4 Tips to a Better Project Status Meeting – and 3 Guidelines You’ve Forgotten

Love your meetings!

For many projects, status meetings are a given, mostly because that’s how projects are run in most companies. So, if your company culture mandates status meetings, then let’s make those meetings the best use of time possible.

Let’s assume that you already have a basic understanding of how a good meeting is run. You know you should have an agenda, only invite the relevant folks, prepare for the meeting, keep to time, and turn off technology. Starting there, here are 4 tips on how to get the best out of your meeting.

Let the team decide how often to meet and the initial agenda

The kickoff meeting accomplishes several goals including defining the project, communicating the initial plan, scope, and stakeholders, and confirming the initial project team. Another critical item is to have the team spend a few minutes determining what the status meetings include, how often those meetings occur, and the length of the meetings. This promotes a commitment by the team to participate and how to contribute.

Set up your project status meeting on the same day of the week at the same time

If your project is going to occur for more than several weeks, make sure you set up the meetings for the same day of the week and the time of day and preferably in the same meeting space. Once people get in the habit of meeting at a specific day, time, and place you’re more likely to get folks participating and contributing. If your meeting includes people on the phone, try to keep the same phone number.

Assign someone the task of taking notes and action items

Some people are better at this than others. Try to avoid having one person do it all the time so it doesn’t become a burden, but try to get someone skilled at this. This is a great job for someone who is in a more junior position, giving them great exposure to the team and the deliverables. The notes should be distributed to the team no later than 24 hours after the meeting.

Use the agenda determined at the Kickoff meeting

My suggestion:

• The first 5 minutes is attendance. Let everyone see that you (or your note taker) are recording who is there and who is on the phone.
• After attendance, take 5 minutes to the project update as you, the project manager, understand it. No long explanations or systems design. Just the facts.
• Then, spend however long it takes on looking at the next status period. What is to be accomplished and any deliverables due. Unless you’ve got a huge project, this probably shouldn’t take much longer than 10 minutes. Then, go around the room and ask each person what they need help with and why.
• When everyone has their say – and keep each person’s comments to around 2- 3 minutes – review the top 2 or 3 challenges and make sure the action items are assigned, even if it means more research. Review the action items, assignments, and due dates.
• Close the meeting and thank everyone for attending.
  

  Don’t forget to take notes.l

Here are several you’ve forgotten

As a project manager, there are so many things to remember. It wouldn’t surprise me if you’ve forgotten these three points.

Set up meeting norms and rules

Many project managers forget this step. Each project team should have meeting rules that they’ve agreed upon. The rules may include:

• No side conversations.
• All technology off and placed screen-side down. No laptops except for the note taker.
• If you’re late, no re-hashing the meeting. If you need to know what you missed, check the notes or check in with the PM after the meeting.
• Come prepared.
• Avoid surprises.
• Be respectful
• Be succinct

Your company may have a standard set of meeting norms as well. Post these at every meeting. I put them on flip chart paper and post it in the room.

No surprises

As the Project Manager, you should already know who’s behind schedule, what’s complete and the general status of your project. If you are being surprised by what you’re hearing in your general status meetings, then your communication plan needs some work.

Follow up with the meeting minutes and action items

So many teams don’t keep formal meeting minutes or notes. For projects going longer than a few weeks, this is a mistake. Inevitably there will be an argument on when that action item was assigned and to whom. Without notes, this can become a battle that is unwinnable and takes the project team off track. Your notetaker is responsible for publishing these notes within 24 hours of the meeting.

Keep in mind, meeting minutes do not have to be beautiful. I’ve used spreadsheets, keeping the action items and decisions in separate spreadsheets within a workbook. I’ve included a template you can download with these tips.

I’ve also published beautifully formatted word documents when the situation warranted. Just do it!

Meetings can be productive and informative. Remember: stay on task and accomplish what you need to in the shortest amount of time possible. Good luck and happy meeting!

Want a copy of this post with the sample Action Items template? Send me my copy!