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leader must be alert to and avoid situations where individuals stroll into a scheduled meeting five or ten minutes after it has started; this is certainly disruptive to the meeting process. These same individuals would never think twice about arriving ten minutes late for an appointment with the president of the company. Then why should their tardiness to a team meeting be expected or, even worse, tolerated? If the project leader delays the scheduled start of a meeting until all team members have arrived, the wrong signal is sent to the whole team and particularly to those members of the team who are sitting at the table waiting for the meeting to start. If this occurs, then the next time the project leader calls a meeting, even more team members will stroll in late. It is of utmost importance therefore to set critical meeting expectations and agree ahead of time on team standard operating procedures regarding meeting conduct and participation. If some members habitually come late to meetings, the project manager must resolve this issue immediately and not let it linger. If resolution cannot be achieved, then this issue must be escalated up the chain of command. |
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To avoid any misunderstandings, at the conclusion of the meeting, the project leader takes a few minutes to summarize the key agreements and action steps and to reiterate those issues which still need to be resolved. Every team member should walk away from the meeting with the same understanding of what occurred. Therefore, by briefly reviewing the meeting highlights, the project leader drives home the key meeting messages to everyone. All critical project information must be communicated to the organization in a timely manner. It should be a clear team expectation that minutes are distributed no later than one week after the meeting. These minutes must be accurate, and they must highlight the critical issues and decisions that were made. To ensure accuracy, minutes are first sent to the meeting attendees for their review and comment. Sending out minutes for review does not mean that team members have the liberty to change what was agreed to at the meeting. This sometimes becomes an issue, particularly when team members are concerned with the way their functions might view the statements made during the meeting or are concerned that functional managers might not agree with the decisions made. The project leader is responsible to the entire team to ensure that, when minutes are finalized and distributed, they truly represent what actually happened at the meeting. |
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Besides ensuring accuracy, the project leader must also ensure readability, particularly when a great deal of information is being communi- |
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