The Agenda is the Experience

Lessons from a Decade of Youth–Adult Partnership

Lesson 6:

The agenda is more than a schedule. It creates the conditions for young people to connect, contribute, lead, and thrive.

One of the most important lessons I learned about youth leadership came about eight years into our statewide Youth Advisory Board contract, when I temporarily assumed direct supervision of the program. Until then, I had overseen the work from a broader organizational perspective while others managed the day-to-day implementation. Temporarily stepping into the direct supervisory role gave me my first opportunity to observe an entire statewide leadership weekend through the lens of someone responsible for the participant experience. 

What I saw concerned me. Youth were fighting with one another, verbally attacking staff, disregarding agreements they had made at the beginning of the weekend, and disengaging from the work. Staff spent an extraordinary amount of time de-escalating conflicts, redirecting behavior, and trying to get the meeting back on track.   

It would have been easy to conclude that we simply had a difficult group of young people. 

Instead, I asked myself a different question: What is this environment asking of them?

As I reviewed the agenda, I realized that although many individual activities were well designed, the overall experience was not. We were doing many of the things I believed in, but not consistently, and there was a significant structural problem. Youth were scheduled from 7:00 in the morning until 11:00 at night. Business meetings were held in the evening after a full day of activities, when everyone—youth and adults alike—was mentally exhausted. There was very little free time, few opportunities to recharge, and no designated place for youth who simply needed a break from the stimulation.  

No one had intentionally designed the weekend that way. The program had drifted. Over the years, another worthwhile activity had been added, then another training, another committee discussion, another business meeting, another opportunity for youth input. Every addition made sense. Every item served a purpose. But no one had stepped back to ask whether the overall experience still reflected the values we wanted to model or created the conditions for youth to do their best thinking.   

When I proposed redesigning the agenda, there was understandable pushback.  

“This is the way we’ve always done it.”  

“We have to do it this way to get everything in.” 

I understood those concerns because every item on the agenda mattered. The challenge wasn’t deciding what was important. The challenge was recognizing that how we structured the experience mattered just as much as what we included.   

Together, we redesigned the weekends. Business meetings moved to the middle of the day, when participants had the energy to think clearly. Nighttime business meetings were eliminated altogether. We intentionally alternated serious work with icebreakers, team-building activities, arts-based experiences, recreation, and movement. We built genuine free time into the schedule rather than programming every minute. We created a supervised chill room stocked with snacks where youth could step away, regulate themselves, visit quietly with friends, or simply recharge before returning to the group.   

The difference was remarkable. Staff spent far less time managing conflict because there was far less conflict to manage. Youth participated more thoughtfully in business discussions, relationships grew stronger, and the weekends became both more productive and more enjoyable. The experience reinforced something I had believed throughout my career but had now seen demonstrated in a new way: designing an agenda means designing an experience. 

Co-Create the Agenda

Whenever possible, invite youth to help shape the agenda itself. Adults may know the meeting objectives, but youth often have the best sense of what will keep participants engaged, what topics deserve more attention, and what balance of work, recreation, and reflection will allow people to contribute their best thinking.  

Co-creating the agenda also communicates trust. Rather than inviting youth into an experience adults have already designed, we invite them to become partners in designing the experience itself.   

Build Relationships Before Business

Relationships are not separate from the work. They make the work possible.  

Beginning with icebreakers, check-ins, storytelling activities, partner conversations, or team-building exercises helps participants feel welcomed, lowers anxiety, and builds the psychological safety necessary for honest dialogue. Youth are far more willing to contribute ideas, navigate disagreement, and challenge one another respectfully when they have first had an opportunity to connect as people.   

Engage the Whole Person

Traditional meetings rely heavily on talking and listening, but young people think and communicate in many different ways.  

Some need time to write before they speak. Others express themselves most effectively through drawing, photography, collage, music, poetry, movement, role play, mapping, or storytelling. Arts-based facilitation is not entertainment. It engages different ways of knowing and often uncovers insights that would never emerge through discussion alone.   

Creativity is another pathway to meaningful participation.  

Design for Energy

One of the easiest mistakes facilitators make is trying to fit too much into too little time.   

Strong agendas intentionally vary the pace by alternating between large-group discussions and small-group activities, serious work and recreation, movement and reflection. They include opportunities for participants to socialize informally, laugh together, and simply rest.  

Leadership development requires energy. Exhaustion is not a badge of honor.   

Providing free time and creating spaces where youth can regulate themselves without stigma recognizes that every participant occasionally needs a break. Our chill room quickly became one of the healthiest additions to the weekend, allowing youth to step away briefly and return ready to engage. 

Thoughtfully Co-Facilitate

Youth engagement should not end with helping design the agenda. Young people should also have meaningful opportunities to help facilitate it.   

With preparation and coaching, youth can welcome participants, lead icebreakers, facilitate discussions, present information, summarize themes, introduce speakers, and help evaluate the meeting. Adults remain responsible for the overall experience, but sharing facilitation responsibilities demonstrates trust while helping youth develop authentic leadership skills.  

Facilitation is learned by facilitating.   

Design Every Activity with Intention

Every element of an agenda should have a purpose.  

Icebreakers build relationships. Team-building creates trust. Arts-based activities engage different ways of thinking. Recreation restores energy. Business meetings move the work forward. Free time strengthens friendships and allows participants to recharge.  

When each element is intentionally designed, the agenda becomes more than a schedule. It becomes an environment where young people can bring their full selves to the work.   

One of the lasting lessons from that statewide weekend is that even successful programs are not immune to drift. Over time, worthwhile priorities accumulate, agendas become crowded, and experiences gradually become less humane without anyone intending them to.   

One of the responsibilities of leadership is to periodically step back and ask whether the experience still reflects the values we hope to model.   

If our goal is meaningful youth engagement, then our agendas should communicate that young people are valued not only for what they accomplish, but for who they are. When we thoughtfully design experiences that honor relationships, creativity, leadership, well-being, and multiple ways of participating, meaningful youth engagement is no longer something we hope will happen.   

It becomes something we intentionally create.