When you interact with project sponsors please pay attention to the following.
First and foremost, remember that you are representing PSU and the MME Department, as well as yourself. It is not too hard to leave a good impression. It can be very hard to recover from a bad impression.
Meeting Preparation
A meeting with a sponsor should be planned and conducted in a professional manner.
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Be professional in your written and verbal communication.
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Treat everyone at the meeting with the same level of respect and formality. This does not mean being overly serious. However, you should not joke with, criticize or tease teammates in the presence of sponsors. (Yes, I've seen this happen.)
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Dress appropriately for all face-to-face meetings. "Business casual" is an appropriate standard. Needless to say, shorts, dirty t-shirts and flip-flops are not appropriate. And yes, I've seen this happen.
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Travel to the sponsor's work location. Do not expect the sponsor to come to PSU to meet with you. Sometimes sponsors may prefer a meeting at PSU, but do not assume that is the case.
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Come to the meeting prepared. Prior to any face-to-face meeting with your sponsor, have a team meeting to decide on the agenda and the specific objectives for the meeting. Send the meeting agenda and a brief statement of the purpose of the meeting to your sponsor by email at least one day in advance of the meeting.
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If you have specific questions that may take time for your sponsor to research, it is a good idea to include those questions with the meeting agenda that you send at least one day prior to the meeting. For example, you could ask whether CAD drawings or solid models will be available for your team to use, and whether you could pick those up at the meeting. Please be careful that your questions are not demands. Do not boss your sponsor!
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Be punctual. Arrive 5 minutes before the meeting. Be attentive to time so that you complete the agenda within the prearrange time limit.
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Take notes during the meeting.
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Send a brief "thank-you" email and provide any requested follow-up information promptly after the meeting.
Processing Meeting Information
The notes you take during the meeting are just an immediate capture of what transpired during the meeting. Soon after you capture the information, you should process it.
The first step in processing is to have a clean record of the meeting. Some people call these meeting minutes. You may designate one person as the primary note-taker, but everyone should be taking notes. As soon as possible after the meeting, someone should prepare a first draft of the minutes. If there is a designated note taker or meeting recorder, that person should prepare the first draft of the meeting minutes.
When drafting the meeting minutes, begin with a copy of the agenda that you sent to your sponsor. Modify the agenda document (keep the original!) with the following information
- Date and location of the meeting
- Full names of all persons attending
- Agenda summary
- Key information shared.
- Any decisions made
- List of follow-up activities and persons assigned to those activities.
Discrete activities to complete a specific task are called action items. Some organization have specific protocols about action items or "ARs", items with action required.
As soon as the meeting minutes are completed, circulate them to everyone on the team. Either via email, or preferably during the next face-to-face meeting of the team, decide whether to accept the meeting minutes, and make sure that the team agrees to all action items and that each action item has a person responsible for completing the item. When the team "accepts" the meeting minutes, they are agreeing that the minutes are an accurate record of what transpired, including what decisions where made, and what action items are expected to be completed.
The team should have a single, group-accessible repository for all meeting agendas and minutes. The team should also have a strategy for backing up this repository and other repositories related to the project.
Follow-up with Action
Action items from the meeting need to be completed promptly and by the designated individual. If an action item requires more than one person to complete, the action item should still have one person alone who is assigned to the action item. That person is then responsible for either completing the item if it is an individual task, or for making sure that the group of individuals complete the task.
If an action item cannot be completed within a week, break the item down into a list of tasks that can be completed within a week.