• SQLRNNR (6/24/2014)


    RP1966 (6/23/2014)


    Project managers I have dealt with have a tendency to throw out far too many 'just in case' meeting invitations. A 'just in case' invitation of technical staff to long meetings with lots of participants is a huge waste of time. The more specialist the role a person is in, the more pronounced this becomes.

    I have seen this too.

    Make the meeting productive and to the point. Engage the participants, otherwise don't invite them.

    Andy addressed this somewhat in the article; here are the relevant lines (at least to my mind):

    That’s the trap meeting organizers fall into. If they invite you ‘just in case’ and you’re not needed, the perception is they have wasted your time. If they don’t invite you and something came up that involved you and your team, you’re frustrated that you weren’t invited. Makes it hard to win.

    My team runs into this frequently, where we aren't invited to meetings that we "should" be in. Then we don't find out about our part in a project until 2 weeks before the due date, and we have to scramble to get our piece in place somewhere near the due date. In these cases, we're often late with the deliverable, and management sometimes doesn't care to hear why we're late (although that is changing for the better through a rigorous "re-training" effort). :hehe:

    I'd rather be in a meeting where I'm not needed :doze:, than miss being in a meeting I should have been at :sick:. The difference in pain-points between the two is huge and distinct.


    Here there be dragons...,

    Steph Brown