Summary

Conducting Meetings

This section holds true for both the PATs and the EPG. Hold meetings at least weekly, require attendance, and require timeliness. Take notes and publish the notes, but rotate who actually takes the notes you do not need a secretary but you do want each person to contribute equally not just have someone whose only role is to take notes. Send out an agenda at least one day before the meeting. Try to get the sponsor and executives to attend a meeting here and there. They are busy, but their attendance proves to the members that their efforts are being noticed. It also shows buy-in from the executives. The EPG meetings should consist primarily of reviewing the status of what is occurring on the PATs and planning how to resolve issues that occur on the PATs. Discuss any problems, issues, or concerns. Allow for questions back and forth. Document and track action items. Store the meeting minutes in an online common drive (include dates of meetings).

There needs to be a simple and easy mechanism for the organization to present ideas and issues to the EPG. Whether this is done via your intranet or whether you have Engineering Change Proposals or Process Improvement Proposals, it does not matter. What matters is that the people in your organizations feel that they are part of the process of process improvement. They need to be able to introduce ideas, as well as to challenge the ideas currently under development produced by the EPG. Also necessary is a mechanism to communicate to the organization what the EPG is doing. See the discussion in Chapter 15 concerning a communication plan for ideas. Remember: you have to communicate things at least seven times and three ways just to be heard .