How To Define Your Meeting Objectives

Defining an overarching objective, or goal, of a meeting is arguably the most important step of meeting planning. Objectives not only help us to hold sessions that have purpose, direction, and achieve results, but they also help us to avoid meeting overload, poor attendee experience, and wasted costs. 

As an executive assistant (EA) or meeting planner, defining the meeting objective will often be your responsibility. While your executive may suggest high-level goals, it’s up to you to act as their strategic partner in turning these goals into actionable plans. 

Creating clear objectives is especially crucial for in-person meetings where attendees travel to participate, or meetings that involve many attendees. If you're struggling to define your meeting objective, it’s often a sign the meeting needs more planning, better communication, or even an entire rethink.

The Benefits of a Strong Meeting Objective

There are many benefits to having a strong meeting objective, one being attendee experience. Having clear goals defined ahead of a meeting encourages attendee preparation, participation, and enthusiasm. Understanding the objective of a meeting helps attendees come ready to dive in once the meeting starts and stay on track when in session, maximizing the time spent together. After the meeting is complete, the ability to achieve the objective or hit goals leaves attendees with a feeling of accomplishment. 

Maximizing attendees’ time together will inevitably increase the likelihood of achieving the goals set out. As the meeting planner, this means you’ll consistently be producing well-prepared meetings that hit goals and make an impact on the business—demonstrating the importance of these meetings to company stakeholders, and showcasing your ability to plan them effectively.

Further, a defined objective also helps with the planning of the meeting. Finding a meeting venue with the right atmosphere, making sure you have the right attendees in the room, and creating an agenda that prioritizes the most important discussions first, are all details that can be streamlined with a clear objective set. Post meeting, it can help make retrospectives and post-mortems efficient and easy to conduct.

The Basics of Defining Meeting Objectives

While all meeting objectives will vary depending on your requirements, there are some basic aspects to consider when defining your meeting objectives. 

• Have one or two objectives, maximum. Meetings can have multiple objectives, but too many can cause confusion. Limit the number of objectives to keep the team focused on what is top priority.
  • For example, the primary objective for a new hires offsite is to successfully onboard new team members. Onboarding can include educating new hires about the company, explaining team structures, and reviewing company KPIs and tech stack. A session like this also provides a great opportunity for new hires to bond, build trust, and feel welcomed by the company. The latter could be defined as the secondary objective to the meeting.
• Align with stakeholders. Defining your meeting objectives should be collaborative. At times it may feel obvious what a meeting objective is, but it’s best to get input from and partner with key stakeholders to confirm. This will ensure that everyone is aligned.
• Connect to business priorities. The goal of the meeting should have an impact for the business overall, or on a specific initiative. For example, meeting with top clients to improve customer churn rates, which further impacts revenue. 
• Determine length of meeting. Is your meeting a realistic duration to hit your desired outcome? Plan for this or break the objective down into what can be completed. Then you can organize follow-up sessions to ensure you’re not limiting or missing important discussions.
• Consider participation formats. Does the objective require you to hold the meeting in person, or is a virtual session sufficient? In-person meetings can be useful for collaboration, creative thinking, team building, and more. However, they cost the company money and take attendees away from their day-to-day responsibilities and personal lives. 
• Select the right attendees. Having the right people in the room is key to achieving your chosen objective and running a successful session. Don’t be afraid to communicate with potential attendees and key stakeholders to confirm their needed level of participation. 

Make Objectives Actionable & Measurable

Typically, the more actionable and measurable your objectives are, the more efficient your meeting will be. To do this successfully, you must have a clear idea of exactly what the team wants to get out of the session, and what the next steps are once you leave the room. 

Think about how you will prove the meeting’s objective has been achieved or not. The easiest way to do this is to attach measurable targets to your objective, or have a recorded list of tasks to be completed. 

For example: 

Meeting type: Executive team offsite

Objective: Define KPIs for the year ahead 

Desired outcome: $X in revenue, X in headcount, X new business contracts, X% decrease in customer churn, and  X NPI score. 

Communicate Meeting Objectives

It’s not only important to define the meeting objective(s) for yourself and meeting stakeholders, it’s also just as crucial to communicate them with all attendees well ahead of the meeting. 

As mentioned, one of the main benefits to having a clear meeting objective is maximizing attendee time together and improving their experience. It enables attendees to come prepared to the meeting with useful questions, ideas, and solutions. Be sure to communicate this early on and remind them regularly of the importance of the meeting and their participation in it.

Meeting Objectives by Meeting Type

Naturally, different meeting types will have different objectives. Some common meeting types and examples of their objectives might include:

• Executive offsite: Review annual KPIs progress and discuss challenges faced.
• New hire training: Onboard new hires and foster relationship building.
• Department training: Train specific departments on new technology and processes.
• Board meeting: Report on the state of the company including annual goals progress and forecasting to board members. 
• Retreat: Relationship building between team members.
• Client or partner offsite: Discuss client or partner contracts, review KPIs, and define plans for the future. Relationship building with clients or partners.

In Summary

A strong, well-thought-out objective can be the difference between a great meeting and a waste of time and money. But by following the above tips, you’ll ensure all your meeting objectives are succinct, purposeful, and provide the backbone to a successful session. 

If you want to double down on perfecting your meeting objectives and other meeting planning details, download our guide: Mastering Meetups: How to Plan In-Person Meeting Effectively.