The goal of an agenda is to create a game plan for both the meeting leader and for participants. Without a written game plan, the leader has no way to communicate the game plan to participants, and participants have difficulty knowing what to expect. While lack of time is often the excuse for not having an agenda, lack of skill in building effective agendas is the next culprit in undermining the effectiveness of meetings. There are two finesse strategies for dealing with this. Know and state your outcome.
Purpose is the reason for coming together.
Outcome is the tangible measure of the accomplishment of purpose. Participants will feel confident in their ability to implement their newly learned skills. Participants will be willing to keep working together to complete the project. Each meeting and agenda item may have a single outcome or may have outcomes in all three categories. The overall and individual agenda item outcomes begin to indicate how much time will be needed for the meeting.