Be ready for your next remote meeting with this remote meeting agenda template for you and your distributed team. Run productive remote meetings with a structured agenda.
Effective meetings help remote teams solve problems, brainstorm ideas, and make better decisions. But some meetings drag on and on, eating up precious time. There is a method to conducting a good meeting, and that begins with setting a clear agenda.
A meeting agenda for remote teams includes everything you need to run an effective meeting and keep your team engaged and productive. The agenda includes a list of attendees, talking points, meeting purpose, backlog items, and reference/reading materials.
Using a template to kickstart your remote meetings will help you save precious time and make sure that every meeting adds value. Here’s what you can do with this template:
Remote team meetings are a staple of the modern work environment, but sometimes things don’t go as planned. Meetings that lack structure is frustrating, drain morale, and hurt productivity. Planning ahead using this meeting agenda template will help you fix that.
A well-defined meeting agenda will help you keep all attendees on track. The agenda should include everything your team needs to join the meeting and participate in the discussion.
Remember, a meeting agenda is meant to help you kick off meetings quickly and efficiently. Customize it any way you want, but don’t forget to cover these essential items:
It’s also a good idea to share the agenda in advance so all team members can contribute. But the document is just a start. Here are a few more tips for more productive meetups.
We’ve all attended at least one meeting that could have been an email. You can be sure your team members won’t appreciate wasting an hour in a meeting with no clear purpose.
Before sending invitations, determine why you’re running the meeting in the first place. Make a list of expected meeting outcomes and outline everything you want to discuss.
Answer the following questions for starters:
Clarifying the purpose of the meeting will make it much easier to determine who should be invited. This, in turn, will ensure that everyone spends their time as productive as possible.
In a traditional office meeting, it’s much easier to interact with other participants or pipe up with questions. Remote meetings require some extra effort to make that happen.
Having the camera on is part of the meeting etiquette. Not only does it give participants the benefit of non-verbal communication, but it also compels people to pay attention.
Unlike email, chat, or regular voice calls, video conferencing (with cameras on) lets you put names to faces and bond with the team. It’s difficult to build rapport with no visual feedback.
A wee tip: Let your team know ahead of time that they will be asked to turn on their cameras. Include this in the agenda so everyone can be camera-ready (read: presentable).
With the agenda in place, you’re ready to start the meeting. But don’t just jump right into updates and reports. Spend a few minutes on simple icebreaker questions.
Despite their name, icebreaker questions help warm everyone up and improve the quality of the discussion. They make it easier to introduce and maintain a positive atmosphere.
Here are a few icebreaker questions to jump-start your meetings:
Asking additional questions won’t hurt meeting efficiency. On the contrary, it’s a great way to make everyone comfortable, engaged, and prepped for a productive discussion.
A remote meeting is an excellent opportunity to let other team members discuss any difficulties they’re facing and ask for help; ask questions, find solutions, and solve problems on the spot.
Feel free to add more questions to the list. The goal is to identify potential roadblocks before they escalate into major problems that can hurt team productivity down the road.
Not sure how to ask the right questions? Check out this article for some tips.