Super-productive project meetings

Introduction

There's a prevailing image of the project manager as someone who calls endless, pointless meetings. To many, it appears as though project managers spend much of their time locking up their key personnel and taking everyone away from doing real work.

However, few people doubt the importance of the free flow of information in an organization. Whenever we've conducted staff surveys, 'communication problems' are regularly at the top of the gripe list in some form or another. So you'd think that getting people together would be seen as a positive step. Clearly there's some sort of disconnection here; something's definitely going wrong.

Project managers use many ways to communicate. These include informal face-to-face conversations, email, direct phone calls, meetings and workshops. However, it's common to find that team members invariably reserve their most scornful wrath for the endless procession of meetings, meetings and more meetings that they're subjected to. It's a communication mechanism that's both heavily used and heavily criticized.

We very much agree with the popular complaints about meetings.

However, we think they have a bad press. While we all have plenty of personal experience of meetings that were simply a waste of time, there's nothing fundamentally wrong with them. It's just that organizations typically don't do meetings very well. Most sessions are poorly prepared for, poorly executed and lack the right follow-up. This all conspires against any prospect of them being effective. This is a great shame because projects desperately need well-run meetings as part of their staple diet for success.

Meetings will play an important part in any project you manage - for good or for bad. Some simple but effective measures can make all the difference between frittering away time for no particular gain and moving your project along at pace. Therefore, productive meetings are pivotal to super project management and that's why we're dedicating a section solely to this much-maligned subject.

[Too many meetings are like ceilings (an informal social gathering at which there is Scottish or Irish folk music, singing, dancing and story telling) without the music, singing and dancing.]

Project meetings come in many flavors

Under the generic umbrella of meetings we include anything from an informal, ad-hoc meeting in the corridor through to a large-scale presentation - with all the standard project management type sessions in between. The core of any project meeting is its objective - its raison d'être. In a project environment a meeting typically serves one of three broad purposes (or a combination thereof):

_ To plan or review progress. Planning, reviewing progress and re-planning are at the heart of project management and can be done either one-on-one or as a team event. We prefer interactive group sessions for any significant planning work or major project reviews.

_ To make decisions. Decisions are continually being made on projects and many of these require getting the right people together with the right information to arrive at an informed conclusion.

_ To do constructive work. People regularly need to be brought together to work on deliverables. For example, to agree and prioritize requirements at the start of a project.

If a meeting does not have at least one of these broad objectives, the alarm bells should start ringing.

Although there are many flavors of meetings - informal, formal, regular, irregular, planned, ad hoc, one-on-one, large scale - we recommend they all adhere to the same basic structure and disciplines:

_ preparation: laying the foundations for a productive session;

_ execution: running the meeting to achieve its objectives;

_ follow-up: reaping the benefits of the meeting.

Let's look at each of these in turn.

[Be sparing in calling lengthy meetings involving large numbers of people. Ten people at a three-hour meeting equates to the best part of a working week!]

It's all in the preparation

If you are a meeting voyeur, it becomes clear within a few minutes of the start of any get-together whether it's going to be productive or not.

In fact the fate of the meeting is normally determined long before the meeting starts, because it's all in the preparation.

It never ceases to amaze us how little effort goes into preparing for meetings. Many meeting organizers decide to wing it and this is one of the most common reasons why meetings fail to serve a useful purpose.

It's inexcusable to call a meeting without clear, specific objectives and a supporting agenda. Achieving the detailed objectives of a meeting is the measure of its success and the agenda provides the path for getting there.

Here are some simple steps for organizing a meeting.:

Organizing meetings: it's as easy as 1-2-3

1 Set objectives and an agenda. Never organize a meeting without deciding what its purpose is. If you're not sure what you want, then you're not ready to meet.

_ Decide what you want to get out of the meeting. Ensure your objectives are specific and that they're achievable with the time and participants available.

_ Design an agenda that will achieve your meeting objectives. Don't forget to include items to introduce and to summaries the session. Be realistic about how long each agenda item will take.

_ Circulate the objectives and agenda in advance, and ask for comments on these beforehand. Ensure there's sufficient time for attendees to undertake any preparatory work that might be required.

2 Get the right people to attend. Clear objectives and an excellent agenda will be no use if the wrong people turn up.

_ Make sure the attendees you need are available.

_ Keep the number of attendees tight and consistent with the kind of meeting event being organized.

_ Make sure you and your attendees can cover the roles of chair, scribe and timekeeper.

3 Pay attention to the physical arrangements. Physical arrangements might seem trivial but can cause havoc if not sorted out properly.

