Leadership Roundtable Agenda Template: 90 Minutes

THE SHORT ANSWER

Build a leadership roundtable around one decision participants genuinely need to examine. Use a short context-setting stage, structured airtime, contrasting perspectives and a final action round. The agenda below is an adaptable SOA template, not a report of an actual event.

Three things to take with you.

Define what participants should leave better able to decide.
Give everyone a way to contribute before open discussion.
Agree sharing rules and a concrete next step.

Choose a decision, not an umbrella topic

“The future of leadership” can produce a pleasant but unfocused conversation. “What should we change when managers deliver results but their teams cannot sustain the workload?” gives participants something specific to examine.

Write one opening question, two follow-up prompts and a clear boundary. Tell guests what the session will not cover. Invite people because they can contribute to that question, not simply because their titles will look good on a poster.

Send a short preparation note

Ask each participant to bring an anonymised example and one unresolved question. Make preparation optional enough to be realistic, but specific enough to improve the room. Explain the audience, format, time commitment and any commercial involvement.

State whether recording, photographs or attributable quotes are permitted. A closed-door invitation does not, by itself, define what attendees may share. If using a named discussion rule, provide it in advance and explain it at the start.

One situation I can discuss without identifying a person or client.
One assumption I would like peers to challenge.
One decision I hope to make after the conversation.

The 90-minute working agenda

Time	Purpose	Facilitator prompt
0–10 min	Set the question and boundaries	What would make this conversation useful?
10–25 min	Hear everyone’s context	Where does this challenge show up in your work?
25–45 min	Examine one anonymised case	What do we need to understand before advising?
45–65 min	Compare possible approaches	What would change in a different context?
65–80 min	Choose a small action	What can you test—and what would you observe?
80–90 min	Close and agree follow-through	What may we share? Who wants to reconnect?

Protect the work of the room

Use a brief individual reflection before inviting opinions. It gives participants time to think and prevents the first speaker from setting the entire frame. Invite quieter perspectives without putting anyone on the spot.

When the discussion becomes abstract, return to an example. When advice arrives too quickly, ask what information is missing. When someone dominates, summarise their point and deliberately invite a different view. These are facilitation choices, not guarantees of psychological safety.

Make the follow-up small and permission-based

Send a concise summary of the question, themes and open issues only within the agreed boundaries. Avoid presenting a lively discussion as a consensus if participants disagreed. Obtain approval for any named quote or identifiable case.

Offer opt-in introductions. Do not distribute the attendee list as a prospecting list. A useful follow-up might be one resource, one agreed experiment or a later check-in on what changed—not a long slide deck that nobody opens.

MAKE IT YOURS