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About this lesson
Most teams have team meetings and effective team meetings are an excellent way to manage the communication processes. Team leaders are normally responsible for organizing and managing team meetings.
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Quick reference
Team Meetings
Most teams have team meetings and effective team meetings are an excellent way to manage the communication processes. Team leaders are normally responsible for organizing and managing team meetings.
When to use
Some team meetings are regularly scheduled and some occur as needed. The team leader and team circumstances will determine the type and frequency of meetings. Generally, pulse meetings occur on a regular calendar schedule (daily, weekly, etc) and problem resolution meetings occur whenever there is a problem requiring team support to resolve.
Instructions
Productive meetings are a team asset and non-productive meetings are a team liability Before every meeting be sure you know the purpose of the meeting and who the attendees will be. Once those are defined, the rest of meeting planning is relatively easy. Based upon the attendees, you can decide whether to make it formal or informal. Based upon the purpose you can decide if it should be presentation, discussion, or both. And of course based upon the logistics, you can decide if it will be face-to-face, webex, teleconference, or some other medium. With these determined the final planning elements such as time, place, agenda, and amenities can be planned.
Project Team Pulse Meetings
One special category of meetings is the project pulse meeting. These are project team status meetings. They should be short – just 10 to 15 minutes. At these meetings, the only topic discussed is how the status has changed since the last meeting. What tasks are finished, and what tasks have started – that is what keeps it short. If a problem or issue has come up, it is identified, but the problem resolution is not done during the pulse meeting, rather a separate meeting with those needed to work the problem will be called. The frequency of pulse meetings can vary based upon the stress and urgency in the project. Just as your pulse rate quickens when under stress, the pulse meetings should be more frequent when the project is facing a crisis – but not any longer. The meeting only needs to cover what has changed since the last pulse.
Problem Resolution Meetings
Another special meeting is the problem resolution meeting. In this case, invite those who are needed to resolve the problem, it doesn’t need to be the whole team and many times you need to invite subject matter experts who are not on the team. Be sure the meeting facility and logistics are conducive to solving the problem, I often hold these meetings right at the location of the problem. Be sure to send an agenda and set expectations so that meeting attendees come prepared to analyse and if necessary make a decision.
Login to download- 00:03 Hi, I'm Ray Sheen, and it's now time to talk about one of our favorite topics,
- 00:08 meetings.
- 00:09 Who doesn't love meetings and wish that they had more of them?
- 00:13 Yeah, right.
- 00:15 Well, let's talk about them anyway.
- 00:17 I'm going to start with the project pulse meeting.
- 00:20 Pulse meetings are quick meetings to track the near-term progress on a project.
- 00:26 I've said that they are less than 15 minutes and
- 00:29 I have found that they're often less than ten minutes if managed well.
- 00:33 The focus in a pulse meeting is what has happened since the last pulse.
- 00:37 The team does not need to review the project goals or review the entire
- 00:40 plan from day one to day last, just what has happened since the last meeting.
- 00:45 And the focus is on status, not technical reviews of the activities.
- 00:49 So each individual reports what tasks they have finished and
- 00:52 what they've started since the last pulse.
- 00:55 If an issue has come up, they can raise it but the pulse meeting does not resolve it.
- 00:59 That will be a different meeting.
- 01:01 Also, if there are some coordination required for
- 01:03 activities that must start before the next pulse, it is appropriate to mention those.
- 01:08 The key to success for pulse meetings is to keep them focused on status and
- 01:12 not turn them into issue resolution.
- 01:15 One of the reasons I like the term pulse meeting is that it also
- 01:18 conveys the urgency or crisis element of a project.
- 01:21 Just like your pulse rate quickens when you're under stress, the pulse rate for
- 01:25 a project team should be more frequent for a project that is under stress or
- 01:29 in a crisis.
- 01:30 But when things settle down,
- 01:31 those daily pulse meetings can stretch back out to just once a week.
