Leading a Successful SteerCo meeting

Good day...

Have you ever wondered why Steering Committee (or SteerCo in a short term) meeting is important? Is it for the benefit of the SteerCo members (sponsors, key stakeholders) or the project?

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For me, the answer is the latter. The project needs to go for regular SteerCo meetings in order to receive clear direction, required support, and decision of key outstanding items. The fact that project manager, with the team's support, needs to be prepared for questions and challenges by the SteerCo members is inevitable. For project sponsor and other SteerCo members to give meaningful direction, they need to be full aware of the latest state of the project.

The key question is how to secure a successful SteerCo meeting? To answer the question, we need to first understand what is defined as a successful SteerCo meeting? Is it when everyone nods their heads and agree to any proposal the project team is making? Or when the project manager can convince everyone that the project is in a healthy status? In my experience, it might not always be the case. Having a high degree of discussions and disagreements, might be considered as a successful meeting, as long as it is closed by a good decision and clear action plan to the team.

Preparing for a good SteerCo meeting will take a combination between communication and presentation skill. A good SteerCo pack should clearly provide the readers with the current and actual project health status, key achievements since the last meeting, key risk and issues, and next action plan. The project manager also needs to clearly highlight any key decisions being required from the SteerCo members.

A tip on this is to present health status as honest as possible. There is nothing wrong of saying that the project is in amber or even red status for one or more indicators (schedule, budget, risk, issue, resource, benefit).

Once the preparation is done, it would be best to send the material one day prior to the meeting, allowing the audience to flip through the pack. With sufficient preparation, the project manager will need to lead the meeting confidently, answer all questions with straightforward, and ask for required additional support, resources, or decisions.

Remember to always close the meeting with agreed action plan. Meeting summary should always be sent to all audience in one day, if not immediately, after the meeting.

Edwin