To meet or not to meet… That is really the question. Here’s why.
As you probably know, project communication has many instances – from email and text messages to phone and video calls and finally to in-person meetings.
It has been proven that in-person meetings (or video conferences if in-person meetings are a challenge) would be the best in terms of “bandwidth”, hence it could be the most efficient.
As a project manager, when you address topics that may involve dependencies or risks, and when you require subject matter expertise from multiple parties, you prefer to have in-person communication or a conference call at the very least. I have countless examples from my own experience, when a well-planned 30-minute meeting could save weeks of back-and-forth communication via email.
Yet for many project stakeholders, especially for heavily swamped project team members (who typically appear to be the most important contributors to such meetings), it is always an irritating matter. Rather than having some precious extra time to work in their cubicle, they must waste it at some “useless” meeting. Unfortunately, there must be a good reason for them to think so. Apparently, too many times they were called for meetings where they had nothing to contribute. This only caused them additional stress, because the work was not moving. Sadly, as a project manager, you often have to deal with this “pre-judgment”. And it takes an effort to convince them otherwise.
What is the difference between a project manager and a subject matter expert, say a software developer or a database administrator? – a SME is only responsible for their own work, whereas a project manager assumes responsibility for the entire project, including the work that the SME does. So, to be fair, the project manager should have the fundamental right to call a meeting when needed. And the project manager should make a weighted decision if the meeting is needed.
Here are some examples of situations when the need for a meeting or a conference call clearly outweighs personal concerns of time efficiency.
1. When you are supposed to make a decision that may reverse the course of action, meaning that your team members will possibly have to stop working on their tasks or change their priorities, e.g., when your customer submits a change request.
2. When project team members encounter impediments that prevent them from moving ahead with their tasks as planned.
3. When the meeting is supposed to address a high priority topic.
4. When you require expertise in order to do proper planning, dependency or risk identification.
5. When some of your team members are unclear with their tasks and they require a consultation with other team members.
The examples I gave above refer to occasional meetings, the ones that occur “on demand”. In addition, each project normally has a number of pre-planned sessions, either with a single occurrence (like a kick-off meeting or a “go—no go” review) or multiple occurrences (like project steering committee meetings or daily scrums if your organization practices scrum).
The good thing about those pre-planned meetings is that each team member knows in advance that their time is booked and they can plan accordingly. Nevertheless, if a team member shows up at a meeting and they repeatedly notice that their presence was not really required, and they would rather work on other activities, that will lead to frustration and “no shows”. That is why the project manager must cautiously evaluate each participant on each meeting in order to determine if their attendance is required.
How can you do that efficiently?
If you need a team member at a meeting for one or two topics out of ten, plan the agenda accordingly so that you can release them after those two topics are discussed. Let them know that you will release them earlier.
Be proactive. If you are not sure, ask other team members if they have questions for this particular person.
Sometimes, a team member can only be efficient at a meeting if some other party attends – check for attendance and make adjustments accordingly.
Finally, some questions indeed can be addressed via email. If you know that a team member is working on an urgent task and that their contribution to a meeting is minimal, you may consider releasing them from a meeting and asking for an email response instead.
And of course, some meetings are needed in order to build team morale. Calling people to meetings to share a fun experience as long as they are available is a good practice as well.
It is difficult to override misperceptions with regards to the role of a project manager after years of potentially negative experiences, but if they see that you value their time and expertise, they will respect your meeting invitations, knowing that if you call them, you really need them.