No more boring status meetings, but solving problems instead with #WOW

We all have been trained on how project management works. Setup the project, develop GANTT Charts, paint an org-structure with workstream leads and provide them with a status update template and then....

Have you ever been in weekly status meetings, where people where reading out loud the slides, where they spend at least one hour each, if not more, preparing it beforehand?

Did you ever think "This meeting could have been an email or a MsTeams post?" To many great people, who could make a difference are listening (or not) to things they know, instead of creating value by solving problems?

(To find out the costs of a meeting - check the meeting cost calculator from HBR ?https://hbr.org/2016/01/estimate-the-cost-of-a-meeting-with-this-calculator)

You can change that with #WOW

It doesn′t matter, if it is a traditional project, a department meeting or even an agile project. Too often we start realizing, that the time we spend in meetings is to much. Yet, somehow everyone feels being together also provides value and just skipping meetings also doesn′t provide the connectedness and space to solve problems together.

Where to start?

We have some new ways of working practices at Bayer, that truly make a difference. But before we look into how that works, ask yourself the following questions...

1. Do we need status updates? Or rather information about progress and hurdles?
2. Who could help solving challenges? Is it the workstream leads / product owners or would it require experts from the teams?
3. How often do we need to liase and exchange? While weekly sometimes is to much, monthly might be to long in between.

Let′s start with the solutioning:

Obviously status reports might sometimes be required for audit or project management reasons, but mostly no-one needs them weekly or even monthly. Having a written quarterly update often might be more then sufficient. What you actually need are progress updates and knowing where hurdles are that others can solve.

The first practice we use is called "Sh.i.p. = Sharing in Progress"

And instead of using ppt or emails, the best is to use an MSTeams Channel conversation, where you can give it a brief headline and a date. There you briefly summarize what has been achieved (e.g. the last 2 / 4 weeks), what′s next and what are things which would need support. (In my projects we often use 2-4 weeks Sh.i.p. as we have a two weeks (SCRUM) or 4 weeks cycle. Using MSTeams conversations has the benefit, that you can tag people who would need to know / are needed to support, as well as making it transparent (for every project member) allows broad contribution specifically when there are challenges. Writing such Sh.i.p normally takes 15min (achievements and next things to do can be taken from the KANBAN Board, if there is one on team level) instead of an hour and there is mostly no ppt needed.

If you still need a formal status update, really think it through, who would really read it, is it for documentation reasons only, how often would they really be required, which level of detail? Mostly I bet, quarterly and high level and without spending time for formatting in ppt is more then sufficient.

In addition, posting Sh.i.p. into MsTeams provides the opportunity for those who are interested and need the information to spend some time with it (remember our brain can read faster then it can listen). Even better is it to create full transparency to everyone to contribute where needed and providing a transparent conversation thread, where people can be pulled in later.

(If you wonder why a teams conversation is more efficient than an email, read this blog from -> Harald Schirmer )

Lean and Fast Steering for Problem solving

The question remains on how a meaningful meeting can look like.

And here the #WOW practices "Lean & Fast Steering" is providing us a framework, that we can fill with meaningful content.

To make progress it is important to define metrics (e.g. could be progress within activities, data gathered from customers, or anything else like key results).

The second important topics are "tensions", which we can describe as problems that need support, challenges where you are stuck or just saying: "Tension = a gap between how things are and how they should be".

How does the meeting agenda could look like:

1. Start with a "Check-in" (specifically as in these times hybrid work is common and you might not be able to connect at the coffee machine regularly with everyone). A good practice for doing check-ins is to start with another #WOW practice called "Rounds", which basically means, that one person after the other is asked a specific question and can speak for a little moment uninterrupted. Those Rounds in check-ins can be about the current mood, the thing people are most proud of, the last mistake or something people have learned about. This is basically creating connectedness and inclusion.
2. Metrics: Check together with the team how the work is going on towards expected results, that could be a dashboard, or any other simple thing that helps to get an overview in how far progress has been made towards key results.
3. If applicable another short "Rounds" to synchronize activities, help people understand context and?interdependencies or anticipate adjustments can be helpful.
4. And then the most important part of the meeting starts ... "Tensions". It′s best to ask the participants of the meeting to list the business tensions to be addressed, i.e. what is holding team members back from advancing, in the 24h before the meeting starts (the loop functionality in teams is perfectly designed for that). Deal with the tensions one by one by identifying the next step and listen to ideas, ask for support, gather perspectives and if needed, create actions items on your kanban or to-do list to follow up. Often such tensions can be solved or significant progress can be made in just some minutes, means everyone will leave the meeting having contributed and can see the progress made and how tensions are turned into solutions.
5. You might close the meeting with another quick rounds on mood or asking what could be done better next time (the quick version of a retrospective)

How long should this meeting be? Start with 60 minutes, test it, learn, experiment, adjust. If you need more time make it 90 min (but close the meeting if all is discussed - everyone will appreciate having time back in their calendar).

How often should this happen? The answer is "it depends" - sometimes it makes sense weekly, sometimes every two weeks (remember in SCRUM teams they are doing daily stand-ups). In the end my personal recommendation would be after a month or two to schedule a Retrospective, learn together what has been working well, and where it could be improved and then again adjust.

Meetings only have a real purpose if the right people are in there, real value is created and if the duration is adequate. But this is something only you will find out.

I wish everyone a great learning ahead and if you are a Bayer colleague, check out the #WOW Learning path in GoLearn by entering go/wowlearning into your browser.

Use "Lean and Fast Steering" to

• Remove roadblocks quickly focusing on current team needs to get the job done
• Clarify who does what and empower people to express their needs and take decisions
• Identify and explain tensions as well as accountabilities to help advance and make concrete next steps

#FutureOfWork #WOW #ForBetter #TeamBayer