Are you running a steering committee meeting soon and want it to run smoothly? Well, in this video,
I'm going to share with you the dos and dos on running an effective steering committee meeting,
so you get the results you need for your project. And if you want to be a project
manager ninja stick around to the end of this video, where I'm going to tell you how you can
get your hands on an amazing checklist to ensure your projects don't fail. Hi, if you're new here,
welcome, my name is Adriana Girdler. And on this channel, you're going to get the best
project management and career advice. Please consider subscribing to this amazing
community. Now, if you're very much wanting to know the dos and don'ts of steering committee,
please like this video. It tells YouTube we're putting out good content, allowing us to give
you more. So on that note, let's get to it. Don't wing it. Your steering committee is
made up of really important people. And the fact that they're there for your project and they're
committed to it shows that A, you've done an amazing job setting up your project, but B,
how important your project is too. You don't want to wing it.
You want to make sure that whatever you have on your agenda, you can get it in the allocated time,
because the worst thing is to have the meeting and not be able to finish stuff. And you also
want to ensure that you have a PowerPoint to help with the flow. Again, you're not just walking
in blind. That visual with the PowerPoint really can help. So don't wing it. You're too important.
Do pre-read. Just like the other tip, they're really busy, your steering committee members.
So you need to ensure that you give them the pre-read. You got to do this in advance. So at
least a couple of days. Ensure that they have all the information they need if you're going
to be asking them to remove a roadblock or to approve something. So if they come prepared,
that's just going to help ensure that your meeting runs smoothly. Now, if they don't come prepared,
that's fine because that does happen. Just bring it up at the meeting. Hey,
who read the pre-read? If nobody did, just say, look, I need to go through this with you now,
before we can make the decision. And if that's the case, do I have extra time from you?
And if they say yes, fine, go ahead. And if they say no, then ask them,
how can we ensure moving forward we get everything done in our allocated meeting time? Again, you're
putting the onus back on them, but that pre-read work that you've done shows your due diligence.
Whether or not they read it, different story, but it's just going to help ensure things are smooth.
Do standardize your agenda. Now, before we jump into that particular tip, I want you to forget
or not forget to stay tuned to the end because I have a amazing download for you, which is going to
help you with steering committee. So on that note, let's get back to the agenda. So you want to look
at standardizing your agenda. There's three core things you always want to have on your standard
agenda every single meeting. Project update. These are the people who do need an update and something
you can give as pre-read. What roadblocks have to be removed and what approvals need to be done for
them. And you can even add a fourth element, which is next steps. So everybody knows what's going
to happen at the next meeting. Again, very busy people. You want to come prepared. Standardizing
your agenda ensures that it helps you out because it's going to be the same agenda over and over.
It's the content that's going to be different. It allows for your steering committee to know what
to expect. And so that when you do give the pre-read, they know that they're now getting
fine tuned with the information prior to entering the meeting. So that is really
helpful from an efficiency standpoint and ensuring that your meetings run smoothly.
Don't hide the facts. When you are sharing information and updates with your steering
committee, tell them exactly what's going on. If you have risks, tell them of the risks. If there's
issues popping up, tell them of what those are. That becomes really important. And I'll tell you
why, because you're going to let them know that you're on top of your project. There's never a
project that doesn't have any problems. And if you ever come across a project that's perfect,
I would really question the monitoring and the execution of that particular project.
So when you don't hide the facts, it shows you're on top of things.
It shows your transparency. You're keeping people in the loop. And more importantly,
if something should come to fruition, that was risk, it's not a shock because that's the
worst type of issue to deal with is when it's a shock. So you're just prepping people. Now,
how do you do this with a preparation? Well, I use a stoplight system of a red, green, and yellow. So
in my standard update, when I actually do the update section for each deliverable,
depending on how you do it. By the way, I actually have a video on steering committees on
presentation, how to actually set up your PowerPoint. So go check it out.
Search Adriana Girdler steering committee. And that will pop up for you. So check that out. More
information on what I'm talking about right now. So with that stoplight system, it's just going
to let everybody know, oh, there's a yellow on this particular item that Adriana brought up. So
if it should turn into a red, it's not a shock. And if it should turn into green, even better,
which most times it does happen. So just don't hide the facts. It doesn't help
you. You're not showing that you're a great project manager. In fact, it's the opposite.
Do use their authority to help you move things forward. You have a steering committee for a
reason. It's not there just to get people together. It's to use their leverage,
their knowledge, the fact that their senior executives, the power that they have to make
things move forward from a resource perspective, a budget perspective, a timing perspective.
So the key though is just don't dump everything on their doorstep. You need to ensure that you can
get most of it done. When you bring something to them from a roadblock removal perspective,
it usually is something you yourself and your team can't resolve and you now need their intervention.
So bring it to them. That is why you have a steering committee.
Now that you have the dos and don'ts for a steering committee, remember what I said earlier
on. Go to the link underneath this YouTube video and grab this. It is a free download for you that
is going to give you tips and tricks, really a checklist on how to ensure your projects don't
fail. It is a must if you're running projects or any activity or initiative in your organization.
Please do it. It's just going to help you. If you learn something new on this from this video,
please give it a like. It tells YouTube that we're putting out good content,
allowing us to give you more great videos. Now, it's your time to share. Do you have anything
that you would add to this do and don't list for your steering committees? Please
put in the comments below. Until the next video. See you later.