🚀 Unlocking Cross-Track Alignment: The Power of Intentional Meetings 🚀
In the quest for seamless cross-track collaboration, we often search for the magic solution—a perfect tool or the belief that effective project management alone can bridge the gaps. However, the hard truth is that no single tool or individual can ensure meaningful connections across diverse lines of business and tracks. Visibility and communication are essential, but there's a missing ingredient in this recipe for success: intentional meetings.
Intentional Meetings?
What do we mean by "intentional"? The keyword here is "intent." These meetings revolve around specific objectives and outcomes, a concept often well-embodied in agile ceremonies. In these instances, every participant understands their role's expectations before, during, and after the meetings, with responsibilities clearly documented and outcomes reliably defined.
However, not all meetings, especially those beyond the textbook, adhere to these same standards. When you hear "Project Kick-off," what are your immediate expectations and responsibilities? Does everyone involved share the same understanding? The lack of clarity in such meetings can result in confusion, missed opportunities, and increased risks.
I'm not advocating for a one-size-fits-all approach to meeting standards across all stakeholders or industries. Different projects may demand varying levels of rigor based on scope, size, and impact. What I am advocating for is a structured approach to the meeting cadence across tracks to mitigate unnecessary risks at little to no additional cost.
So, what's the solution?
The answer isn't a one-size-fits-all prescription. It's about creating intentional touch points that correspond to your organization's unique needs. These touch points should identify key stakeholders, clearly define their responsibilities, gain their acceptance, and hold them accountable.
For example:
Project Kickoffs: Alignment calls from Discovery to Design to ensure all relevant parties find the concept feasible and tangible, minimizing waste.
Product Design Reviews: Ensuring the product's design aligns with compliance, marketing, and other critical requirements before final sign-off.
Planning Days: Representatives from all relevant lines of business attend planning sessions to verify that resourcing and timelines align with delivery plans.
Go/No-Go Sessions: Pre-launch checkpoints ensuring the product's end state meets all necessary criteria before becoming available to customers.
While responsibilities may vary by company or situation, there are some general recommendations per meeting by role. For example, Project Kick-offs tend to include product creating a fire starter/one-pager with essential information, UX designing and presenting wireframes, and in some cases engineering providing simple prototypes.
More Meetings? It takes too much time!
One common concern when introducing additional meetings into our processes is the perception that these gatherings will consume valuable time. And yes, if these meetings are improperly facilitated, that concern can ring true. However, the truth is that none of these meetings should be time-guzzlers. In fact, most shouldn't take more than an hour, with many wrapping up in a concise 30 minutes. Moreover, they are designed to be one-time occurrences per project, and their value far outweighs the modest time investment.
The hidden cost, often overlooked, is the expense of rework stemming from misalignments discovered downstream in the project. The farther these misalignments travel downstream, the costlier they become. Consider this scenario: during a Go/No-Go session, a crucial requirement from a specific stakeholder is uncovered. The ramifications are extensive, including additional discovery work, alterations to designs, new development tickets, tweaks to marketing campaigns, potential missed commitments with external dependencies, and the risk of tarnishing the brand's reputation.
While the initial costs of these meetings may appear "gratuitous" to some, the price of not conducting them is significantly higher. These meetings act as safeguards, ensuring that all stakeholders are aligned and misalignments are identified upfront, saving you the far more substantial cost of rework and downstream complications
So what should I do?
The key takeaway is that mere conversations or the sporadic sharing of information aren't enough. Meetings need to serve as checkpoints to guarantee that essential discussions and decisions take place.
If cross-track dependencies pose challenges for you or your team, consider taking a few steps like implementing the right project management tools, regular meetings, project and delivery plans, and—most crucially—intentional meetings. To do so, I recommend:
1) Make a list of the challenges you’ve faced in alignment or rework - What is missing?
2) Create a meeting with the appropriate stakeholders. Define the roles, responsibilities, and outcomes!
Even if its not needed for every project, make the conscious choice to NOT host the meeting! There is a stark contrast in not hosting the meeting and intentionally choosing not to.
3) Bonus Points - Look at the meetings you currently are having. What is their purpose? What is the goal of the meeting? What is your responsibility?
I am betting there is some waste in your schedule this will unveil.
Establish these checkpoints, clearly define roles and responsibilities, and prevent issues from going unnoticed until they result in substantial downstream problems.
If you're unsure where to begin, don't hesitate to reach out for assistance. We're here to help you streamline your cross-track collaboration and optimize your meeting practices. Your success depends on it. 🌟🤝
