That tooling is helpful, but because of asymmetric dynamics, many individual contributors who have things on their minds don’t put things on that agenda. You have to work to make that agenda not “manager domain.”
As a manager, I often reach out on the “opposite” day (Monday if the meeting is on a Thursday) and ask if there are things they want to talk about that are not already there. I also put things weeks ahead to give some sense of structure.
Same for the team’s meeting agenda: people, especially senior team members, are more keen to edit that one, though. Often, I try to copy elements that they add to our 1:1 to discuss their concern ahead of time.
When another team member raises a concern about another member, I ask them to tell them to add it to the agenda. That hasn’t worked, ever, but it highlights the role of that agenda as an asymetric way to handle the relations.
As a manager, I often reach out on the “opposite” day (Monday if the meeting is on a Thursday) and ask if there are things they want to talk about that are not already there. I also put things weeks ahead to give some sense of structure.
Same for the team’s meeting agenda: people, especially senior team members, are more keen to edit that one, though. Often, I try to copy elements that they add to our 1:1 to discuss their concern ahead of time.
When another team member raises a concern about another member, I ask them to tell them to add it to the agenda. That hasn’t worked, ever, but it highlights the role of that agenda as an asymetric way to handle the relations.