Getting People to Your Meetings on Time

By Dr. John Richard Horne
Faculty Member, School of Business at American Public University

A common problem for many project managers is that team members show up late for scheduled meetings or, worse yet, do not show up at all. Sometimes the reason is that team members have too many conflicts on their calendars. However, this could be an indication that the meetings are not of great value to the participants.

If you are dealing with late or missing team members, here are a few pointers that may help:

• Have an agenda – One way to signal to your team that they might be wasting their time at your meeting is if you don’t publish an agenda beforehand. Be sure to send this out early enough so the team knows what to expect and can prepare.
• Name names – When creating your agenda, call out team members by name to emphasize their importance to the discussion. Likewise, if the topic of the meeting is of interest to only a portion of the whole team, then tell everyone that fact in advance; let the individuals choose whether to show up for a discussion on a topic on which they aren’t a key player.
• Show them something new – You have a meeting to share knowledge, create better understanding of a situation, and to get decisions made. Every meeting should have a specific purpose in mind and be of value to the participants. At the start of the meeting, be sure that everyone understands what they need to produce; at the end recap what was accomplished.
• Get visual – Talking is necessary but, get visual too! Use flip charts and sticky notes on the wall to show your agenda and to capture new information. If you are adept at using electronic tools such as PowerPoint, Visio, Excel, etc., do so, but don’t let technology slow down the team dynamics.
• Get in/get out – Start on time. Those present will appreciate the fact that you are not wasting their time waiting for late-arrivals. This also sends a signal to late arrivals as they walk into the room in the middle of an on-going discussion. Be sure to end on time as well.
• Stick to the agenda – it’s common for great ideas to surface during meetings that aren’t directly related to the specific topics on the agenda. Create a “parking lot” list of those items that need to be discussed later.
• Share the spotlight – As a team lead, you are facilitating the success of the team. That means there are subject matter experts (SMEs) in the room that should be contributing greatly throughout the whole project, including the team meetings. In fact, there may be some meetings where you want a SME to lead the discussion. This will serve to reinforce the importance of being on the team and of participating in team meetings.

About the Author: Dr. J. Richard Horne works for the Marine Corps Logistics Command in Albany, GA as a process analyst/Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt. He has been teaching part-time since 2000 both on-ground and online. His working background has focused on organizational and process improvement and in logistics. He retired from the Army Reserve with 30 years of service in military intelligence and logistics. He is a member of the Project Management Institute, the American Society for Quality and APICS.