot of detail and an organized outline. Action and agenda items are listed separately, and there is room for clear instructions on how attendees can prepare for the meeting. If this meeting agenda template is too detailed for your needs, simply remove any unwanted sections.

Board Meeting Agenda Template

Board Meeting Agenda Template

Download Board Meeting Agenda Template

This board meeting agenda template outlines all the required steps for a formal board meeting or executive committee meeting. When you distribute this agenda among board members prior to the meeting, it’s important to also share the minutes from the previous meeting and other relevant documents, such as financial or progress reports.

Formal Meeting Agenda Template

Formal Meeting Agenda Template

Download Formal Meeting Agenda Template

No matter what type of organization your meeting is for, if the meeting will follow a formal agenda in accordance with Robert’s Rules of Order, this free template can help keep things on track. This is a simple version of a formal agenda, making the template appropriate for a wide range of users, from clubs and schools to business and board meetings.

Conference Call Meeting Agenda Template

Conference Call Meeting Agenda Template

A conference call needs to stay organized and on track just like any other meeting. Use this conference call meeting agenda template to identify call participants and prioritize discussion topics.

Team Meeting Agenda Template

Team Meeting Agenda Template

This team meeting agenda template clearly identifies team members, clarifies the meeting objectives, and carves out time for reviewing prior action items as well as the current agenda. Team members can be actively engaged in shaping and addressing agenda items, making decisions, planning future meetings, and evaluating the meeting process. Using a template that includes all of these items makes it easier to allot time for each, creating a realistic estimation of how long the meeting will take.

Simple Agenda Template

Simple Meeting Agenda Template

If you just need a simple agenda without a lot of detail, this free template provides the basics. Record important meeting logistics and comment items while keeping the agenda simple and brief.

Weekly Agenda Template

Weekly Meeting Agenda Template

If you have a weekly meeting during which long-term goals need to be tracked along with action items from the previous week’s meeting, this weekly agenda template outlines recurring agenda items as well as new issues. It also ends with a meeting evaluation to encourage improvement and lists the date and time of the next weekly meeting.

Staff Meeting Agenda Template

Staff Meeting Agenda Template

This staff meeting agenda template designates time for administrative reports, ongoing projects, new business, and open comment. It clearly lists tasks at the bottom along with who is responsible for each action item and due dates. The template makes it easy for staff members to view the time allowed for each agenda topic and presenter names.

Daily Agenda Template

Daily Meeting Agenda Template

Perhaps you have a daily sales meeting to review the previous day’s business and address ongoing issues. This daily agenda template provides a simple yet bold format for listing the daily agenda along with notes. Customize the free template by adding a company logo or necessary meeting logistics, like the name of the note-taker for that day’s meeting or the time allotted for certain agenda items.

Improve Your Meetings With an Effective Agenda

Whether you use a template or create your own, an agenda can be a great organizational tool for keeping meetings focused. Here are some tips for designing and utilizing an agenda to ensure that meeting goals are met without wasting time or creating frustration. 

  • Create your agenda early. Don’t wait until the last minute to start writing an agenda. Getting started well before a meeting gives you time to create a professional document and make any needed changes based on feedback from team members.
  • Clearly define your meeting objective. The objective can be thought of as a very brief summary of what will be discussed in a meeting. This should be stated at the top of the agenda, below the meeting title or agenda header.
  • Prioritize agenda items. As you outline items to be discussed, add them to the agenda in order of importance. Meetings are notorious for running overtime, and you don’t want to miss an important topic because time ran out. 
  • Break down agenda topics into key points. Creating a more detailed outline that breaks up agenda topics into multiple items for consideration helps attendees see the key issues. This allows for a more focused discussion and can save time.
  • Allow adequate time for each agenda item. This is very important, but not necessarily easy. Some flexibility is always required in meetings, and prioritizing agenda items will help ensure that important issues are addressed. But allowing enough time for each agenda topic will help attendees effectively deal with the issues at hand.
  • Indicate whether agenda items require a decision. Some of the business covered during a meeting may include topics for discussion or issues that need to be resolved or voted on. Make sure this is clear in your agenda so that attendees know whether they will be part of the decision-making process.
  • Inform members on how to prepare for the meeting. Sharing an agenda with team members in advance not only lets them know what to expect during the meeting, but can also describe any preparation needed.
  • List who is responsible for presenting a topic. Meeting attendees should have clear roles and responsibilities to keep the process running smoothly.
  • Leave time for meeting review. At the end of your agenda, include a space for evaluating the meeting to improve the process in the future. This can also be a time for attendees to get clarification on any issues raised during the meeting or to propose topics for the next meeting.  

business planning meeting template

A More Effective Way to Manage Meetings in Smartsheet

Running effective, productive meetings is more than having the right template - it’s about having the right solution to manage the details leading up to, during, and after the meeting, including: Ensuring that attendees are prepared to contribute to the meeting, that action items and meeting minutes are documented, and that items are followed up on after the meeting.

One such tool is Smartsheet, an enterprise work management platform that fundamentally changes the way teams, leaders, and businesses get work done. Over 70,000 brands and millions of information workers trust Smartsheet as the best way to plan, track, automate, and report on work.