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Agendas are the single organising principle of a business meeting. They define what needs to be discussed and in what order. They are therefore the starting point for any successful meeting, and the lack of one is the main starting point for an unsuccessful meeting. But they also have another function. They help you organise your thoughts. When you write an agenda, automatically you think about what you want to agree on. These are the aims and objectives of the meeting.

If you look around, you’ll see business people in informal meetings in coffee shops, cafés and restaurants. Even for informal meetings they’ll ask the question, ‘What do we need to discuss?’ And they will scribble the points to discuss on a napkin or piece of paper. It may not look like it, but that’s an agenda.

The way to focus a meeting is through the agenda. Agendas help you think more constructively and more logically about what you want to achieve. It’s not just about organising your thoughts. It’s also about deciding what order you want to present them in – the progression. Going into a meeting without a clear agenda is like going into a meeting without a focus.