About Elise Keith

This guide helps teams agree on strategies for improving their meetings. By the end of this discussion, your team will have a shared understanding of meeting success, a one-month plan for improving meetings, a defined list of next steps, and much more! Get the Guidebook

Teams use this process to gain clarity about how they’ll work together over the next 3 to 6 months. These agreements increase team productivity and alignment by reducing confusion, duplication, delays, and misunderstandings.

These meetings give people from across your organization an opportunity to compare experiences and learn from one another as they work through a shared challenge, such as a significant organizational change or major project. Peers share what they’ve done that worked well and challenges they’re facing, then work together to identify possible solutions.

This sensemaking meeting provides teams with feedback and insights they can use when tackling challenging projects. During the meeting, the team presents their challenge to the advisory council, where they can tap into the council members’ “braintrust,” or deep expertise. Council members ask clarifying questions, then provide candid feedback, access to resources, and options for the team to...

This meeting agenda template explains how to prepare for and run a solid decision making meeting. This straightforward process walks your team through the critical decision making steps. It doesn’t rely on any specific analytical frameworks or fancy group exercises. You can run this meeting as is, or use it as a starting place when building a more elaborate decision-making session.

Love, hate, hubris, and anxiety - Robert's Rules inspires strong feelings and opinions in those who have come to know them. Regardless of how anyone might feel about Robert's Rules, we still see this pillar of parliamentary procedure listed as the fall-back in board and organizational bylaws. If in doubt about how to proceed, they say, use Robert's Rules. This Robert's Rules of Order agenda sets...

This is the meeting agenda template the team at Lucid Meetings uses to run our weekly meetings. Needless to say, we think this format works pretty darn well. This meeting agenda template brings together leaders from different departments to share updates and reinforce their connections to the company and each other. While definitely work-focused, the tone of this meeting is also intentionally...

The Daily Huddle keeps management teams coordinated, focused, accountable and efficient. Lasting just 10 to 15 minutes, a Daily Huddles ensures everyone knows what’s going on each day. The Huddle also provides a fast way to get quick answers to any cross-functional questions. Use this meeting agenda template as a starting place when planning your team’s Daily Huddle.

Boards have many responsibilities and must abide by certain rules and formalities, but there is no one set way to run a board meeting. For every board meeting, the directors must still determine what topics to prioritize, how to manage the available time, and how to ensure the board members arrive informed and stay actively engaged throughout the call. This meeting agenda template provides a...

Purpose: To decide on a new short-term plan of action during times of rapid change or crisis Expected Outcomes: A new short term plan for the next few days, weeks, or month Ideas about alternate plans you could try if this plan doesn’t work • A defined list of next steps A date for the next meeting where you’ll review results Commitment to the plan

This is the meeting agenda template the team at Lucid Meetings uses to run kickoffs for smaller projects. It covers all the basics, and gets everyone involved to create a strong mutual commitment to the project's success. During this meeting, you'll lead two separate discussions using techniques developed by expert facilitators and project managers. Between these, you'll walk the team through an...

This meeting agenda template follows a standard format common in organizations with a well-developed Project Management Office. Most commonly scheduled as a weekly or bi-monthly meeting, this format is best suited for those managing cross-functional teams on moderately complex projects or programs.

Teams use this process to review and update their working team agreement. This conversation can be scheduled as a stand-alone meeting or as part of a regular team meeting.

This meeting agenda template is inspired by Wade Foster's blog post about how the distributed team at Zapier keeps their work in synch and their team connected when meeting from different time zones. This meeting agenda template is best suited for small teams (10 or fewer people) who enjoy communicating in writing.

Boards have many responsibilities and must abide by certain rules and formalities, but there is no one set way to run a board meeting. For every board meeting, the directors must still determine what topics to prioritize, how to manage the available time, and how to ensure the board members arrive informed and stay actively engaged throughout the call. This meeting agenda template provides a...

Boards have many responsibilities and must abide by certain rules and formalities, but there is no one set way to run a board meeting. For every board meeting, the directors must still determine what topics to prioritize, how to manage the available time, and how to ensure the board members arrive informed and stay actively engaged throughout the call. This meeting agenda template helps startup...

Purpose:To decide on a new strategy your organization can use to survive and thriveExpected Outcomes:A shared understanding of what changed and what the new strategy needs to accomplishInsights into leading indicators that inform your new strategyA new list of strategic priorities and a near-term action planIdeas about alternate plans you could try if this plan doesn’t workCommitment to the...

During this meeting, teams review their strategic progress and establish targets for the next 90 days. Part retrospective, part working session, and part time-out, running a Quarterly Refresh makes sure your organization’s strategy stays present in everyone’s mind, up-to-date with changes in your environment, and relevant to everyday operations. Use this meeting agenda template as a starting...

This meeting agenda template helps teams learn from project successes and failures together, and commit to change based on what they learned. Use this template as a starting place when designing your next project retrospective, and adapt the agenda to fit your team.

Purpose: To ensure everyone has accurate information about what’s going on in the team, identify barriers to execution that need to be solved, and prepare updates to share with the rest of the organization. Expected Outcomes: Everyone has current information Answers to open questions Action items created for those who will help solve problems A communication plan with info to share...

Held at the same time and day each week, teams use this meeting to drive accountability and resolve issues impeding progress. This is an action-oriented working meeting rather than a reporting and information sharing meeting. The agenda leaves no time for reading reports or explaining delays. Instead, the time is spent working through high-priority issues to find solutions. Use this meeting...

Inspired by the written report format put together by the fine folks at Weekdone, this meeting agenda template adapts the PPP status report into a status meeting where people can discuss the information they share. Used by product teams, technology companies, and entrepreneurs alike, the Progress, Plans & Problems format provides an easy way to communicate the essential information a group...

Fast, structured, and to-the-point, the agile stand-up is meant to keep a team fully in-synch on fast moving projects. As you might guess from the name, the "stand-up" was originally designed for teams that would stand up together in front of the board where they track their work using sticky notes. Most commonly scheduled as a daily meeting, this meeting agenda template adapts the stand-up to a...

This meeting may look similar to a high-stakes press briefing. One or more leaders will take turns sharing the content described below in the order that makes the best sense for the situation. Then, leadership will answer questions. The most senior leader should end the meeting by sharing information about the next meeting date, any requests for all staff, and expressing gratitude for...

This meeting agenda template helps a team find short-term tactical solutions to an urgent problem. The conversation includes time to gain a shared understanding of the problem, but focuses primarily on listing and evaluating possible solutions and the creation of a short- term action plan. Use this meeting to answer the question: “What are we going to do about this problem now?” This design is...

Cisco studied engagement in over 15,000 teams and found that well- designed one-on-ones based on just two questions reliably boosted employee engagement and team performance. What are your priorities this week? How can I help? Before your weekly meeting, ask team members to write the answers to these questions and send them to their team leader. Then, the team leaders can discuss these...