ISSUE #14

Welcome to the + 2 newsletter from The PPM Academy

Each month, I’ll send you two quick and simple approaches to improve your Productivity and Project Management that you can try, test, and adapt to work and everyday life.

Meeting agendas, if you have them at work, often follow the same format, are formal and are usually created without much thought. The result is that they get ignored, and your participants don’t come prepared, meaning you’re less likely to get the results needed. In this month's Project Management Tip, I’ll share an approach to making your agendas more impactful. 2 minutes, 25 seconds reading time.

Throughout the day, we continuously make micro decisions. If we could catch ourselves, we could make a different decision, whether at work, our health, fitness, or relationships. In this month's Productivity Tip, I'll take you through a simple approach to catch yourself in those moments so you can make more of the right decisions that better serve you. 1 minute, 14 seconds reading time.

Before you read the tips, I have some exciting news 🚀

Soon, I’ll be launching my new training called the High-Performance Programme. It’s a mixture of live and on-demand video training across 5-weeks teaching How to Become a High-Performing Project Manager by maximising your project management skills, productivity and mindset.

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Productivity Tip: 5,4,3,2,1.......

Instant regret, or a little while later, thinking I wish I hadn’t done that.

We make decisions that don’t serve us countless times a day.

Picking the chocolate bar over the apple when trying to eat healthier.

Reply immediately with emotion to an email that’s really wound you up, creating more problems.

Snapping back at your kids when you’re overtired and feel bad.

Take the easy task over a hard one, even though you know that doing this will make the more challenging task harder.

It’s not always small decisions; it can be life-changing moments too.

How we respond is usually down to habits, emotions or beliefs.

All of which result in acting without thinking about the impact of that decision, which in some cases can have a negative result.

A simple approach to help with this is to count down from 5 to 1. This is a simple circuit breaker, which is enough time to think, is this the best thing to do right now?

Use it throughout your day to capture those moments when you’re about to stray off track from your plans or make a wrong decision,

The fantastic thing about this simple approach is the more you use it, the easier it becomes to stay on track with your plans and make the right decisions in the moment.

Try it today

Project Management Tip: Meeting agendas that work.

If you Google meeting agenda template, you're very likely to get something like this:

• Introductions
• Why are we here today
• Topic #1
• Topic #2
• Topic #3
• Next steps and action
• A.O.B

Then, if you look at most meeting agendas at work, they'll be similar.

You may be thinking, what's wrong with this agenda? It's pretty standard and covers what's needed; it sometimes works okay.

The problem with most meeting agendas is they're always the same, and what happens when you see the same thing repeatedly?

You don't read it or pay any attention to it. When this happens with agendas, it impacts how productive the meeting is and makes it harder to facilitate.

The second issue with meeting agendas is they're also so formal and don't use simple, easy-to-read language.

It's the same with anything written; if you want the agenda to be read, make it easy and flow.

There are three things to consider when writing a meeting agenda:
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1. Use human language throughout, and write it like a conversation so it's easier to read, meaning they're more likely to read it.
2. Ensure it flows, so use connecting words to ensure it does
3. Put yourself in your attendee's shoes; how can I make this valuable and helpful for them?

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Here's an example of a meeting agenda I've received great feedback on.

Anything in brackets is an example to show you what could be placed there.

======

Hey all.

Can you please take one 1-minute to read the overview below covering everything about this meeting?

If you do, we'll have a more productive, enjoyable and shorter meeting.

We're having this meeting so we can….. (fix a problem, plan something, share knowledge etc…)

And to give us the best chance of doing this, we'll go through the following steps (These are some examples)

Step 1 (get alignment)

Step 2 (discuss main topic)

Step 3 (find a solution)

Step 4 (agree on how we'll do it)

Step 5 (agree on who'll do it)

So everyone is clear on their involvement, here's a high-level description of what's expected from everyone (everyone needs a role)

• Ben will facilitate the meeting
• Sarah will share the details on the main reason of the meeting and provide context where needed
• Keith and Helen will provide details on some potential solutions to do …………
• Jen will take notes and capture actions; thank you, Jen.

Also, this meeting isn't to cover......, we'll discuss this on.....

Finally, what can we all do to help make this meeting productive?

1. Please read (pre-reads)
2. If we go off track, call it out to keep us all focused, including keeping an eye on time
3. Please let me know if you have any questions beforehand or feel you're not needed.
4. If you have an answer to this already, please let all attendees know; we don't have to meet if we don't have to!

That's it, see you on……….

This is a template for only some meeting types; you must adapt it for what works for you, but remember to follow the three points below.
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1. Use human language throughout, so write it like a conversation so it's easier to read, meaning they're more likely to read it.
2. Ensure it flows, so use connecting words to ensure it does
3. Put yourself in your attendee's shoes; how can I make this valuable and helpful for them?

With this approach, you're more likely to get the right attendees, start the meeting well, cover what you need to, and shorten it.

In some cases, you may not need the meeting at all!

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