Get Participants to Sing at Your Post Mortem (Part 3 of 3)

Joe Wynne is a versatile Project Manager experienced in delivering medium-scope projects in large organizations that improve workforce performance and business processes. He has a proven track record of delivering effective, technology-savvy solutions in a variety of industries and a unique combination of strengths in both process management and workforce management.

  Lessons Learned  

In the two previous installments (part 1 and part 2), we determined the advantages of including workforce management discussions in the post mortem and the importance of preparing for the meeting. Now it's time to look at the details of managing a discussion that can get a little boisterous.

Opening the Discussion
Here, the trick is to limit extraneous discussion by providing context.

Example
"Let's look now specifically at workforce management issues, which can include training, recruiting, career development, project orientation and so on. You all have the list of questions I am going to ask in front of you, thanks to gantthead.com. We want to provide actionable items for the specialists in these areas, so that our projects run smoother next time."

Orchestrating the Discussion
Remember, you want everyone to sing at this post mortem. Make sure certain individuals don't monopolize the discussion and make sure all vague comments are clarified.

Ask focused, but open-ended questions. As we saw in the previous installment, you want to make sure all workforce management processes are considered for maximum influence in the organization.

Snuff out ramblings such as: "You know, with the pay situation the way it is, we'll never get the experienced people we need. Management simply will not do what it needs to build a successful organization. Back in '93 we …

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