In our daily work, we always participate in various meetings, which may be organized by others or ourselves, and these different meetings have become an important part of our work. During my work, with the accumulation of work experience, I found it more and more difficult to be perfect even in organizing meetings. In order to organize a meeting well, it is often necessary to adopt some “small ideas” to effectively ensure the achievement of the purpose of the meeting.

Now, let’s talk about it in detail.

Tissue paper

In daily work, we need to organize corresponding meetings for formal communication for requirements discussion, scheme review, test case review and other activities. In some cases, it may be necessary not only to have products, technologies, and tests within the group, but even to invite other stakeholders to participate. I believe that you have all organized meetings, so the time, place, and personnel of the meeting will not be mentioned. But there is no doubt that the more people involved, the more difficult it becomes to organize. This is where a little thought becomes necessary.

First, organize meetings around key stakeholders’ time. As the number of people increases, this is especially difficult to coordinate: each person has their own priorities, and sometimes they want to take a break or take a break. At this time, it is necessary to distinguish the importance of the stakeholders. We need to prioritize all stakeholders like demands, and then communicate according to the order of priority. We need to determine the time of the most important stakeholders, and then coordinate other stakeholders to adjust their time to participate as much as possible.

The outcome of the meeting needs to be synchronized with that of all stakeholders, regardless of whether they are able to participate in the meeting in a timely manner. Moreover, once the outcome of a meeting is determined, the previous meeting becomes meaningless unless some disruptive element is inserted and no changes are allowed.

This, of course, would have to be done if there had been previous coordination and the matter had reached a point where it could not be postponed. We are most looking forward to the situation where all the stakeholders can participate and express their opinions on the spot.

Secondly, the theme of the organization should be clear. There are rare opportunities to bring people together, so be very clear about what you are going to discuss and what you are trying to achieve, and make the participants really appreciate the importance of the meeting. If it is not explained during the organization process, the meeting will likely turn into a tea party and it will be difficult to get everyone together later.

Finally, pay attention to meeting scheduling synchronization. Under normal circumstances, we can synchronize the information in the communication group, but the best way is to use the form of email appointment is more reliable. First, email appointment is automatically inserted into the schedule, which is also used by many business people, so that they can avoid missing important matters in the complicated work; Second, the email appointment can be synchronized with the direct management of the leaders of the stakeholders, so as to formalize the whole thing and attract sufficient attention of the participants. Third, the email appointment can be set to remind the expiration, automatically remind before the meeting, do not have to remind again and again, save the cost of follow-up communication.

As for email dating, one thing should be paid special attention to. From the author’s experience, it is normal to be inundated with emails in daily work. The subject of all emails for appointments must indicate some key elements, especially the subject of meetings, so as to reduce reading costs as much as possible and attract people’s attention.

Here is a story to share with you. In the PMO team of the author, project managers are deeply involved in various business lines and also need to participate in horizontal tasks within the department, so everyone is busy at ordinary times. On a lateral assignment, I met with another project manager for a week and got nowhere. I couldn’t wait any longer, so I met with the head of the department privately first (the meeting was important, so the head of the department was involved). A meeting invitation email is sent with the subject line of the meeting and a big hint that “comments from participants will be the main focus” after confirming the meeting time, making the necessary clarification in the communication group, getting the approval of another key stakeholder. Finally, the meeting went on as scheduled.

Discussion paper

On the day of the meeting, refresh participants’ memories. Remind everyone again first thing in the morning to refresh everyone’s memory before the morning meeting begins, so that everyone’s time is not occupied by other things in the morning meeting.

Follow the theme and control the pace. Once the meeting begins, move forward with each item gradually to ensure effective communication and avoid spending too much time on one issue. As soon as you see an issue is not being discussed in a timely manner, interrupt it. At this point, participants may take your advice and move on to the next item, or they may stick with it. But whatever the outcome, it will make the participants realize that they have been working on the issue for a long time, so that even if the meeting ends up being postponed, it will be a common choice. When we are in a meeting, we often find such a phenomenon, an hour-long meeting, we have discussed a lot of content, everyone brainstorm their own opinions, but after the meeting, there is no conclusion, there is no to-do list. Such meetings can only be called “tea parties”, which are noisy but meaningless, and can seriously affect the enthusiasm of the stakeholders to participate in the next time. So stay on top of the topic during the meeting.

Also, pay attention to meeting closings. During the meeting, we will inevitably encounter some problems that we do not understand, which may be caused by the different expressions of other members or the fact that we do not understand the relevant business. We can write down questions and learn from them. But at the end of a live meeting, in addition to synchronizing what was discussed in the meeting, it is important to note the conclusion of the discussion, who will be responsible for follow-up, and the expected completion schedule in the minutes. Only clear these, the whole thing is a landing, can follow up matters, otherwise the final may be nothing. I remember when I just moved to a new line of business, I was totally confused in front of business meetings, let alone follow up business by business. Therefore, I used to adopt a way is to grasp the business keywords, grasp the person in charge, grasp the timetable, in order to promote the completion of matters, and finally successfully through the run-in period.

The implementation of the article

The concrete implementation of the matters discussed at the meeting is actually followed up according to the conclusion, responsible person and schedule determined at the end of the meeting. In this process, do not always push the progress, easy to cause resentment, and may be beaten up. I remember that there was a period of time, when the task was heavy and the time was tight, I followed the technical brother with worries every day to urge the progress. Then during a break, I wanted to talk about my life with the technical brother, but as soon as I opened my mouth, the technical brother began to “report” the progress, and the scene was very awkward. So, trust your team mates! If we are really worried, we can use some skills in the way of asking, such as asking whether there are any difficulties in the task completion process, whether we need the help of ourselves or the team, standing in the position of the responsible person to promote the implementation of the matter. And I myself, after the change, just casually get the progress information when talking about life.

Another way is to take full advantage of the station. The forum is a good platform for content synchronization. According to the instructions of members in the forum, you can intuitively understand the completion of tasks assigned to the conference, or even ask directly to help you quickly understand and take corresponding measures to promote the meeting in time. If the team does not have a stop meeting, or if the stop meeting is not held in a timely manner, you can also use weekly meetings or gather progress directly from the minutes of the meeting. In short, to advance a certain amount of time, for their own response to the risk may be reserved for a certain amount of time, do not work overtime at the end, or even delay the situation.

conclusion

In this paper, we take the meeting as an example to illustrate a thing from the beginning of the organization, to the follow-up implementation, and then to the follow-up results of the implementation of the process of some “small thoughts”, mainly in order to let everyone grasp some key details in the daily work, effectively promote the completion of matters, improve their work efficiency. Therefore, in addition to meetings, we can also think more about other aspects of project management and add some of our own “thoughts” to make the team develop faster and better.

Last but not least, it is normal for everyone to have their own thoughts at work. But in the team, do not use their own small ideas to set the team, or to be honest, let everyone concentrate on improving team efficiency, help the team to success.

In this paper, the author