Organizing a kick-off meeting for your project

Organizing a kick-off meeting for your project

A kick-off meeting can be a formal, highly organized event or an informal one-hour meeting. However, it is always a good idea for project managers to organize kick-off meetings for new projects.

Why is it important to hold a kick-off meeting?

The goals and scope of a new project are generally established at the kick-off meeting. It is also an opportunity for the members of the team to meet and start working on the team-building process. As project manager, you should try to get all your team members to participate and interact. This will give the team a sense of unity and will help all involved to focus on the goals of the project.

At the kick-off meeting you should try to accomplish all or most of the following objectives:

• introduce the team members
• establish lines of communication between individuals
• explain and establish the project's goals
• identify possible problem areas
• set individual and team objectives
• obtain the team's consensus

Whether the meeting is formal or informal, a two-hour gathering, or an all-day event, the project manager should note all the objectives to be achieved and prepare an agenda. The agenda acts as a reminder, structures the meeting, and lets all the team members know the items that need to be discussed.

Let's suppose you are a project manager and you want to organize an informal kick-off meeting. Here's an example of an agenda you could send to all your team members in preparation for the meeting:

1. Introduction of team members
2. Establish project goals - PM
3. Discuss project procedures - PM
4. Identify problem areas
5. Set individual and team objectives
6. Schedule next meeting/suggest agenda items - PM

At the meeting, the project manager should be aware of the time he or she spends talking. It is important to involve all the team members in the discussions - let them explain what their thoughts are on the project, what they expect to contribute to it, and how they will achieve their goals. Discussing individual and team goals openly and clearly is the right way to securing general team commitment to the project.

The next step is to get individual team members to commit to their specific objectives. It is unlikely that each member will commit or even attain all the objectives at this early stage, but, as project manager, you can schedule a follow-up meeting and set certain time limitations. The more involved individual team members are in the entire project, the easier it will be for the project manager to obtain a reasonable commitment.