Submitted by egmc on
in
Forums
I was wondering what other folks discuss typically in a weekly project team meeting. I've seen some ineffective ones and would like some inputs on how to run an effective one. I've been told it shouldn't be a "status update" since that wastes time, and Mark has recently told us about "passive updating" which sounds great. I know you shouldn't start off saying "So how's it going?", and obviously need an agenda. So what are the most effective things to get out of the weekly team meetings? How long should they be? I've seen ones where they use a computer tied to the projector in the conference room and folks seem very focused on the screen watching the guy typing into a meeting minutes document. Is there a good way to do that?
Thanks,
egmc
A weekly project meeting
A weekly project meeting where the team of project leaders gets together to discuss the project and continue driving to the plan? Or are you talking about a meeting between you the manager and the project manager who works for you?
Project Team Meeting
I was referring to a weekly meeting that me the project leader runs with members of the project team, including engineers, marketing, manufacturing, and possibly the sponsor. I have seen several other project meetings here run by others and was trying to improve the effectiveness of my meetings. I just came up with the plan for this upcoming phase. I was going to go over it, but don't want the meeting to turn into just an update, or a problem-solving session, which is what I've seen in other meetings. I don't want the meeting to drag on and waste people's time, so was looking for some inputs as to what the most effective focus of the meeting should be. I already talk to the team members individually.
Milestones and coordination points
Especially when the separate functional leads are meeting, you need to focus on milestone achievement (and the impact of missed milestones) and on coordination points.
So, for example, the handoff from engineering to manufacturing, and the timing of first manufacturing runs with the marketing campaigns, etc.
Make sure the cogs are meshing, basically. Avoid issues internal to a functional group (ie, let manufacturing do their thing as long as they hit their milestones).
My 2 cents.
John Hack
Standup Meetings
I have found using short 15-20 minute "Standup Meetings," frequently used in software development and referred to as "Scrum Meetings," to be extremely effective as project team meetings. You don't have to be developing software to make use of this tool. I did a podcast episode on this very topic and how to use Standup Meetings on pm411.org. You can find this particular episode at http://pm411.org/2007/04/08/podcast-episode-003-managing-effective-meetings-part-2-of-2/.
Hope this helps - if you have further questions after listening, please feel free to contact me at [email protected].
Ron Holohan, PMP
Host of The pm411.org Project Management Podcast
www.pm411.org