Summary: Play Now: This episode is sponsored by The PM PrepCast for The PMP Exam: Note: In the opening I say "Welcome to episode 246". Don't worry... it's 255 and I simply mis-spoke. Sorry about that... According to Harold Kerzner 90% of what we project managers do is communicating. And a lot of this communication is done during project meetings. It can sometimes feel like you are running from one meeting to another and that your time is often wasted. Meetings don’t start on time, the issues aren’t dealt with, there is no agenda, there is no focus, nobody assigns any follow ups or tasks and of course then they also don’t end on time. But what if there were a way to make meetings much more productive? Jeffrey Steinke (http://www.lessmeeting.com) thinks there is and he has a lot of good suggestions for you. It all starts by not having a meeting at all and taking things offline. And then if you need to actually have a meeting, it requires planning and follow through. You can look forward to our usual bucket full of recommendations that you can apply on your project meetings tomorrow. Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Podcast Introduction Cornelius Fichtner: Hello and welcome to Episode #255. This is the Proejct Management Podcast at www.pm-podcasat.com and I am Cornelius Fichtner. Nice to have you with us. According to Harold Kertzner, 90% of what we project managers do is communicating and a lot of this communication is done during project meetings. It can sometimes feel like you are running from one meeting to another and that your time is often wasted. This episode is sponsored by The Project Management Podcast™. Yes, The Project Management Podcast™ is sponsoring The Project Management Podcast™ today because we wanted to remind you that as a certified PMP, you can earn 30 PDUs from us here at absolutely zero cost. All you have to do is simply listen to our interviews and then claim your PDUs with PMI. To find out more, please go to www.pm-podcast.com/pdu and please do tell your project management colleagues about us. So back to our interview. So they don’t start on time, the issues aren't dealt with, there is no agenda. The meetings have no focus. Nobody assigns any follow ups. So tasks and of course then meetings also don’t end on time. But what if there were a way to make meetings much more productive? Jeffrey Steinke thinks there is and he has a lot of good suggestions for you. It all starts by not having a meeting and taking things offline. And then if you do need to actually have a meeting, it requires planning and follow through. You can look forward to our usual bucket full of recommendations that you can apply on your project meetings tomorrow. And now, do you have your doughnuts ready? Let's go have a meeting. Enjoy the interview. Podcast Interview Female Voice: The Project Management Podcast's Feature Interview: Today with Jeffrey Steinke, former project manager and the co-founder of Less Meeting. Cornelius Fichtner: Hello Jeff! Welcome to The Project Management Podcast™! Jeffrey Steinke: Hey Cornelius! Thanks so much for having me! Cornelius Fichtner: Alright! How are you doing in Atlanta? Jeffrey Steinke: I'm doing fantastic. We have a nice 80-degree days so it's not that typical hot and humid you'd expect. Cornelius Fichtner: Alright and just to make everybody jealous. I'm out in California. The weather is as always beautiful. Jeffrey Steinke: I think you still beat me. Cornelius Fichtner: So we want to talk about meetings. We're having a meeting right now, a sort of, over Skype. But why do you say that meetings are the number one time waster? Jeffrey Steinke: You know, where do I begin with this one? I don’t think this is going to surprise too many people. There's a laundry list of reasons. They run off-topic. They're not planned well. They run late. There is often no purpose. People aren't prepared. All these different things that cre
