The fundamental unit of most collaborative processes — for better or for worse — is the meeting. Our abilities to design and facilitate meetings effectively is a critical element of high-performance collaboration. These are tools that I’ve developed and use to help with this:

We developed these Google Docs / Google Presentation meeting templates at Groupaya, and I continue to refine them. They’re useful as a sort of meeting checklist, because they remind you to get clear on goals and key logistical information. They’re particularly valuable for real-time, collaborative note-taking.

To use, click on the links to open Google Docs, then select File > Make a copy… in the menu.

Meeting Notes

Google Doc (Last updated: February 2014)

Meetings Log

Multiple meeting notes all in one document.

Google Doc (Last updated: January 2016)

Meeting Venues Checklist

See the Meeting Venues Checklist.

Simple Meeting Design

For simple meetings (day-long or less).

Google Doc

Meeting Design (Preparation)

Co-create a more complex, facilitated meeting design (day-long or more).

Google Doc

Meeting Design (Performance)

Format optimized to guide facilitators / support team during a more complex, facilitated meetings (day-long or more).

Google Presentation

Meeting Retrospective

See the Retrospective toolkit.

History

November 20, 2018

February 1, 2017

  • Added Simple Meeting Design template

January 26, 2015

  • All: Updated fonts and colors to new Faster Than 20 styles
  • Meeting Design (Preparation): Incorporated updated Goal Template.
  • Meeting Design (Preparation): Expanded and reorganized sections.
  • Meeting Design (Preparation): Added high-level design / agenda with links to facilitator notes. (Inspired by Forward Together.)
  • Meeting Design (Preparation): Added jump links to the top. (Inspired by Forward Together.)