Tip #8: Manage Meetings Effectively

Welcome to #8 on my top 10 list of tips I've learned during my career in Project Management.?In my experience, the best tips you can get are learned through doing - not through books.?Take it from someone who's been there.?(That's the next best thing)?Stay tuned as I count down my Top 10.

It's 10 minutes beyond when your meeting was supposed to end.?3 people on your meeting have dominated the (loosely followed) agenda and you've only covered a third of the items.?Take a breath.?You're not alone.?Managing meetings effectively is a challenge even the most seasoned project manager.?Here are some ideas on how to tame the beast:

Have a Solid Agenda

One of my pet peeves receiving a meeting invite with no agenda, very little notice and a vague topic.?I have no idea what to prepare for.?I'm going in blind.?As the chair of a meeting or the manager of a project, that's a failure and a missed opportunity.? Properly preparing for meetings and allowing everyone else to do so will make the whole meeting more productive.

I send an agenda for every meeting at least a few?hours in advance, preferably the day before. I ensure that all the major topics are included, although I also leave an open-ended "Round Table" as the last item.? Allowing contributions is just as important as control.

An agenda is a roadmap that leads to the goal of the meeting.?Don't travel without a map!

Have The Right People on the Meeting and Confirm their Attendance

The most carefully planned agenda will not lead to a productive meeting if the experts on each subject are not at the table.

First, ensure they're all Invited.?I have often done it myself - leaving out one important person.?Not only is it a missed opportunity to get their buy-in, it's a missed opportunity to get their input.?It likely also delays actions being carried out for the project.

Second, ensure they're all going to show up.?This is impossible to do with perfection, but it's easy to click on the "Tracking" button in Outlook earlier in the day to make sure the key people have accepted the meeting.?Check with anyone who is critical who has not accepted.?If the time doesn't work for the key players, it may be time to cancel the instance or move the meeting to a time that works.?Don't hold meetings with only half the team.?It generally ends up being time wasted.

Start and Finish Meetings on Time

Encourage timely attendance at meetings.?If every minute starts 6 minutes late, and there are any average of 10 people on every meeting, 1 hour of time has been wasted.?How many other productive uses are there for an hour?

Be prepared to start the meeting without people, unless they are absolutely critical.?Do not give in the the late arrival "Can I get a recap?" entreaty.?That wastes even more time.?

Protecting your stakeholders time will generate buy-in.?Everyone's time matters.

Finishing meetings on time is just as important.?The agenda control item mentioned above will lead to that, however meetings consistently finishing late just makes them a negative experience.?Some of the stakeholders likely have packed calendars.?It's a matter of respect in my opinion.

Stick to the Agenda (And Avoid Soap Box Speeches)

There's no point in having an agenda if the topics on the agenda don't get covered in the meeting.

The human side of running projects is Psychology.?The people on your project are not robots.?They have to be managed.?Generally, each person at the meeting is only interested in a small portion of the agenda relevant to their role and they would spend the whole meeting talking about their interests.?It's highly important that you can put the brakes on this.

Find creative ways to let people know when they're over-speaking.?One blog I recently read on this topic gave an example where people on a phone meeting were encouraged to press the "#" sign when someone starts rambling.?It's an anonymous way to give a signal that it's time to move on.?This might not be as effective in video meetings, but there are multiple creative ways of doing the same thing.?

The words "Let's take this offline" are a time saver in any meeting, particularly if you have a situation where only some people are needed to discuss a particular topic or someone is getting on their "soap box" about a topic not even on the agenda.?If it's not relevant to the whole group or disrupts the agenda, offer to set up a separate meeting with only the needed people to discuss at a different time.?This saves your current meeting.

Get Commitments to Action

The goal of a project meeting should be to finish with an updated list of actions, with everyone on the call knowing what is expected of them and by when. For every discussion on the call which results in a task ensure that:

• Everyone is well aware of WHO should complete the task
• The task is recorded in the project's action register
• Task owners are clear on exactly what is being requested
• Deadlines and dependencies are understood

These are the basics of a smooth project execution - Everyone knows their part and accountability is assigned for the moving parts.

In Conclusion: I'm not a fan of excessive meetings. As I've stated in my previous posts, I prefer the smallest number of meetings possible. Your team members can't get work done when they're stuck on the phone with you after all. Those meetings that are held, however, should be laser-focused and effective. Make them count!

Until next time.

Matthew Evans is a Project Manager in the Health Care Industry based in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.?If you liked this article, please Subscribe to my newsletter and/or Follow my profile.?Have any comments on effectively managing meetings or on the newsletter??Join the conversation below!