Project intake meetings - the Hows and What's

when your are supporting a  dynamic business needs,ofter there will be lot of initiatives planned and lots of overlaps and also each lines of business will have different priorities.   having a regular intake meeting would be a good way to come up with the roadmap and also way to set or meet the stake holders expectations.

often most projects or initiatives will be assessed against there lines

Costs 

Benefits 

Effort 

Resources

also other and most important thing to consider is 'importance' ,some initiatives though are more costly if they are the ones needed and important to make  company's vision a reality ,then they are given priority.

to conduct effective intake meetings

1. Get right participants, its not a town hall meeting  ,keeping crowd limited is good ,typically have your business leads ,and your delivery leads ,BSA's  ,if needed resource mangers.

2.Understand each 'initiatives' priorities  , and timing , ROI etc

3.Evaluate dependencies ,some projects may depend on others 

4. if needed do a Risk assessment 

5. discuss and come up with sequence plan and  get a buy in.

Matrix Vs traditional organization

TRADITIONAL

MATRIX

High cross-unit coordination (from command-and-control structure) Eyes up to management Low unit autonomy Control through the hierarchy Control comes down from top ("higher center of gravity") Management focus: control Functional measurements first Career success via the functional ladder Poor use of employee expertise and initiative Follow the rules People hold positions Cross-unit cooperation is unnatural and secondary Creates standard solutions

High cross-unit coordination (from effective linkages and relationships) Eyes right to the client High unit autonomy Control through process Control pushed down closer to client ("lower center of gravity") Management focus: create value and build skills Client value first Career success via increasing skills Success based on employee expertise and initiative Create new rules People utilize skills Cross-unit cooperation is normal Creates customized solutions

Networking

In this changing and demand world, building and managing good network in your organization and outside your network are essentials.  Some ideas tips an traps:

ideas :

• Contacting each other just to "stay in touch" and keeping the lines of communications open
• Actively listening to each other to gain a better understanding of multiple points of view
• Resolving differences without having winners and losers
• Using power and influence for mutual benefit
• Keeping commitments made to one another
• Sharing resources and ideas
• Investing time to get to know one another's nonworker interests
• Recognizing contributions made by others

Tips

• Use "we", versus "I".
• Close the loop. Don't forget to share the results of your liaison activity. Bring information back to the group.
• Keep notes, agreements, progress reports, measurements, etc., in a publicly accessible forum. Information should flow both upward and downward.

Traps

• Following your personal agenda. Remember the objective is to meet the larger organizational goals. Check your personal or team agendas against those of the organization to make sure they are consistent.
• Breaking the rules you don't like. You may give permission to your team to ignore the boundaries, but remember, you will be held accountable.
• Spending too much time looking for others to remove barriers. At times, it is better to blaze a new path with your own team resources.

Success mantra for working with offshore teams

1.      Plan in advance

2.      Daily meeting & follow up emails

3.      Team rooms for collaboration  

4.      Know the culture

5.      Be transparent and get them involved in decisions

6.      Know team strengths and weakness

7.      Team building and motivation

8.      Add enough management at offshore layer

9.      Estimations & project management – build enough contingency

10.  Constructive Feedback & Protect your team

Goals

Goals are tricky especially if you are working on multiple projects and with multiple managers across year. some Do and Don't :

1. Your goals should be project independent; it is common mistake to just think about the current project and setup some goals for entire year. By year end you may end up in landing in different project altogether and the goals you agreed in the beginning of the project may not be relevant at all
2. I believe in “promise less and deliver more” (attainable), Don't over-promise to manager (they already now how to extract max out of you J ) . Have reality check before you agree on starched goals
3. If you are changing the project during the course of year, ensure to have written feedback from current PM and get copied your new PM, If you are going work multiple project for same manager ensure get the project assessment for end of every project 
4. Always good to have another pair of eyes to review the goals, if you have a mentor ( in fact you should) take his inputs.
5. Time will fly, ensure you have at least one monthly meeting with your people manager , this is important especially  if you both are working in different locations/projects.
6. Be specific and clear in writing the goals, add as many as details and spend some good amount of time in reviewing before submit/agree. each goal should have some time lines associated , of course keep good buffer while agreeing on target dates
7. Goal sheet should be live document ( relevant)  , it is not easy to predict everything in the beginning of the year  when ever you change some things ensure to get agreement from your manager and update the tool.
8. In summary  Ensure your goals are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely)  :) 

More to follow…

First day in onsite trip

International Travel became  frequent these times. On business or on training or to work, many people travel.

Things are different from country to country.  This is for people traveling to US on short/long assignments

Here are some tips

• Plan your transit properly and reach office early,   check what are the usual office timings  ,ex in US are 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM
• Dress properly – good to wear jacket  ,this depends on location ,or how your organization sets dress code  or what business domain you are working in , Banking etc tends to be formal ,where as retail/entertainment domains go more of casual
• Plan your day in advance and use your  coffee/lunch meeting effectively to get more informal info
• Meet and Greet people.. Some good common topics to initiate discussion are weather, jetlog , team, travel, kids school  ..etc.  Its good to local football teams etc. so if you don't have knowledge  ,don't worry.
• Some of Indian names are not easy to pronounce for others , good to identify your self with a short name
• Speak clearly and slowly .

Most importantly plan your journey over weekends ,so that you can reach at least by Sunday  and get some rest .

Tips to conduct a effective meetings

Tips to conduct a productive meetings

Sending invite

• Send meeting invite at least couple of days in advance
• Ensure have proper subject line in the meeting invite – most of the executives will not have time to open the invite
• Publish full Agenda in the meeting  invite
• Ensure publish bridge/conference number along with team room details. This is important esp. if you are working in a global team

Before meeting

•       Go to the meeting room 5- 10 minutes earlier to avoid last minute surprises
•       Switch on computer and projector and have presentation with Agenda slide ready and projects before meeting starts
•       If you going to use white board – write agenda topics in advance and , if possible write presenter/speaker name next to each agenda topic

During meeting

•       Give a quick roll call for the benefit of people who joined over the phone
•       Keep a tab on time; ensure important topics of the meeting get priority. If some topics required more discussion you can always schedule a separate call
•    Don't hesitate to suggest to take topic offline if you feel that topics getting diverted.
•       Last  4 or 5 minutes summarize the discussion and action items
•       Ensure every one gets their opportunity to express their ideas ,but time box this
•       Ensure people on phone get connected with the topic

After meeting

• .      Ensure to publish Meeting minutes with action items and ETA
•       Write up a summary email and copy important stakeholders