Introduction:
People hold meetings in virtually all organizations and in all phases of projects. Meetings are perhaps particularly relevant in the define phase of projects, because information from many people is often needed to develop an effective charter.
Formal Meetings:
The phrase “meeting wrap-up” can be used to refer simultaneously to Steps 5 and 6.
The term “brainstorming” refers to an activity in which participantspropose creative solutions to a problem. For example, the problem could be tochoose inputs and outputs for study in a project. Since creativity is desired, it can be useful to document the ideas generated in a supportive atmosphere with minimal critiquing.
The term “filtering” refers here to a process of critiquing, tuning, and rejecting ideas generate in a brainstorming process. Since filtering is a critical, negative activity, it is often separated temporarily from brainstorming.
The pair of activities, brainstorming and filtering, might appear together on an agenda inrelation to a particular topic. The phrase “has a go-round” is used here to refer to an activity in which many or all of the meeting participants are asked to comment on a particular issue. Having a go-round can be critical to learning information from shy people and making a large number of people feel “buy-in” or involvement in a decision.
Example: (Teleconferencing with Europe) An engineer in China is teleconferencing with two shy engineers in Europe who work in the same company. European engineers have greater familiarity with related production issues. The meeting objective is to finalize the KIVs, KOVs, and targets for a project charter. The Chinese engineer has e-mailed a proposed list of these previously. Use this information to suggest defaults and a meeting agenda.
Answer: Default actions: Use the e-mailed list of KIVs, KOVs, and targets.
1. Review the e-mailed list of KIVs, KOVs, and targets
2. Using a go-round, brainstorm possible KIVs, KOVs, and targets not included
3. Critique results of brainstorm using one or two go-round
4. Summarize result
5. Wrap up
Reported benefits of running formal meetings using rules include:
These benefits often outweigh the awkwardness and effort associated with running a formal meeting.