The Basics on Successful Project Meetings

Yeah, I thought of American Football when I was constructing this post, and the picture of the football huddle came to mind.  What is a huddle? For those that don't know American Football, its a gathering of the team to discuss the next play and how to execute it.  A concept similar to a project meeting.

Now, everyone has their own successful ways of conducting a project meeting.  I though I would share some basics. I have found these tips are "golden" to putting together a solid foundation for a project meeting.

Here are nine tips:

1. First set up ground rules on who has the floor.  This lays the communication foundation.
2. Make up a rule on how to provide input during a discussion to collaborate or constructively interrupt. (i.e. person raises their hand.)
3. Make up an agenda on what will be discussed, and invite only those needed to be at the meeting. You wouldn't invite the VP of Finance to a meeting on Infrastructure Architecture, would you?
4. Make sure your meeting is actually worth having, in other words, is it really necessary to have this meeting. Just having a meeting to meet doesn't produce anything feasible.
5. Have an effective and efficient multimedia platform. Don't have a "death by PowerPoint" presentation that has 100 slides in 10 size Boolean font. Make it at least a 24 size attractive font or bigger with a minimum of 5-7 bullets.  Maybe put some graphs and/or pictures in the slides to stimulate the push communication concept.
6. Have basic refreshments, i.e. a few snacks and drinks, like coffee/tea/bottled water is just fine. A way to a person's heart is through their stomach, right? This is a good way to get energy into participants for your meeting.
7. Make the length of the meeting appropriate, try for a half hour, max. Being in a meeting, after 30 or so minutes, longer makes people loose interest and it doesn't matter how interesting you are!
8. Have an open period at the end of meeting to review, reiterate, and get feedback.  This helps build consensus and reignites interest.
9. Produce meeting minutes afterward and distribute to those who attended the meeting.  Also, to those key stakeholders that couldn't make it.  The reason is that way it helps meeting members and stakeholders remember what the meeting was about!  (Say that five times fast!)

These are some basics.  I hope it helps with your next huddle.