How to run project meetings
A few years ago, when interviewing a PM candidate, I asked a question I always ask: what's one thing in your work day you love and one thing you dread? The candidate said she dreaded project status meetings. So I asked why she held them. And then there was awkward silence.
If you're a project leader and you dread a meeting that you hold every week, that's probably a good sign you don't need it. Meetings aren't progress unless you do a lot of work to make sure they're progress. Getting folks together alone may not help advance the work because meetings are a tool to solve for specific needs.
Let's talk about the steps you'll follow to make your meetings useful: decide when you need to meet, how to prepare, and how to run the meeting.
When to meet
First, decide if you need to meet. There are a few reasons you should hold a meeting to advance work on your project:
Stakeholders need to make decisions
The project team needs to work through problems
Folks are falling behind desired pace and you need to cut scope, hold them accountable, or shift priorities
You'll notice that these topics require active participation and collaboration from everyone present. They're not one-way information sharing. When you hit these situations, it makes sense to hold active discussions that build a shared understanding of your project's progress, obstacles, and next steps. If you're just collecting and sharing updates, you can do that asynchronously with a strong project update process.
How to prepare
Now that you've decided you need to meet, it's time to prepare effectively. Most of the work of convening effective meetings happens before the meeting. Meetings should have a clear purpose that's articulated in an agenda shared with participants in advance. An agenda is a tool that ensures folks know how you expect them to participate, and how you expect to use the time. This gives folks both the ability and the responsibility to prepare.
You also need to have the right folks present. If you need stakeholders to make decisions about business rules, make sure your key participants can attend. If you expect to make decisions to adjust the project requirements or resources, ensure you have folks from the relevant project teams represented. It's usually helpful to err on the side of inclusiveness to build a collaborative team.
How to run a meeting
When it's time to meet, your role as project manager includes running the meeting. This means:
Welcoming folks and stating the purpose for the call
Ensuring folks have the background information and context they need to participate meaningfully
Making sure everyone has the agenda in front of them
Keeping an eye on the clock to move the discussion forward and ensure you cover the entire agenda (or as much as is reasonably possible)
Keeping folks focused on the topic and cutting off any discussion that wanders
Restate decisions made and next steps at the end of each agenda item
Take notes in a shared space so folks can revisit the decisions and next steps if needed
When you've wrapped up the meeting, share highlights of the meeting and any critical decisions in the project channel on Slack or wherever you are sharing information with folks who are informed about the project.
Get intentional and own your time
When you get super focused on running meetings that use folks' time effectively, you'll have one less thing to dread in your workday—and hopefully you'll have a few more free hours back in your schedule.
