Guide to Conducting Meetings and RAP sessions

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Guide toConducting Meetings and RAP sessions
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Contents

• Conducting meetings
• Planning the meeting
• Running the meeting
• After the meeting
• What is a RAP sessions?
• Why hold a RAP session?
• Main principles of RAP
• When to hold RAP sessions
• Guidelines for holding a RAP session

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Conducting meetings

• There are three stages to conducting meetings
• planning the meeting
• running the meeting
• after the meeting

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Planning the meeting

• Guidelines to planning effective meetings
• determine the outcomes that are wanted from the
  meeting
• identify who needs to attend
• prepare an agenda to satisfy the outcomes
• ensure all the agenda items can be realistically
  covered in the allotted time for the meeting
• book the meeting room
• notify the participants of the meeting (why,
  where, when, how long, agenda)

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Running the meeting

• Guidelines to running effective meetings
• arrive early and make sure the meeting room is
  set up
• start on time, do not wait for late arrivals as
  it encourages lateness
• identify a chairperson to coordinate the meeting
• identify someone to take minutes
• state the purpose of the meeting at the start
• Review the agenda, get agreement and then stick
  to the agenda
• allocate time on each agenda item and do not run
  over time for each item
• avoid getting bogged down in too much detail or
  in side issues.
• If more information or a solution needs to be
  workedthrough make this an action item to be
  addressedprior to the next meeting.

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Running the meeting (cont.)

• Guidelines to running effective meetings
• chairperson must control the meeting and not let
  individuals dominate
• record minutes
• identify action items, assign to one owner and
  specify when to be actioned by
• finish on time
• if some agenda items are not covered agree to
  reconvene
• If it is a regular meeting, or a follow up
  meeting is required, state when the next meeting
  will be

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After the meeting

• tidy the meeting room so it is left as you found
  it (clean whiteboards, remove papers, cups etc)
• file a record of the meeting (minutes and action
  items) in the project folder and add actions to
  the project action items log
• distribute minutes and action items to all
  participants of the meeting.
• follow up with people assigned actionitems near
  to the action by date.

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What is a RAP session?

• RAP is an abbreviation for Rapid Planning.
• RAP is collaborative planning for a project.
• the common principle of RAP is to engage the
  stakeholders of the project in the activities of
  the planning phase to gain their contribution and
  commitment to the project plan.

Source Rob Thomsett, Radical Project
Management, Yourdon Press, 2002.
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Why hold a RAP session?

• A RAP session
• increases the involvement of stakeholders in the
  project plan.
• gains input to the plan from a greater audience
  than traditional project planning.
• may reduce the time taken to develop the project
  plan.
• may increase the overall effort taken to produce
  the project plan (because of the number of people
  involved)
• improves communication
• facilitates team building
• develops team commitment to the project plan
• ensures the key players in the project are on
  the same page

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Main principles of RAP

• A RAP session is
• Participative all attendees are encouraged to
  contribute to the session
• Facilitative format is interactive rather than
  formal and prescriptive
• Proactive style is creative (similar to
  brainstorming)
• Open and trusting information is shared,
  individual views are respected

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When to hold RAP sessions

• Type of meetings where a RAP session is useful
• project kick-off meetings
• determining requirements
• determining costs and benefits
• work breakdown sessions
• estimating sessions
• resourcing and scheduling sessions

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Guidelines for holding a RAP session

• A RAP session is a meeting, and as such should
  follow the basic guidelines for meetings
• RAP sessions are normally longer sessions (2-4
  hours) than meetings (1 hour)
• In identifying the agenda for the RAP session
  ensure this can be achieved within the time
  allowed for the session
• RAP sessions involve more discussion and
  development of ideas rather than meetings where
  action items are used to reduce the discussion
  time
• Can be held over a series of days ifnecessary

See www.thomsett.com.au for more details.