When More Meetings are a Good Thing

How to Run a Daily Meeting

NOTE: This article originally appeared in the February 2008 issue of Flawless Compliance, under the "Hello Rubber, Meet the Road" section. The link to the actual issue is at the bottom of this article.

When running your compliance project, how often are you involved in a project status meeting. Once a week? Once every two weeks? Studies show that the most effective project teams meet once a day.

For project champions, meeting daily is the best way to stay on top of what's happening with the project team, and for project managers it is essential for making minor adjustments to the goal, or responding to risk events before they get out of hand. But how do you organize a daily meeting without being hanged by your project team? Follow these time-tested tips, and your team will love you for it.

Tip # 1: Keep the Meeting to 15 Minutes

This is absolutely vital, which is why it's listed first. Nobody wants to be involved in a daily meeting that is scheduled for an hour, and consistently runs over another 30 to 60 minutes. This may become challenging with a larger team, however I've personally worked worked through 10 team members, and I know of teams where 20 team members were involved. I'd say if you have more than 20 people talking ( see notes on meeting roles below ), you should use another format. Otherwise, 15 minutes is the hard target.

It will take some practice, but proactively strive to end the meeting between the end of minute 14 and the end of minute 15. Once you cross the 15 minute mark, you have exactly 3 more minutes and no more. If you go over ( even one minute ), apologize to the group, and make a point to mention that you respect everybody's time, and you'll try harder next time to end on time. Never exceed the 15 minute mark by more than 3 minutes. Doing so will cause you to lose the respect of the team, for this meeting.

Start the meeting exactly on time ( to the second ). Show up at least 5 minutes before the meeting to get setup ( setup project artifacts, open conference call lines, etc. ). At the project kickoff meeting, explain how the meeting works, and set the ground rules, including when the meeting starts, and that nobody is allowed to be even slightly tardy.

Tip # 2: Follow a Strict 3 Question Format

There are only three things you need to know from each person talking ( see notes on meeting roles below ):

• What did you do yesterday?
• What are you planning to do today?
• Is there anything stopping you from getting your job done?

Systematically circle the room with each person answering these three questions. If you are managing the group ( i.e. waterfall project ), make a quick comment after each set of answers, or engage in a quick dialog, then move to the next person. If you are coaching the group ( i.e. agile project ), have each person ( or pair ) address the group, and allow a very brief discussion, then move on. At the slightest hint of a rathole or problem solving discussion, use the parking lot ( see notes on parking lot below ).

To emphasize, do not allow problem solving in this meeting. You can easily eat up the whole 15 minutes and more on one problem. If something can very quickly be solved, solve it. Otherwise, make a note and handle it offline.

Also, do not "ease into the meeting" with small talk. Start the meeting exactly on time with the first person. 5 to 10 minutes can easily be blown talking about yesterday's football game or presidential debate.

Tip # 3: Meet in Person, and Have Everybody Stand Up

This is especially important for anybody talking ( see notes on meeting roles below ), and of course the project manager or coach. Trying to do this over the phone is messy and prone to a lot of time-consuming technical problems, so try to avoid at all cost.

Of course, if you have a team member that is physically out of the area, you may need to compromise. In this case, they must promise to be calling from a reliable phone line ( no cell phones ), promise to be focused with no distractions ( not even laptops ), and promise to be standing up like the rest of the group.

It's important that everybody physically meet in the same room or area everyday, and stand up. Standing up stresses the importance of having a short meeting. Nobody is going to have a long meeting while they are standing up. If you have the opportunity, it's a good idea to setup the room with no tables or chairs at all. This also helps keep out distractions like laptops.

Which brings up another important point -- no distractions are allowed. No laptops, notebooks, or other distracting material. Cell phones and PDAs should be turned off.

Any meeting notes can be recorded on an easel by a recorder, and if people are worried about walking around with their cell phone off, you can include a reminder at the end of each meeting to turn cell phones back on.

Tip # 4: Understand and Respect Everybody's Role

As you can tell, strong facilitation is absolutely necessary to meet all of your meeting objectives. Part of this is understanding everybody's role in the meeting.

If there is a recorder and / or timekeeper, they should be established ahead of time and be prepared. A recorder is handy to take care of the parking lot ( see notes on parking lot below ), and other things people want to be reminded of ( remember, no notetaking in the meeting ). A timekeeper is nice to remind everybody of the time. I suggest a gentle reminder at minutes 5, 10, and 14.

The most important key in meeting roles and responsibilities, is knowing who is allowed to talk, and more importantly who is not allowed to talk. The project team members ( the people actually doing the work ) are allowed to talk, in the order and format described above ( see notes on format above ). If this is a managed project ( i.e. waterfall project ), then as the format allows, the project manager is also allowed to talk. If this is a coached project ( i.e. agile project ), then the coach should only talk for facilitation purposes ( i.e. setup, close, and shutdown ratholes ). Everybody else is not allowed to talk until the end, where a simple "thank you" is about all that's appropriate. The one exception to this rule, is when somebody talking asks a direct question to somebody that's otherwise not allowed to talk. In this instance, a very short dialog can be exchanged with a short leash. As noted above, the project manager / coach should step in the instant a rathole or problem solving session starts to develop, and parking lot the issue.

Tip # 5: Use a Parking Lot for Side Conversations and Problem Solving

To help out with important discussions that will take too long for this meeting, a parking lot should be established. This is best accomplished with an easel and an assigned recorder. When the discussion starts to take a tangent, the project manager / coach should step in and say, "okay, we need to put this issue in the parking lot and move on."

It's very important that parking lot issues are addressed at a later time. These issues will not be handled in the daily meeting. You will need to organize a supplemental meeting to work through the issue with only the required people.

There are a few strategies for handling the parking lot, depending on the circumstances, however never ignore the parking lot until the next day. If people start getting the impression that the parking lot is just a way to cut them off, they will not respect it, and subvert your meeting objectives.

If you only have one or two issues in the parking lot at the end of the meeting, reserve a minute or so before the 15 minute mark to organize a follow up meeting or two. You can do it directly after the daily meeting, do it in about 15 minutes ( enough time to get settled ), or schedule another time that works for everybody involved. If you can't get it resolved before the 15 minute mark, take it offline with the people involved.

If you have a good pile of items in the parking lot, call a follow up meeting to go over the parking lot items. I know it sounds a lot like a meeting to discuss meetings, but you have to use your time effectively while respecting everybody else's time.

It's usually not hard to work out if you are already in touch with your team's dynamic. The important thing is to do something, and not blow everybody off until tomorrow.

Running an effective daily meeting can boost your communication efforts, while avoiding or eliminating the need for long, boring meetings that suck your time and energy. Although initially the idea sounds like a bad idea, following some simple principles can really make the difference. Short meeting times, proper facilitation, and knowing everybody's role are keys to your success. If you are currently holding a weekly project meeting, try going daily. Your project communication will soar as a result.