Facilitation Skills to Make the Most of Project Meetings

Tammy Adams, Jan Means, and Michael S. Spivey

Have you ever been involved in a project that didn’t require a meeting? Neither have we. Well-run project meetings allow teams to get through the maze of distractions and obstacles to achieve results. Unfortunately, many project meetings aren’t well-run—they are viewed, by team members, as unproductive, tedious, wastes of precious time. But you can change that. The Project Meeting Facilitator contains practical techniques and practices that will help you facilitate our meetings more effectively, transforming them into well-planned, well-managed journeys that engage the team while achieving the intended goals.

“For anyone thrown into the stormy world of managing project meetings and herding humans, The Project Meeting Facilitator provides the definitive survival kit to enable the preparation, management, and successful achievement of results from the necessary evil of project meetings. Tammy Adams, Jan Means, and Michael Spivey have combined their years of experience in real-world facilitation and teaching to provide any facilitator with a ‘Who, What, When, and When Not’ guide, supported by real tools, examples, and pitfalls.”

—Dale Carr, manager, Business Analysis  

“The Project Meeting Facilitator is focused on traditional project meeting facilitation techniques but is easily applied in more iterative approaches like Agile, Lean, or Design-Build methodologies.”

—David Spann, certified professional facilitator, past MBA Director at Westminster College, Salt Lake City, Utah; and president, Agile Adaptive Management

“Simply the most useful reference book available today for project managers.”

—Bonnie Burkhardt, IT manager, KeySpan Corporation

“This is an excellent resource for everyone from the novice to expert project manager using a non-directive but comprehensively structured facilitative approach.”

—David A. Wayne, Ph.D., CEO, Four Seasons International Consulting, Inc., past chair, International Association of Facilitators

Tammy Adams, B.S., CPF, CQM, Janet Means, M.S., CPF; and Michael S. Spivey, M.A., CPF, PMP, are independent consultants and Certified Professional Facilitators with years of experience in guiding project teams to produce key project deliverables. They combine their years of experience in hands-on project management, process design, supporting technology design and group facilitation to bring proven practical assistance to companies who need to improve their ability to execute and internalize change.