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Effective Project Team Meetings
Posted by Cathryn in : Project Management , trackbackRun well, Project Team meetings are a powerful tool for making sure everyone, including the project manager, understands where the project is and where its heading. Run badly, and they waste everyone’s time.
I’m going to assume you know how to run a good business meeting, so this article isn’t about making sure you’ve got an agenda, minutes, keep to time and all that. For some very good tips about running meetings, please look here or here
I have a weekly formal team meeting, with other meetings as necessary but kept to a minimum. If necessary, I will also run short daily meetings to make sure everyone is focussed and communicating well.
My formal team meetings follow a strict agenda, and their purpose is to make sure that everyone in the team is focussed and understands what they should be doing. I do not use them to get precise updates on planned activities from everyone - that can be done through weekly reports or by a project coordinator.
1. Give everyone a chance to speak
Ask everyone to give a summary of what they’ve done in the last week, what they’re expecting to do next week, and what they see as the major issues and risks on the project. This means that you, the project manager, find out if people are doing the right work, and can do something about it if not. It also means that other team members have a chance to understand what is going on. Ask questions if you need to, but make sure that each person has a chance to say what they want to say.
I do this as a ’round the table’ exercise, and end with myself. Noone is allowed more than 5 minutes (not even me!).
This should not be a detailed review of the plan. Although I do take the plan into team meetings, and refer to it, I rarely go through task by task.
2. Agree key team focus for the coming week
By the end of the meeting, everyone should have a clear understanding of the main point(s) of focus for the team over the next week or two. There should be no more than 2 or 3 points, and they may include hitting a particular milestone, resolving a major issue, attending to an area which is in danger of falling behind. That is not the same as saying that everyone will work on these focus points, but that all will be aware of them and will support those who are working on them.
I will have a good idea of what these points should be before I go into the meeting. If others have different views, those will be discussed and, sometimes, the priorities will change.
3. Get the right people to attend
I will generally have everyone who reports directly to me, plus representatives from key suppliers and other stakeholders who are heavily involved in the project. I don’t include developers if there is a development team leader. Depending on the project, I will probably include a key user representative and someone from Service Delivery / IT Operations, particularly as we get close to going live. If there are more than 7-8 people, it may be worth rethinking to make sure everyone needs to be there.
4. Do good minutes
In project recovery situations, where the project hasn’t been managed formally, I’ve been known to run the entire thing out of weekly meeting minutes for some time. The template I use is available here.
You’ll notice that as well as normal meeting minutes with records of discussion and actions, it lists key dates, the main issues and risks and staff availability.
5. Check staff availability
At the end, check everyone’s availability over the coming 3-4 weeks. In projects where team members also report to line managers, it is easy for the project to be forgotten when leave or training is arranged, and this is a good time to pick that up. It also means that you can quickly organise who is covering for absences.
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