Tag: agenda

Meeting Agenda

3 min.Effective meetings are always a challenge. There are many guidelines and checklist available for meetings. But up to now I have not found a good template for an effective meeting agenda. In my daily usage I identified the need for two different agenda formats depending on the length of the meeting or better the number of agenda topics. Having a telco I always use following simple format (in case not many topics need to be covered) since years: INITIAL SITUATION/AUSGANGSSITUATION
  • Project status needs to be reported to steerco until Friday 12:00 CET
PREPARATION NEEDED / ERFORDERLICHE VORBEREITUNGEN (including owner)
  • Please update your work packages until Thursday 10:00 CET Server Link (ALL)
  • Please update action items status / resolution Server Link (ALL)
  • Update reporting template (ML)
AGENDA
  • Review interface issues between work packages (MW)
  • Align on action items across work packages (MW)
  • Align on Team Discussions items on project server (ML)
  • Issues and risks to be aligned on (ML)
RESULTS EXPECTED OF THE MEETING/ ERWARTETE ERGEBNISSE DES MEETINGS
  • Aligned view on the project status
NEXT STEPS AFTER THE MEETING/ NÄCHSTE SCHRITTE IM NACHGANG ZUM MEETING
  • Report to be consolidated (ML)
  • Report to be reviewed and send to steerco (MW)
  For face2face workshops or long lasting telcos I prefer using following format also for many years:
Berlin, Hauptstr. 14-16, 1.OG, Room E1.15a, Monday 05. Feb 2018 – CMO FMO Big Picture Goal: Common understanding of CMO and FMO Big Pictures and related activities Approach: Time Boxing Preparation: Presentation: Link on Server Materials: 2 beamers, moderation suitcase
Time (CET) Topic Host Input and preparation needed / Owner Result expected / Owner  Attendees 
09:30 – 10:00 Introduction and target of meeting MW  Introduction – no preparation needed  All  All
10:00 – 10:30 CMO Picture Overall  LI  Slide deck / LI Common understanding of the CMO  All
10:30 – 10:45 Break        All
10:45 – 12:45 CMO / FMO INM  LI Understanding CMO slide deck on specific process / LI Black Board FMO Picture / CS LI, CS, MA, UA and UA
12:45 – 13:30 Lunch break in restaurant        All
13:30 – 14:15 CMO / FMO PRM  LI Understanding CMO slide deck on specific process / LI Black Board FMO Picture / CS LI, CS, MA, UA and AB
14:15 – 15:00 CMO / FMO CHM  LI Understanding CMO slide deck on specific process / LI Black Board FMO Picture / CS LI, CS, MA, UA and SE
15:00 – 15:30  CMO / FMO CFM  LI Understanding CMO slide deck on specific process / LI Black Board FMO Picture / CS LI, CS, MA, UA and ME
15:30 – 15:45 Coffee Break       All
15:45 – 16:15 CMO / FMO CPM  LI  Understanding CMO slide deck on specific process / LI Black Board FMO Picture / CS KE, CS, MA, UA and KL
 16:15 – 17:00 Wrap up and next steps  MW   Action item log updated. / MW Work package descriptions amended. / work package owners Steering Board Decision preparation / LI  All
 

Building the agenda with AI

These days I no longer prepare an agenda from the template alone. I let an AI skill develop it in a short dialogue. It asks for the occasion, the objective, the participants, the duration and the format, points out the usual planning mistakes (too many topics for the time available, missing decision makers, a group too large for a working format) and ends with a one-page management version plus the detailed agenda with timeboxes. For hybrid formats it explicitly asks how remote participants will be involved on equal terms.

The skill is openly available on GitHub: github.com/MarcWidmann/acamo-pm-skills

How to use it: open SKILL.md, copy the text below the block framed by the three dashes and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Copilot as your first prompt. Then answer the questions. If you work with Claude Code, you can install the repository directly as a skill. The instructions are written in German; ask the assistant to run the dialogue in English if you prefer.