Good Meetings don’t Happen by Chance | Video

Sometimes the life of a project manager seems to be a constant trudge from one meeting to the next. And it doesn’t help that you are responsible for leading some of them! So, creating a good project meeting should be important to you.

This video is safe for viewing in the workplace.

This is learning, so, sit back and enjoy

The Tips for Good Meetings

We’ve all seen the endless tip lists for good meetings:

• Set an agenda in advance
• Invite the right people only
• Start on time
• Make sure everyone gets to contribute
• Use a parking lot to avoid getting side-tracked
• Summarize and conclude as you go
• Write down actions on a board
• Follow up

And blah, blah, blah…

Been there, done that!

All these tips assume that your meeting follows a pretty standard pattern. 

But how often do you sit down, in a quiet place, with enough time, and design your project meetings?

What? Design a Good Meeting?

If I said you need to facilitate a two-day workshop, I bet you would spend between two and ten days designing and planning it. 

It’s important. Maybe 6 to 12 people are putting in a couple of days of their time. And the workshop needs to produce results.

But project meetings? They’re just an hour…

• An hour a month, that is. 
• …or maybe an hour a fortnight. 
• …or perhaps an hour a week. 

And how long is your project? 

• Six months? 
• …a year
• …or two?

Let’s take an 18-month project say

This is a reasonable average for the sort of business projects I used to run.

And assume you have a team of six people, meeting monthly.

And each meeting lasts an hour each time…

That’s over 100 staff hours. 

That’s about the same as those six people attending a two-day workshop.

Do you get it now?

Why aren’t you putting a couple of days over the course of your project, into designing and reviewing your project meetings?

Recommended Videos

Carefully curated video recommendations for you:

• 5 Tips for Better Meetings
• How to Hold a Daily Stand-up Meeting
• Meeting Actions: How to get People to do Them
• How to Run a Great Project Team Meeting
• The Five Stages of a Meeting
• Lessons Learned Meeting: How to Make it Excellent
• The Rule of Silence: The Free Source of Power in a Meeting

What Kit does a Project Manager Need?

I asked Project Managers in a couple of forums what material things you need to have, to do your job as a Project Manager. They responded magnificently. I compiled their answers into a Kit list. I added my own. 

Check out the Kit a Project Manager needs

Note that the links are affiliated.

Learn Still More

For more great Project Management videos, please subscribe to the OnlinePMCourses YouTube channel.

If you want basic Management Courses – free training hosted on YouTube, with 2 new management lessons a week, check out our sister channel, Management Courses.

For more of our Project Management videos in themed collections, join our Free Academy of Project Management.

For more of our videos in themed collections, join our Free Academy of Project Management.