Welcome to the PMI Pittsburgh “Coffee Talk”

10% Meeting Challenge

With Alan Bachmann

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About Background (Dislike for bad meetings and

emails threads attempting to reduce effort over a properly executed meeting)

Alan@BachmannFamily.com 10% doesn’t sound like a big number but

getting management onboard will multiple this result.

This is an informal settings and I believe most things can be solved with coffee. Let’s get started.

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Agenda Pain

Tactics

Group Discussion and Q&A

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Meeting Pain No agenda = no meeting (You should know what to

be prepared for to avoid any bear traps.) Beyond the time/opportunity cost, most people will

be multitasking and less likely to contribute if everyone is not engaged.

Start the meeting on time. If you know most invitees have back to back meetings, it is okay to list the start time of your meeting for 5 min later. (Bio breaks, gas up=refill coffee). Reduce the duration 10%.

If you do not have the required participants or their selected delegates in attendance, cancel the meeting. Anything worth doing is worth doing right.

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Meeting Pain Provide a hyperlink (never attach) to the

agenda/minutes folder in the meeting invite. Most companies can enable SharePoint/QuickBase for external access if needed. Known location for collaboration Eliminates all back and forth emails regarding items to

be discussed and items that were discussed. Call out in the agenda all of the participants and

their role (team and duty: reviewer, contributor, approver) so that is clear.

Listen to their risks & denote them. Be transparent.

Email Pain

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Emails are not free. Most people don’t think about the hardware and multiple software product costs. There are monitoring, load balancing, archiving, and support costs.

If you get more than 20 emails a day (excessive) and have the support of your manager, declare email bankruptcy. (delete all items) If it was important, it should be tied to a meeting. If it was urgent, the telephone (desk/cell) or IM

ensures your prompt attention and confirmation that the matter is correctly understood.

Email Pain

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If there was a need for a meeting but it wasn’t going to be re-occurring (less effort), you can use the meeting invite to dynamically generate an email to all of the participants with the agenda included. In Outlook >> Respond >> Reply All

If an email thread goes back and forth more than 3 times, schedule a meeting to stop the time theft. In Outlook >> Respond >> Meeting

Tactics

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Know the symptoms of a bad meeting Get the support of your manager to decline them Set the example and encourage others to champion

these standards. (Are you leadership or an administrative assistant that runs the project by sending emails?)

One of my take aways from the Pittsburgh PMI PDD (professional development day) in 2013 was a feedback system. At the end of the meeting, I ask participants to provide a meeting score of the value that they received. This is not to represent how the PM did.

This is an agenda

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Microsoft Word Document

Final Thoughts and Q&A

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• People want to be helpful and may not be aware of the various departments labor rates. If your company doesn’t have a blended labor rate, calculate one for your working teams. It will open their eyes when people send those irritating “think before you print” taglines to spite your productivity.

• By consolidating information in one file, you will be keeping things simple. By adding hyperlinks, you are providing a “expert” view that people can click thru to get the “novice” view they may need. It eliminates version control issues and any excuses from people not be focused in one area.

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More Info …Chapter’s website

www.PittsburghPMI.org

LinkedIn Group: Pittsburgh PMI

Facebook: Project Management Institute-Pittsburgh Chapter

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Getting Social

@PittsburghPMISearch “Pittsburgh PMI Chapter”Search “Pittsburgh PMI”