Core Hack #1: The “No Agenda, No Attenda” Mandate
Imagine a pilot announcing to the passengers, “Welcome aboard. We’re not sure where we’re going today, but we’ll figure it out as we fly.” You would demand to be let off that plane. Yet, we routinely accept meeting invites that are the professional equivalent of this scenario: a vague title, a list of attendees, and a block of time. This is professional malpractice.
The single most powerful, high-leverage change you can make to improve meeting productivity is to adopt a strict, non-negotiable personal policy: No Agenda, No Attenda.
An agenda is not a suggestion; it is the flight plan for the meeting. It is a contract between the organizer and the attendees that outlines the purpose, the topics of discussion, and the desired outcomes. Without it, a meeting is just a conversation, and conversations wander. An agenda provides the guardrails that keep the discussion focused and moving toward a productive conclusion.
Feel the difference. Walking into a meeting with a clear agenda, you know exactly why you’re there, what will be discussed, and what a successful outcome looks like. You can prepare your thoughts in advance. You feel confident and purposeful. Now contrast that with the vague anxiety of an agenda-less “Sync.” You’re on the back foot, reacting to whatever topics surface, unsure of the meeting’s true purpose or when it will mercifully end.
Implementing this mandate doesn’t require you to be confrontational. It requires you to be helpfully inquisitive. When you receive an invite without an agenda, your default response should be a polite and professional query. Here is a simple script you can adapt:
“Thanks for the invite! Looking forward to connecting on this. To help me prepare and contribute effectively, could you please add a brief agenda with the key topics and goals to the calendar invite? Appreciate it!”
This script does three things beautifully. It assumes good intent. It frames your request around being a better contributor, not a difficult attendee. And it gently educates your colleagues on what makes a meeting effective. More often than not, the organizer will quickly add an agenda, or even realize the meeting isn’t necessary after all. You’ve just improved a future meeting or, even better, prevented one entirely.
