Help Your People Escape Meeting Hell Meetings Meetings. Meetings. The end of another week. This week, I didn’t finish the design as I wanted. It seems like there is so much to be done and so little time. This has been happening a lot lately. What’s the deal? I don’t know why. I decided to look back at what I did this week ….drawing an empty ….wait. I did some programming on Tuesday…and was only a few hours into the design that I was supposed to finish. What else? It’s time to go through my email and calendar to refresh my memory. So, I’m a developer, right?? Hence, why did I spend 60% my week in meetings instead of working? Do you sound familiar? Perhaps the 60% figure was an exaggeration. This story shows the pain that many members of a project team feel. It is your job as a project manager to direct work activities. Your job is to ensure that your team spends as much time in meetings as they need . They have work to do! Project managers. What can we do to help? Here are some ideas:
Only schedule a meeting if you have a clear agenda
Invite only those who are necessary
I recommend a meeting lasting between 15 and 30 minutes. If you don’t have a good reason, don’t schedule an hour-long meeting.
If others invite you to a meeting, an agenda is required
If there isn’t an agenda or regular structure, don’t go to other people’s meetings.
Keep your meeting focused on the goal and stick to it. Don’t try to solve problems in status meetings. And don’t let the conversation drift off topic, regardless of whether it’s your meeting!