- 01:36 Now I said that we don't do problem resolution in a pulse meeting, but
- 01:40 that does not mean we don't do problem resolution.
- 01:42 These meetings can occur with both project teams and functional business teams.
- 01:48 Problem resolution meetings are focused meetings whose goal is to understand and
- 01:52 solve a problem the team has encountered.
- 01:55 Of course, that means that these meetings are only scheduled when there
- 01:58 is a problem.
- 01:59 No problem, no meeting.
- 02:01 Since the focus is on solving a problem,
- 02:03 the only attendees that are needed are those who can contribute to the solution.
- 02:07 In some cases, that maybe the entire team, but usually it is not.
- 02:11 In fact, it is much more productive to invite non-team members who are subject
- 02:15 matter experts in some aspect to the problem or propose resolution that is to
- 02:19 require all team members to attend even though they may have nothing to offer.
- 02:24 Also, think about where to hold the meeting.
- 02:26 It is a problem-solving meeting, so
- 02:28 you may want to hold it at the location of the problem or you may want to have
- 02:32 a meeting in a room with lots of space for brainstorming and story boarding.
- 02:36 If the problem requires several meetings,
- 02:38 you may wanna change the venue based upon the goal of each meeting.
- 02:41 Again, this is in contrast to the pulse meeting,
- 02:44 which is normally in the same meeting location for each meeting.
- 02:48 While everyone on the team will soon realize how the pulse meetings are run,
- 02:51 the problem resolution meetings are often unique.
- 02:54 Each one has a different purpose.
- 02:56 So send out an agenda, let people know ahead of time what is planned so
- 02:59 they can come prepared with data or analysis.
- 03:03 And in particular, if the schedule demands of the decision must be made at this
- 03:07 meeting, let everyone know that.
- 03:09 This could influence who will attend and they can come prepared to
- 03:12 commit their organization to the problem resolution path.
- 03:15 Well, those are some special case team meetings.
- 03:18 Let's now step back to a more general level and discuss some best practices for
- 03:22 running team meetings.
- 03:24 There are two key considerations that will drive all of your meeting planning and
- 03:27 execution.
- 03:28 Those two considerations are who will attend and
- 03:31 what is the purpose of the meeting.
- 03:33 Based upon those answers, you can plan meeting logistics, meeting agenda and
- 03:37 determine how best to achieve a successful meeting.
- 03:40 Once you've determined the purpose and
- 03:42 attendees, then you can plan how best to achieve the purpose
- 03:45 given the way the attendees normally interact with each other.
- 03:49 Should it be formal or informal?
- 03:51 This is often driven by the preference of attendees.
- 03:54 Do you want attendees to bring presentations to review, or
- 03:57 just bring discussions, or both?
- 03:59 Regardless, you'll need to let people know so they can be prepared.
- 04:03 And of course, based upon the attendance, you can determine whether to do
- 04:06 face-to-face meetings, web-based, teleconference, or some other format.
- 04:11 Well, let's finish this up with the review of the meeting planning details.
- 04:15 You need to get an agenda and logistics information to people in time for
- 04:19 them to plan.
- 04:20 Think about how much time you will need and when is the best time for the meeting.
- 04:24 Setting a detailed analysis meeting for
- 04:25 late afternoon on a Friday is probably not a good idea.
- 04:29 Consider the possible facility constraints.
- 04:32 If it is a presentation meeting, can everyone see the screen?
- 04:35 Will the room be big enough?
- 04:36 Does it have the right technology?
- 04:38 Depending upon the meeting, you may also have some food or amenities.
- 04:42 Think about your attendees and
- 04:43 the time of the day to be sure there is something appropriate for everyone.
- 04:47 Finally, plan who will take minutes, record actions, and the meeting followup.
- 04:51 They should be prepared for their assigned role.
- 04:54 Meetings are reality of doing business today and
- 04:57 definitely an aspect to team communications.
- 05:01 So do them well, keep them focused on the meeting purpose and
- 05:05 organized to achieve the meeting goal.
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