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Building an Agenda - The Spine

#facilitation #guide #agenda

After you've handled Pre-Meeting Interviews and Identifying the Purpose, its time to build the agenda. This happens alongside Planning the Meeting.

1. Convert Purpose to Question

Reframe the purpose statement into a question. You will work with questions from now on.

If the purpose was, "Align team to new initiative" the question becomes, "Is the team ready for the new initiative and aligned?"

The goal of the agenda is for the group to answer this question.

This is the last question and belongs at the bottom of your imaginary list.

You'll work backwards from this point.

2. What Question Before That

Looking at that purpose-now-question, you'll ask yourself, "What would I want to know before that?" or, "What do they need to know before that?"

This is teasing out the dependencies of information and natural ordering that might exist for a group to follow.

An example might be, "Do I have what I need to accomplish the initiative?" or, "Am I ready to begin work?"

There will often be multiples. Make a note of them, you'll probably use them later or re-order them later.

Put this question above the purpose question.

3. Repeat

Continue the process of step 2 building out a "Spine" of questions that each lead to the next.

There will be questions that are really broad and really narrow. This is fine, arrange them so the relationship is clear. Really specific/narrow questions will become criteria you use to guage success and choose activities.

4. Who Am I?

You will eventually wind up at a set of bizarre questions like, "Who am I" or "Who are we" or "Why am I here?" These questions signal the end of the process. They are important but there isn't anywhere to go past this point.

These questions represent a bucket of your agenda around Opening a meeting.

Common questions are:

Don't skip this.

5. Ordering

Most of the Agenda Spine is in order already and almost nothing has to be done. However, there will be questions that could go in any order in a rough area. Put those in order an order. There may not be an obvious answer, but any answer will work.

Sometimes this signals that you can bucket these together, but not always. Put them into an order for now.

6. Activities

Now comes the fun/hard part. For each of the questions along the spine you will now assign a facilitated activity for the attendees to participate in that will lead them to arrive at an answer to the question.

Use your Pre-Meeting Interviews to help filter out activities that could cause tension or friction.

You'll need a mixture of Core Collaborative Facilitation Techniques to pull this off. Do not repeat the same activities back-to-back. That will make a boring meeting.

7. Timings

This happens alongside of Building an Agenda - The Spine#6. Activities. You need to decide how long things take.

Rules of thumb:

  1. It will take 5-10 minutes to explain the activity and you will need to explain the activity 3 times within that time.
  2. Moving chairs, tables, and materials will take additional time.
  3. Save room to debrief the activity, at least 15 minutes.
  4. Assign a 5 minute break every 45 minutes and a 10 minute break every 1 and a half or 1 hour and 45 minutes.
  5. Be prepared for groups to want to continue some activities longer and others to conclude earlier. Know your agenda
  6. Meal breaks need to be around 45 minutes.
  7. Reflect after facilitating a meeting on your sense of timing and ability to keep pace. You will make mistakes and need to adjust. Especially for new activities

8. Bucket

Along with the previous two steps, look for natural places where you can effortlessly answer multiple questions with one activity. These opportunities exist. You may have to adjust, but it will likely make for a better overall experience.

9. Check Your Work

Read through your spine with activities and timings. Imagine it in your head. Check that you have enough transition timings. Check that your activities will lead the attendees to be able to answer all the questions needed.

If you feel like something is off or you're missing something, you probably are. Pay attention to this.

10. Materials List

For each activity write down the timing, materials needed, and room configuration. These early notes will help you consolidate gathering what you need and fleshing out your preparations.

11. Finalize Agenda

Now you have an agenda that will welcome a room of folks and guide them through a series of collaborative activities that let them achieve the purpose of the meeting.

Send the agenda out to people in advance of the meeting. You do not have to share all the detail you created. Often you can send a much more abridged version that gives people an idea of the types of topics that will be covered.

They will want to know about things like timings, breaks, food, and other expectations.