Meeting Preparation Habits & Readiness Survey

Thanks for taking a few minutes on this! We're looking at how meetings actually get prepared for around here — the good, the rushed, and the skipped. Your responses are completely confidential and anonymized. Should take about 5 minutes, and there are no wrong answers.

In a typical week, how often do you prepare an agenda before leading a meeting?

• Every time
• Most of the time
• About half the time
• Rarely
• I don't lead meetings

When you lead a meeting, how often does each of these happen beforehand?

Which of the following do you typically complete before a meeting you're organizing? Select all that apply.

• Send agenda 24+ hours in advance
• Circulate pre-read materials
• Confirm attendee list and roles
• Set a clear decision or outcome to reach
• Time-box individual agenda items
• Follow up on action items from the last meeting

Thinking about meetings you attend but don't lead, how often do they come with a clear agenda beforehand?

Rank these preparation elements by how much they matter to a meeting actually being effective.

1. Clear agenda shared in advance
2. A defined objective or decision to reach
3. Pre-read materials sent ahead of time
4. Assigned roles for attendees
5. Time allocated per topic

On average, how many minutes do you personally spend preparing for a meeting you're going to lead?

What's the biggest barrier that stops you from preparing more thoroughly for meetings?

• Not enough time in my schedule
• Meeting gets scheduled at short notice
• Unclear who's responsible for setting the agenda
• No standard template or checklist to follow
• I don't think prep changes the outcome much

Ask the respondent to describe a specific recent meeting — one they led or attended — that felt under-prepared. Probe what exactly was missing (agenda, materials, clear objective, assigned roles), what happened as a result during the meeting, and whether it required a follow-up meeting to fix. If they say prep 'doesn't matter much,' push for a concrete example that supports or challenges that view.

Overall, how would you rate the quality of meetings at your organization right now?

Which best describes your role?

• Individual contributor
• People manager
• Senior leader / executive
• Prefer not to say

About how many people are on your immediate team?

• 1-5
• 6-15
• 16-50
• 50+
• Prefer not to say

That's everything — thank you! Your responses will feed into a review of how we prep for and run meetings, aimed at cutting wasted time and building a better shared checklist.