Why are you having your meeting, and what do you hope to accomplish as a result of the meeting? Those are the critical questions you need to answer before you even begin to plan your meeting. The answers to those questions should appear right at the top of the meeting agenda. That purpose statement is the answer to the question Why?
Before you call for any meeting, push yourself to deeply examine why you need the meeting.
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To follow the parking lot situation through to resolution, a sample purpose statement might read:
Meeting Purpose: to identify the school's parking problems and their causes as the first step to improving parking.
Desired outcomes are a description of the specific accomplishments of the meeting -- tangible things that you want to have in your hand at the end of the meeting. In the parking lot example, the outcomes might be:
Notice that the outcomes are nouns, not verbs. The final outcome is a "list," not "discussing." At the end of the meeting, you want to have a clear accomplishment -- a tangible thing in your hand.
NEXT WEEK IN GREAT MEETINGS: Three parts to good meeting design.
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