Meeting prep brief

Use this before a named meeting, or for every meeting on a given day.

Gather the context

From the calendar invite, recent mail, shared documents, and past notes, collect the purpose, the attendees and their roles, the last time the principal met them, what was agreed then, and anything promised since. Note the source and date of each fact. If two contacts share a name, confirm which one before going on.

Write the brief

Keep it to one page, in this order:

1. the decision or outcome needed from this meeting;
2. purpose, time, place or link, and length;
3. who is attending, with one line on each;
4. what happened last time, and open items with owners;
5. documents to read first, with links.

Mark anything you could not confirm. Leave out private details from unrelated threads.

Questions to ask

List two or three questions that would move the decision on, drawn from the open items. Note any topic the principal said to avoid.

Never accept, decline, or move the meeting without a clear yes. Do not invent what someone said or agreed, and keep what you read private.