_ Choose the right meeting location. Sometimes you'll want to make the location as convenient as possible. Other times you'll want to take people away from the distractions of their work environment.

_ Ensure your meeting venue has the space and equipment you require. You may well need to bring along some things yourself.

(Have you noticed that whiteboards always seem to be stocked with an impressive array of pens that don't work?)

_ Set up the venue to reflect the kind of meeting you're organizing.

For example, if you want to have a round-table discussion, a room laid out in lecture theatre style will work against you.

Avoid delegates and no-shows

One of the most difficult aspects of preparing for a meeting involves getting the right people to attend. Your starting point must be to make sure not only that all the required individuals are invited but also that they show up without sending delegates in their place.

Delegates are one of the great plagues of modern meetings. You've invited all the right people, but a couple of gofers or lackeys turn up who are poor substitutes. It's a bit like your ideal partner sending a friend on your first proper date - it can be an improvement but rarely is.

Where there's any risk of delegates or no-shows, canvass the key attendees and ask them in person whether they're coming. If they waiver, use your personal skills to persuade them to attend. Having done the right preparation, you'll be able to explain to them why they specifically have been invited, what role you need them to play in the meeting and what the implications are if they're not able to attend.

Key roles and responsibilities

In preparing for a meeting you need to sort out the principal roles in advance. These are:

_ Chair. Responsible for the overall running of the meeting. Take on this role yourself in all but exceptional circumstances.

_ Scribe. Responsible for the meeting minutes. Assign this to a trusted meeting attendee.

_ Timekeeper. Responsible for tracking progress against the agenda's planned timings. Ask for a volunteer to take on this job.

The chair orchestrates the meeting and must be effective because this is the most critical role. It's important to keep focused, but fair minded and tolerant. This is a tricky balance to achieve and we'll be looking at the facilitation aspect in detail in the next section.

It's tempting to see the scribe role as a menial administrative function. However, it's usually a job that requires a fair degree of skill. The scribe needs to have a keen eye - or rather ear - for what merits recording. There's then the challenge of capturing the essence of decisions and actions while the meeting is in full flow. The scribe also needs to have the confidence to speak up to pause the meeting if clarification is required or something has been agreed that simply doesn't make sense.

For a small meeting it might be possible for the chair to take on the role of scribe. However, for anything more demanding you should be wary of trying to combine the roles. It's simply too difficult to take good-quality notes, while simultaneously controlling the dynamics of the meeting and sticking to the meeting agenda. Besides, by working as a double act, a chair and scribe can exert the required control over how the meeting is conducted.

Life is pretty straightforward for a timekeeper. They simply need a watch and to remember to keep an eye on it. They also need to be willing to speak out when a pre-agreed time is approaching. The time keeper doesn't need to worry if a call for time comes at an unfortunate point in the meeting. It's the chair's role, with input from the other attendees, to make a decision on how to deal with time pressures. The timekeeper can also be the chair's best friend, providing the perfect reason to close down a rambling discussion and to move on.

Consider hi-tech options

Technology offers some practical alternatives to meeting face-to-face, with most organizations having access to telephone or video-based conferencing facilities. These can certainly save considerable time and expense where meeting participants are scattered around the country or even around the world.

However, we've found that these kinds of sessions work best when the participants have already formed an effective working relation ship. For initial meetings we recommend being there in person if at all possible. We've also found that conference calls are best interspersed with in-person ones, even when everyone's on first-name terms. Some useful business can be done in the margins of face-to-face meetings, with the opportunity of an additional social event where people have travelled and are staying over. There's also evidence that constant use of tele- and video-conferences can encourage an 'us and them' mentality that erodes team spirit.

Top 5 for preparing a project meeting

_ Make sure there's plenty of contingency for each agenda item.

Agenda items always take more time than you think, and besides, you're unlikely to get lynched for finishing a meeting a little early.

_ Punctuate your agenda with well-planned comfort breaks. You're unlikely to keep a group productive for more than 1 1/2 hours. Also remember you'll do well to contain a break to anything less than 15 minutes.

_ Don't invite more than seven other participants if you want to hold a truly interactive session. Any more and people will be inhibited from contributing and the meeting will probably end up being dominated by one or two fearless talkers.

_ Don't avoid key players because they're troublesome or don't agree with you. But avoid going into hostile territory alone or under-prepared.

_ A meeting room that's too hot or cold can single-handedly scupper your preparations. Locate those heating controls or move the meeting somewhere else!

