Meeting Planning Checklist: The Meeting Preparation Checklist for Effective Meetings

Meetings. Most executives spend their days in a haze, bouncing from meeting to conference call to another meeting - back to back to back. Sadly, many of these meetings leave the attendees wondering, “What’s the point?” or “Why didn’t you just send that in an email?”

You can’t escape them, but you can make sure that you aren’t contributing to the meaningless, monotonous meeting marathon by practicing careful preparation for any meetings you schedule. Preparation is the key to ensuring that your meetings are productive and achieve the desired outcomes in the allotted period of time.

Here's a Meeting Planning Checklist:

☐ Begin with the End in Mind: Have you determined the purpose and desired result for your meeting? What will make it a successful meeting? You may want to spend some time developing an Objective Statement so that you are very clear in advance about why you are spending the team's most valuable resource - time - on this meeting.

☐ Set the Date & Location: When's the best time and place for your meeting? Schedule the meeting as far in advance as possible so you can find a time to get all the right people in the room. Depending on the purpose of your meeting, choose a location that will help you facilitate a productive meeting. Do you need to get out of the office and away from distractions? Can the meeting be in person, or can the team participate virtually? If you are meeting in a conference room in your office, reserve the space in advance. If you choose a different location or a virtual meeting, make those arrangements in advance.

☐ Select the Facilitator: Who is the has the qualities of a good facilitator for this meeting? This critical decision could be the difference between an effective outcome and a waste of time. Depending on the type of meeting you are planning, you may consider bringing in a professional from outside your company to help with facilitation.

☐ Choose a Meeting Coordinator: Who is the best person to handle the logistics for the meeting? This person would help coordinate travel arrangements, book the conference room or set up the virtual meeting, communicate with the team about any required pre-work, plan lunch or coffee, and set up the room on the meeting day. You may also want to assign someone to take notes during the meeting.

☐ Confirm the Correct Attendees: Who needs to attend the meeting to have the most productive outcome? Think about the purpose of the meeting and consider who the key players are. If you are making decisions, invite the decision-makers and anyone with data and insights you need to make an informed choice. Don't automatically invite everyone on your leadership team; some decisions may require input from others in the company, and some executives may not need to be part of every meeting. Nothing is more frustrating than investing time in a meeting only to realize a key player is missing and then having to catch that person up and bring the group back together again before a decision can be made. Only invite people who need to be there, and be sure not to leave anyone out.