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Set the Agenda: Quality Meetings Don't Just Happen

Whether you’re leading meetings or stuck attending them, this newsletter will help you save time, move work forward, and get people actually looking forward to your next call.

Image of Jess Britt - author of Set the Agenda and founder of Jess Britt Consulting
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Set the Agenda: Quality Meetings Don't Just Happen A newsletter from Jess Britt Consulting Whether you’re leading meetings or stuck attending them, this newsletter will help you save time, move work forward, and get people actually looking forward to your next call. You’re a high performer who cares deeply about your team and your work. But something’s not working. Why don’t you have time to get real work done? Why do leadership meetings always run over—even when they’re already scheduled for...

Photo apps, including snapchat

Set the Agenda: Quality Meetings Don't Just Happen A newsletter from Jess Britt Consulting In this week's newsletter Why I downloaded an app I swore I’d never use and what it taught me about meeting prep Q&A: I want to use a warm-up question, but that won’t work in my company culture. What can I do? Warm-up and check-out questions you can use this week Weekly bird break A baby was born in my extended family last year. I wanted updates and I was not getting them frequently. I asked more...

Set the Agenda: Quality Meetings Don't Just Happen A newsletter from Jess Britt Consulting In this week's newsletter Why “it could have been an email” is rarely the whole story Tips for building stronger asynchronous communication norms Warm-up and check-out questions you can use today Your weekly bird break When I ask leaders for their biggest meeting pain point, the one I hear most frequently is, “meetings that should have been an email!” We’ve all been in those meetings and I have vented...

Set the Agenda: Quality Meetings Don't Just Happen A newsletter from Jess Britt Consulting In this week's newsletter How to protect your calendar for work that can only happen outside of meetings - 7 lessons learned Warm-up and check-out questions you can use today Q&A: What do I do if people are leaving my meeting early? Your weekly bird break When people learn my work focuses on leading through meetings, they’re often surprised by how much meeting-free time I block. For example, in the six...

Multi-tasking in a meeting

Set the Agenda: Quality Meetings Don't Just Happen A newsletter from Jess Britt Consulting In this week's newsletter Tips for salvaging an unfocused meeting you don't run Warm-up and check-out questions you can use today Q: Should I just multitask through a poorly run weekly meeting? Relevant links Your weekly bird break I recently became a strategic advisor for a nonprofit, working directly with the founder. One of our early calls was booked for 90 minutes. No agenda. No shared outcomes. No...

Set the Agenda: Quality Meetings Don't Just Happen A newsletter from Jess Britt Consulting In this week's newsletter 5 ways to partner with AI to level up your meetings Q: AI notetakers are out of control in my calls. What should I do? Warm-up and check-out questions you can use today Relevant reads (+ a TED Talk) Your weekly bird break Making sure AI use improves thinking rather than outsources it has been top of mind for me lately. (Sources inspiring this thinking linked below.) In my...

A shiny gold telephone receiver with coiled cord

Set the Agenda: Quality Meetings Don't Just Happen A newsletter from Jess Britt Consulting In this week's newsletter Hidden costs of depending too much on 1:1s Warm-up and check-out questions you can use today Tactical starter agenda: leading an early-stage decision-making meeting Relevant reads and listens Your weekly bird break I was in a meeting with a colleague about an upcoming change. We realized we needed to bring a couple other people into the conversation to get input on the...

Quality Meeting Objectives Resource

Set the Agenda: Quality Meetings Don't Just Happen A newsletter from Jess Britt Consulting In this week's newsletter How I made meetings less frustrating Warm-up and check-out questions you can use today Resource: your meeting objectives cheat sheet Your weekly bird break Several years ago I was extremely frustrated by how slowly a project was moving. I would set a meeting to move the project forward and in the meeting we’d spin on questions about key assumptions that we’d already covered....

Very booked calendar

Set the Agenda: Quality Meetings Don't Just Happen A newsletter from Jess Britt Consulting In this week's newsletter Why the meeting you dread might be a hidden gem for your team Warm-up and checkout questions you can use today Q: People on my team are sharing inaccurate info and I'm strapped for time. What can I do? Your weekly bird break In a job early in my career we had an all-staff meeting every Monday morning. I loved that meeting. I was a project manager doing detailed...