Culture + Tools + Methodology = Virtual Team Success
It turns out that if people did ideal status reports, most status meetings would run themselves. Nothing’s perfect, but everyone having their status report in hand is a good start. First off let’s consider the dynamics and parameters of a status meeting. If there are more than 8 people in the meeting and some of them are team leaders, then these team leaders should present the status for the team. Ideally, speakers should sit at the table, and other participants in the outside chairs. However, no chair at the table should be empty.
In the status meeting, everybody should know who the boss is. If there is no boss, follow form and try not to act as if you’re the boss. If you think there would be any controversy in that action whatsoever, start up the meeting like this: “I think the boss would expect us to have this status meeting, so let’s do it.”
Structure: The Five Whats
- What’s Up (optional)
- What’s new
- What’s next
- What’s wrong
- What For (optional)
What’s Up (Intro)
At the start of the meeting there are three basic points. They shouldn’t take more than 2 minutes altogether. If you are all accustomed to what happens in a status meeting, or you’ve been following this structure for some time, you can skip this entire section, as all of the answers to the below three questions will be obvious.
- What is this meeting? - Who’s here. who’s not? - What’s the Agenda?
And so the meeting begins.
What’s New (Work Done)
Everybody in turn gets to read their report of work done and describe overall if it was a good week, bad week, partial week, unproductive, what ever single sentence works. Everybody should have at least some good news to share. Open up the meeting with this gives a sense of accomplishment. Ultimately even if only one person had a good week there is something the team can be proud of.
During this time, some brief questions might be asked. “So you finally fixed that issue, did you use the XYZ solution?”
Remember not to get bogged down in detail. What’s New should not take more than 10 minutes.
What’s Next (Work To Do)
In the second round, everyone will (in the same order) talk about what’s next. They should also have a good idea what the priority on those tasks should be, and therefore be able to say what they will spend the majority of their time on. They optionally should say whether or not the task is expected to be easy, ordinary, or tricky. If they think they will need help, now is the time to speak up. It’s not impressive to volunteer for something that’s bound to generate issues or problems.
Sometimes, based upon what was done, new assignments need to be handed out. The boss should make those assignments, but the person whose status it was should have an idea of what that assignment would be. The boss should say out loud whether this has a priority over other tasks or should just be added to the pile.
What’s Wrong (Issues)
Now we come to the issues. This is where everybody should have maximum focus. So once again, people should go around and state their issues. Now depending upon how good you are in doing meetings, you may combine the second round with the issues round. That is to day, let each person first say what they intend to do in the next work period and speak about current issues and dependencies they have. In ether case, here is how to handle issues.
For every issue brought up at the status meeting, you need to know SPUDD. Severity, priority, ugliness, dependency and difficulty. Sometimes these things are already understood. The most important thing is that the team leader and the parties responsible are unambiguous about all of that. Other people should simply be aware of the existence and nature of other people’s issues.
Severity — What are the implications of this issue right now? Have an idea of whether or not an issue can become a problem or trouble, but don’t project importance on a current issue that it doesn’t possess at the moment. In other words, don’t cry wolf.
Priority — Your boss or team leader should arrange your work according to the priorities of the team. You have a moment to get them to reconsider, but they have the final say. Make faces if you must, but understand what you are expected to be delivering.
Ugliness — This can mean one of two things that should be one and the same, but often are not. Ugliness is about the extent to which you have to break rules in order to resolve the issue, eliminate the problem, or get out of trouble. Ugliness is also about the optics of the issue, problem or trouble. The better your relationship with your customer, the closer your sense of ugliness will match theirs. Sometimes that difference cannot be helped. Your boss or team leader is responsible for finessing such situations and closing that gap, but your attitude makes a difference.
Dependency — It might be somebody else’s fault, but it’s your responsibility. So if you are relying on somebody else to do their job so that you can do your job, here is where you let everyone on the team know that. Remember it is also your responsibility to keep poking those people you need to get your job done. But keep in mind the politics of your organization. Sometimes going outside of official channels to do something makes your issue uglier than it ordinarily would be.
Difficulty — All things being normal, is this an issue you’ve seen before or had been solved before? In other words, is it a no-brainer, a puzzle, a mystery, a black hole or a rabbit hole? Assigning these on a modified Fibonnaci scale is the best way to assess the time and effort required. In our next blog, we’ll talk about dealing with difficulty and dive deeper into these terms.
What For (Outro)
If you are the boss, or the process geek, at the end of the meeting, you should remind people what we are supposed to be accomplishing in the long view. If you have to give one person in particular a drubbing, do that offline outside of the meeting. If somebody deserves applause, make it short and sweet.
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Everyone should leave a good status meeting with a sense of purpose, and of having unburdened themselves with the team. Everything should be out on the table.
