Manage Project
Meetings
In many companies project meetings can be characterized by
the following:
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The meeting is held at the same time each week.
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The meeting is held in the same location.
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Most of the meeting is devoted to the team updating people
on status.
This approach fails for a number of reasons. First, in
international projects you cannot get together easily. So people tend to use
voice conference calls. People find the meetings boring since they are often
interested in their own status, but not that of others in the team working on
things that do not affect them. Third, the project leaders’ only power is that
of timing. Project leaders do not, after all, control people or money. They have
the use of these things, but they do not control them. When the meetings are
always held at the same time and place, the project leaders give up their power.
Thus, even if the project is in trouble, people are meeting in the same way.
What is the impression given to the team? Even though the project leaders say
the project is in trouble, it is really not. “
Otherwise, why are we meeting in the same way?”
There is a better approach for meeting on international projects.
Follow these guidelines and you will have more success.
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Timing. Stagger the meetings in time
based on urgency. That is, if the project is doing fine, then have a meeting
every two weeks. If the project is in trouble, have meetings twice a week. This
supports one of the basic tenets of project management—what you do is more
important than what you say.
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Location. Vary the location. Never
have the meeting where the project leaders are. Go out to a department
participating in the project. Go to different locations. This will give the team
a chance to be more exposed to the project culture. Visit the places where the
effects and benefits of the project will be felt. This will be a strong
motivating factor for the team.
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Subjects of the meetings. Avoid
gathering status at the meeting. Status collection and reporting are discussed
in a later section in this chapter. What do you talk about? Two things—issues
and lessons learned. You may not resolve issues, but you can discuss most of
these in the team. Issues tend to be negative since many are problems. In
contrast lessons learned are positive. People in the team get something out of
attending these meeting.
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Format. Obviously, you cannot afford
to have everyone fly to a different location each time. However, since you are
going to have issues and lessons learned as the focus of the meetings, not
everyone has to attend every meeting. The project leaders can identify only
those individuals who are concerned about an issue or what can use the specific
results from experience that are covered in the lessons learned. This reduces
the number of people involved. Issue meetings can be discussed using voice or
videoconferencing. Lessons learned are best done in videoconferencing and in
person.
In general, try to have two meetings on issues to one on lessons
learned. Gather status on the project ahead of the meetings. At the start of the
meeting, summarize the status of the project. In an issues meeting, try to
address three issues. The people for the first two issues should be present.
After the first issue is covered, then these people leave and get the
individuals for the third issue. This keeps the meeting going and it minimizes
the waste of time for the meeting. Why three issues? This is a number that you
can get through in a time of say one hour. Never try to resolve issues in the
meeting. This would put too much pressure on the people and will likely lead to
bad decisions. In many different cultures, issues are never solved in meetings.
They are resolved in one-on-one get-togethers after the meeting. That is the
model to follow. You also avoid confrontation in the meetings.
How do you discuss an issue? Present the issue to the group and
give some background. To test people’s understanding of the issue, discuss what
will happen if the issue is not solved. This gets people involved in the
conversation and is not forcing them to think of solutions.
Now international projects tend to be complex as do their issues.
If you next discuss decisions that are possible, you are likely to get some
fuzzy general discussion. This is a waste of time. Instead, talk about potential
actions that could be taken after the meeting. This is more productive. Actions
are specific things that people can do. Once the group has discussed the
actions, then you can briefly talk about decisions. However, remember again that
you are not attempting to reach a decision in the meeting. If you can in a
natural way, fine. In general, you are collecting information on the issue and
people are getting a common understanding and vision of the issue and its
various facets. Lessons learned will be discussed in the next chapter.
Who takes the minutes of the meeting? YOU DO! Whoever takes the
notes of a meeting controls the truth. Do not forget this basic point. This is
true even if you are highest ranking person in the room. Write up the notes of
the meeting within one hour after the meeting. How should you organize the
notes? Here is a suggested approach that has worked:
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Identify the issue and the impact if it is not addressed;
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Summarize the potential actions that were covered;
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Summarize the decision and what comes next—agreed upon
action items;
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Make sure that, with few exceptions, that all action items
are to be followed up on within 48 hours of the meeting.
This last point addresses the problem in many international
projects that people discuss and agree on items and then they just return to
their work. There is no follow-up. Project leaders must follow up and soon after
the meeting. Additional guidelines on handling issues will be explored in the next chapter.
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