Conducting a successful meeting

You'll usually be acting in the role of chair and therefore be wielding significant influence over how each event unfolds. Even when the right preparation has been done, it's important the meeting gets off to a flying start. The opening is likely to set the tone for the meeting as a whole. Make sure you're the first one in the room, and greet everyone as they arrive - especially if it's likely to be a controversial or contentious meeting. The informal pre-meeting niceties need to be managed too! Start proceedings off by welcoming everyone in a bright, positive way without going overboard. A smile and a friendly greeting can create a good atmosphere that will spill over into the meeting proper. It's also an opportunity to introduce yourself to anyone who doesn't know you.

Next, set the key meeting ground rules up-front. It's easy to alienate people if you come across like a scolding schoolteacher, so be careful to outline the meeting etiquette deftly. For example, there's no point in antagonizing someone from the start just because their mobile is switched on. So, as you turn off your own mobile, make the observation, 'I always forget to turn this thing off!' You'll find that most reasonable people follow suit. Ultimately, developing the skills required to be an effective chair comes with practice, but it helps to stick to a few, very simple rules:

_ Always open by summarizing the purpose of the meeting and reviewing the agenda.

_ Keep focused on the topics on the agenda.

_ Keep close to the times agreed for each agenda item; and certainly start and end the event on time.

_ Encourage active participation from all attendees.

_ At the end of the session, summaries and confirm all the agreed decisions and actions.

Although the chair will set the pace and lead by example, it's very important to have other people in the meeting who are sympathetic and supportive. For example, if you need a controversial idea or decision to be discussed, it's more effective to have someone else in the meeting primed to raise the point. You'll then be able to influence the direction of the discussion, without simply being seen to dominate the meeting. Our final tip for the meeting chair is to make use of a meeting 'car park'. This is an area - usually on a flipchart or whiteboard - that can be used to park points raised during the meeting that are perfectly valid, but which fall outside of its scope. The car park is a useful device for enabling the meeting chair to keep the session on track, but without being seen to ignore contributions. However, for this to be effective, it's important that the car park is always visible and agreement is reached on how each parked item will be dealt with outside of the meeting.

It shouldn't happen to a project manager (but it did) . . .

A project manager started work on a huge program for a telecoms company in Ireland. Program meetings were held in a lavish boardroom setting and attended by all the key project managers involved - close to 30 at times. The project manager's boss impressed on him the importance of his first meeting appearance, and they spent time rehearsing his maiden update together. The project manager paid great attention to every detail imaginable in the run up to the meeting. Nothing was left to chance.

The day of the project manager's big moment arrived. As he approached the boardroom - ten minutes early at 10:50 - the businesslike tones from within sounded ominous. Like a bolt of lightning it hit him! The meeting started at 10:00 each week, not 11:00! He'd mixed up the start time with another weekly meeting and so missed his slot.

As the old saying goes: you never get a second chance to make a good first impression. Never take the simple stuff for granted!

Top 5 ways to kill (stop) a meeting early on

1 Arrive ten minutes late.

2 Start off with a lengthy chitchat about your favorite hobby – sports/football is a popular option.

3 Raise doubts about the purpose of the meeting.

4 Announce you'll be leaving halfway through; preferably handing over to someone who is reluctant to take on this responsibility.

5 Start the meeting proper by immediately going off-piste and discussing an item that's not on the agenda.

[Domestique is French for 'servant' and is used as a cycling term for a team player who sacrifices individual performance to help the team.

Every project manager needs a collaborator - to use another French expression - someone who arrives on time, keeps to the designated etiquette and completes their actions in a timely fashion.]

Reap what you've sown

[Ensure each meeting action states precisely what needs to be done and the date it needs to be done by - and someone present at the meeting takes ownership. Vague action points are a recipe for confusion and inaction.]

Many see the end of a meeting as job done, but it's rare for it to be a neatly self-contained event that doesn't have resulting actions. So in reality, the benefit of a meeting lies as much in what happens after it as during it. It's therefore imperative for you to ensure that decisions and actions are followed up.

The follow-up process actually begins in the meeting itself, with the scribe taking minutes. At this point, perhaps an image of a nitpicker taking meticulous notes springs to mind; someone producing a blow by-blow account of a session you didn't want to sit through in the first place. Embedded in the text will be a couple of vague actions you can't remember agreeing to. It doesn't need to be like this. Minutes are your friend and provide important control documents for your project.

Only three types of entry are valid in minutes:

_ Decisions - documenting any key agreements made. The entry needs to record only who made the decision and the decision itself.

_ Actions - specifying any follow-up task assigned to an individual at the meeting. The entry needs to document the action, the individual who has overall responsibility for the task and the date by which it must be completed.

_ Supporting notes - summarizing any supporting information that is essential for providing the context for the recorded decisions and actions. To be used rarely, or at least sparingly.

