Meeting Management: Lessons for the Project Manager

Robert Barger, MBA, PMP, is the author of Sam The Cat: A Guide for Memorizing the 42 Sub-Processes Using Mnemonics and Memory Stepping Stones, a manuscript utilized by the PMI Central Ohio Chapter to assist students in preparing for the Project Management Professional (PMP)® certification examination, as well as Red, Yellow, Green, How to Fix a Broken Project and Lessons for the Project Manager from French and Raven’s Bases of Power. Mr. Barger has been in the project management field since 2003 and has worked in a wide variety of industries and settings. Mr. Barger is currently working as a principal consultant for a technology solutions consulting firm in Central Ohio.

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The Importance of Meetings
Do you have trouble getting team members to attend your meetings? Do your team members complain about not having time to get anything done? Meetings can be a blessing and a curse. As a project manager, you need meetings in order to increase collaboration and resolve obstacles, but you may be taking productive time from the team member’s workday. What’s worse, in a matrixed environment, you may share team members with another project. Your team members may be faced with the choice of which meeting to attend. Recognizing this helps you understand that maximizing your time together is essential. You need this time with your team in order to:

• Increase team interaction and collaboration
• Discuss project team status and resolve issues
• Document decisions and action items

But you know all this….

What You Already Know
Meetings give the project manager the best opportunity to interact with the team as a whole. Interaction is a key aspect in the relationship-building role of the project manager. The ability to develop strong, positive, working relationships can be the difference between getting your project work done on time, getting accurate information about the project status, and getting better attendance at your meetings—or the alternatives, which could mean the end of your effectiveness as the manager of that …

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