Comments on: Wrong Approach to Weekly Project Meetings

By: John Estrella

John Estrella — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:06:41 +0000

Look me up next time Atul.

By: Atul

Atul — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 13:17:50 +0000

• Further break the meeting into two parts a) Status b) Potential issues.
• Seek status first, this allows team members who do not have any potential issues and are not required to contribute in solution discussions to leave the meeting.
• Hold risk identification and management meetings separately and not mix with status meetings, a status meeting should be short compared to potential issue identification, problem solving or risk management meetings.
• Reason - Very often a status meeting runs in to solution discussions and you run out of time, without rest of the team members getting a chance to provide status updates.
• Clearly identify the purpose of the meeting and time allotted for the activity i.e. Status, Potential issues and finally discussion on finding the right solution.
• As a thumb rule if a problem can not be resolved under 5 minutes, park it and book a separate meeting with only key players, thus respecting the time of other team members.

Ps: I was also present in the evening session, let us meet next time.

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 20:41:46 +0000

Absolutely the right way to do things.

I do find that some attendees at my meetings are confused when I do not provide them with the “normal” structure and agenda, but there is not enough time to go through the niceties.

I want to know what today’s problem is, what we are doing about it, what the next problem is going to be and how can we avoid or mitigate it.

By: Harwinder

Harwinder — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 12:47:44 +0000

Very good point. Nice to be reminded of it again. Thanks.