I took that right from Jerry Colonna‘s most recent post, Board Meetings that Suck.
There’s an entire list of reasons why board meetings (and really, meetings in general) suck, along with a nice list of suggestions to combat the suckiness of these meetings.
The first one in this second list, “Set and KEEP to the agenda”, hit me over the head a few months back. After doing a few meetings, both virtually and in person, I quickly came to realize that it wasn’t my time that mattered, it was the time of those in the meeting that mattered.
I needed to get my pitch across to these folks in the time allotted, and according to the agenda I set.
I would make one change, from “Set and KEEP to the agenda” to “SET and KEEP to the agenda”.
Setting an agenda gives you guidelines on how to keep the agenda. Paying equal attention to both make the agenda worth it, not only for this but for future meetings as well.
If you haven’t picked up on Jerry’s posts yet, you should do so. Now.