More Productive Project Meetings
Project meetings are an inevitable part of collaborative work, especially within mission-driven organizations. While ineffective project meetings can lead to frustration and delays, productive meetings are crucial for project success. They can foster collaboration, enhance engagement, and help you navigate challenges.
So, when is a meeting truly necessary, and how can you ensure it's productive?
When to Hold a Meeting (and When Not To)
Meetings are most effective when they involve interaction and decision-making, rather than just information sharing. Consider holding a meeting when you need to:
•Brainstorm and generate ideas.
Reach a consensus or make a group decision.
Address complex problems that require discussion of multiple factors.
Build team cohesion, foster relationships, and improve communication.
Have sensitive conversations, especially one-on-one or in small groups.
What meetings should not be for is simply sharing updates or information that doesn't require discussion. These can often be handled through other communication channels, such as emails, shared documents, or project management tools.
Instead of dedicating valuable meeting time to status updates, another option is to ask for written updates to be shared and reviewed before the meeting. Reserve the actual meeting time for collaborative discussions that truly require group interaction. Allow a brief period early in the meeting for any questions or discussions regarding the pre-shared updates.
Strategies for Better Project Meetings
Even when a meeting is necessary, it can still be challenging to ensure the meeting is productive. Here are several strategies for improving your project meetings:
Pre-schedule recurring meetings: For regular team or project meetings, schedule them well in advance, even months ahead, to avoid last-minute scrambles. Meeting times can always be adjusted if conflicts arise.
Prepare and utilize meeting agendas: Create and share detailed agendas before meetings, explicitly noting any decisions that need to be made for each item. Allocate a specific time frame (e.g., 5 to 25 minutes) for each agenda topic to keep discussions focused and on track. Agendas serve as a living document for taking notes, documenting conclusions, and outlining next steps, including assigned due dates and responsibilities.
Employ collaborative decision-making techniques: To guide discussions toward concrete outcomes, use structured voting methods. These can include collaboratively creating a pros and cons list, having participants rank their choices, or utilizing "nominal voting" where individuals state their preference and explain their reasoning.
Manage meeting frequency and attendance intentionally: Periodically re-evaluate if meetings are too frequent or too long, and adjust as necessary to maintain engagement. Be intentional about who is invited, ensuring attendees are present when the topics are directly relevant to their project role.
Encourage active participation: Inform attendees in advance that their input will be sought on specific topics. Consider having different participants lead various agenda items to boost engagement.
Conduct in-the-moment "resets": If a meeting veers off course or faces low engagement, explicitly state the immediate key outcomes needed from the meeting, or propose postponing the meeting until all necessary participants can be present and fully engaged.
Ensure follow-up on action items: Document all action items and decisions during the meeting, ideally using a shared document or project management tool. Clearly assign responsibilities and due dates for each action item before the meeting concludes. Follow up by sharing the documented list of action items and decisions after the meeting.
By focusing on clear preparation, dynamic facilitation, and actionable follow-up, you can transform your project meetings into truly productive and engaging sessions that drive project success!