Where the minutes might be contentious, get them agreed during the meeting. It can be perceived as a bit tedious to review each key point - either as it's recorded or en masse at the end. However, this technique is great for confirming a shared understanding of what's been agreed and can save hours of work dealing with post-meeting disagreements.

We've found that prompt issue of minutes makes a big difference to the likelihood of the agreed actions being followed through. By prompt we mean ideally the same day, but no later than close of business the next working day. As we've already outlined, minutes don't need to be an onerous chore and putting off writing them up under mines the whole point. It also sends out the wrong message about your own commitment to action. Book time after the meeting with the scribe to get minutes issued while the discussion is fresh in your mind.

Having got the minutes out in a timely fashion, it's then essential that you track progress on the agreed actions and chase them up if required. You'll need an effective mechanism for doing this and an actions log sitting alongside your risks and issues log is a useful tool.

You'll soon find that active meeting follow-up creates a virtuous circle. Once people see that their meeting commitments are not going to be quietly forgotten, they're more likely to get on with whatever they agreed to. Next time around they'll also think that little bit harder about what they sign up to at one of your meetings.

Think big by thinking small

[Where two or more people are gathered, anything more than a social chitchat is a meeting.]

It's extremely easy to overlook, or underutilize, the power of small, semi-informal meetings. Think back on how much you achieved at less formal events; perhaps chance conversations in the corridor or the lift. People seem more relaxed, perhaps less on their guard, when the setting is informal.

We're not suggesting you adopt a totally Machiavellian approach to your chance encounters, but we do promote better use of seizing the moment or dropping in to see people. All we're recommending is a quick, automatic mental check of the business potential in these situations and a more systematic approach to exploiting the opportunity.

As you can see, our basic meeting principles are scalable and can be used on anything from a large workshop to a one-to-one. This approach is especially useful when you're dealing with senior management or anyone with a meeting phobia. Senior managers rarely have time for lengthy meetings, and you can chase your tail trying to pin down their availability. In our experience, it's far easier to wait for a chance encounter or to fashion one. Wait for the customary greeting of 'How's it going?' and hit them with what you want. We strongly advise having one request in mind, not a barrage - ask for too much and you'll get nothing. Look upon these meetings as coming across a reluctant genie - someone who can grant your dearest wish but isn't going to make the first move.

However, a word of warning: beware of falling into the trap that semi-informal meetings don't need the same kind of rigor as 'proper' meetings. You need to be suitably prepared if you're going to get a decision or some action agreed. Ask yourself what you're looking to achieve. What's your precise objective for this encounter and what's the best tack to take? If you're not prepared, your ad hoc meeting may well prove to be a backward step.

Also, always make sure that anything of significance is documented at the next available opportunity. Often a friendly follow-up email that captures the important points you discussed will suffice. If these discussions are not recorded they can become counterproductive; you may well become a victim of conflicting memories and at the mercy of hearsay.

[Review recurring meetings periodically and check whether they're still really necessary. Don't fall into the trap of holding regular 'project meetings' without good reason.]

Section Summary

_ Always put the time needed into meeting preparation - it's the only way of ensuring that your meetings will be effective.

_ No meeting should go ahead without an agenda, supported by a statement of its purpose and objectives.

_ By default, take the role of the chair at meetings and make sure you have the right people acting as scribe and timekeeper.

_ Meeting follow-up starts with the production of a set of punchy, action-oriented minutes. Get these issued without delay.

_ Have a system in place to ensure you always follow up on meeting action points.

_ Above all, create a virtuous circle for your meetings. Get a reputation as a super project manager who runs the best get-togethers in town.

Have you ever heard anyone say: 'The agenda was clear, the right people attended and we started on time. The chair was focused and everyone contributed. How did it all go wrong?' The discipline needed to run successful meetings isn't hard to master but it can be difficult to apply consistently.

Meetings are going to play a major part in your project and for you to be a super project manager it's important they're highly productive. The foundation for success lies in the preparation. Ensure you arrive at your well-chosen meeting venue with a solid agenda and the right people in attendance. Make sure that your meeting roles are sorted out in advance of the event.

Once the meeting is under way be alert to how effectively your chair, scribe and timekeeper are doing their jobs - even if that's you wearing three different hats! Make sure you stick to the agenda and that all important actions and decisions are recorded. Don't overrun.

Build up a reputation as someone who runs a tight ship, not someone who shoots from the hip.

Meetings are not only an important part of super project management, they're your showcase as a project manager. Many people will only see you in action during these sessions. If your meetings are tight and focused, not only will you get what you need out of them, your reputation as a project manager will be justly enhanced too.