Leader, your team is not in the meeting room!

Leaders should stop wasting so much time on meetings. First, the meetings for planning how the team will work. Soon after, the meeting for following up on the previous meetings. Then, the combination of people and meetings just explodes. These innumerous s meetings are the biggest waste for leaders.

Instead, a leader should spend time on the ground with the team. Try to understand and improve processes and how people collaborate. Thus avoiding the distant management purely based on meetings.

Make the work and the workflow visible. This is a crucial activity for a leader. Say no to the meeting invites. Instead, spend your time working with the team members. Look for ways to make the process (and the team work) more visible. Make information more transparent. Encourage direct communication. These allows for greater collaboration.

Ask why! Seek to understand what is happening on each workflow step; ask why. Then ask again. Help the team members better understand their work and the reasons behind it. This, plus the visibility will enable them to understand each other, therefore better collaborating towards the common goal.

Time is limited. And you can have a great impact on your team’s work. Say no to ineffective meetings. Instead, spend your time on the ground working with the team.

Agile PM and Architect dialog

At times I get asked if I rather be an Agile PM, or a developer.

Today I had a quick conversation with the “Architect” which made me very proud of being an Agile PM.

So, the Architect (A) walked to my team table and started the short conversation…

A: “Who is the tech lead in this team?”
me: “all developers”
A: “But who makes the important design decisions?”
me: “everyone”