A status meeting is an important part of any project development and implementation. It is through status meetings that the project manager can monitor the project and identify the bottlenecks interfering with the project’s progress. It is also through these meetings that responsibilities are shared between team members, especially if one of them is experiencing difficulty with the tasks assigned to them. In practice, status meetings do not only monitor the progress of a project but also make adjustments to the project. In addition, issues are addressed and resolved.
Communication between team members and the project manager is reinforced during a status meeting. They get to share their accomplishments and the issues preventing them from reaching their targets.
As much as possible, attending a status meeting is a must for each member of the project team. They should make it a point not to schedule any appointments during the day of the status meeting. In turn, the project team manager and the team members must agree on a uniform date when the status meetings are held. A reminder should also be sent to the team members reminding them of the upcoming meeting and give them time to prepare for it.
- How to Run an Effective Status Meeting Part 1
- Effective Status Meeting Free Download Part 2
- How to Make Meeting Agendas and Minutes 10x Easier Part 3
- How to Spend Less Time on Meetings Part 4
- Additional Sources Part 5
Part 1
Here are some ways on how to run an effective status meeting:
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Involve and engage the whole team
Give each member an opportunity to express themselves and to contribute to the discussion. Do not let one single member do all the talking. The team manager should not dominate the discussion either. The team manager should think of ways to allow each member of the team to have their say. Involving the team members can also be done by proper preparation of the meeting agenda. Team members may have topics in mind which they want to discuss so make sure to seek everyone’s input. We have a great article here about preparing a meeting agenda.
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A uniform structure should be used for all status meetings
By consistently following the same outline, participants can predict how the meeting will run and prepare for it.
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During the meeting, stick to the objectives of the meeting and to the topics listed on the agenda
Other issues may be raised during the discussion and this might be of the essence. It is within the discretion of the project manager to continue with issues raised or dismiss them until the next meeting.
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Document everything
Designate one member of the team to take the minutes of the meeting. This role can be assigned to a different person for each meeting. Using a template will make preparing the minutes of the meeting easier and there are a variety of templates available to be downloaded from the Internet. The team may also customize its own, depending on its needs and preferences. A guide to writing the minutes of the meeting can be found here.
Part 2
Status Meeting: Free Download
Click Here to Download Status Meeting Agenda DOCX
Free online tools for work:
1. Fluxes.com — Free Project and Task Management Software
2. Status.net — Software for Daily and Weekly Status Reports
Part 3
How to Make Meeting Agendas and Minutes 10x Easier
How to configure online meeting agendas and/or meeting minutes:
Step 1:
- Create a “Meeting Agenda” or “Meeting Minutes” applet on status.net — customize our preset forms or easily create a new form in minutes.
- Setup reminders if you want your team members to receive automatic reminders
- Configure who will submit it by choosing the “Participants” tab.
Step 2: Users will click the “Open Submission Form” button to fill it in and submit it.
- Participants can comment on a meeting agenda in its comments section, which ensures the right context for discussion and further reference.
- Mention those people who you want to take action or pay attention by using @ before their names. These people will receive personal notifications on their status accounts and by email.@mention a team member in your meeting agenda or in its comments section by using “@” and your team member’s name.
Example comment: “@Peter and @Mary, do you have any comments regarding the “Metrics” section? @Don, are you coming to the meeting?”
In this case, Peter, Mary, Don will automatically receive an additional personal notification, so they know they’re expected to take action or pay attention and won’t forget to add their input in the meeting agenda’s comments section.
Info such as the date and the name of the person will be added automatically.
As soon as a new meeting agenda/minutes record is added, participants with “View” rights can view it in real time when they log in to their status.net accounts. They will also automatically receive an email notification.
Step 3 (Optional): Print it.
(Skip this step if you share meeting agendas and minutes online and don’t print them.)
- Choose date
- Click “file” button
- Click “Generate”
Done!
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See also: How to Improve Meeting Summaries and Spend 10x Less Time on Meetings
Benefits:
- Make meeting agendas and minutes instantly available to the meeting participants.
- Save time with auto completion:
Fields such as date, name, formatting, etc. are inserted automatically by software. - For regular meetings:
Configure recurrence and assign people who will receive automatic reminders to create and share upcoming meeting agendas and/or minutes. - For irregular meetings:
Start your agenda with info about the meeting date, time and place and this will work as mass-notification: status.net will automatically send emails with full text to all participants as soon as you submit it. - Improve meeting agendas with the option to gather info for the upcoming meeting agenda from participants.
- Draw attention of specific team members by using the “mentions” feature, if you need input or comments from those people. When you @mention your team members, they will receive a separate personal notification by email.
- Easy sharing:
Meeting agendas and minutes can be either
— exported to files and printed;
— shared online with selected people (in this case, an email with the full text of the meeting agenda will be sent automatically to those with “View” permission); or
— shared online company-wide or team-wide (the latest meeting agenda will be available online and a notification email will be sent automatically to each team member).
Part 4
How to Spend Less Time on Meetings
How to use status.net for status reports:
- Easily implement daily or weekly status reports for your team members by creating a status feed with questions like “What did you do today?” or “How did you contribute to the team’s goals this week?”.
- Peace of mind: No one forgets to fill in their status reports because status.net sends timely reminders according to the recurrence schedule you chose.
- Increase workplace satisfaction by improving transparency: Each status update has a separate section for comments, which is used by team members to clarify information, including upcoming goals, and by leaders to provide feedback and coordinate better without micromanagement.
- Use status reports for future reference and decrease time and efforts spent on monthly, quarterly, and yearly reporting thanks to powerful filtering and export features.
- Optionally, enrich reports with the latest updates automatically added from web apps your team uses (such as free task management software Fluxes.com, and other project management tools, version control systems, support systems, financial applications, etc.) by connecting these apps to your status applet.
- Spend less time on meetings by making them more productive because everyone is on the same page at all times.
- Sharing: Status reports can be either
— exported to files and printed, or sent by email;
— shared with manager online (in this case, an email with the full text of the status report will be sent automatically); or
— shared online as company-wide or team-wide status reports, i.e., all team members share their progress with each other.
How to configure status reports on status.net:
Step 1:
- Create a “Status Report” applet — customize our preset forms or easily create a new form in minutes.
- Setup reminders if you want your team members to receive automatic reminders when their reports are due.
- Configure who will submit reports by choosing the “Participants” tab.
Step 2: Users will click the “Open Submission Form” button to fill in and submit the report.
Data such as the report type, date and name will be added automatically.
As soon as a new status report is added, participants with “View” rights can view it in real time.
Options:
- Set the applet as “Team-wide” if you want all team members to view each other’s status reports.
- Alternatively, you can make every participant to view his/her own reports only. Manager/stakeholders will view all reports.
- Add, remove, and assign new team members at any time.
Step 3 (Optional): Generate a report and export it to PDF.
(Skip this step if you share status reports online and don’t print them.)
Click “Generate Report”.
Part 5