Twelve Elements for the Perfect Business Kickoff Meetings

Employ a Kickoff meeting for company projects and initiatives where you want to start the project with the right group framework, mindset,  and energy. Your objective is to deliver the information needed to move the project forward for its success. Address three components at your kickoff meetings to the team for best performance; project meaning, objective clarity, and motivate them so they are prepared for the challenges ahead.

Provide the purpose and meaning of the project outlining the expected project benefits and mention the importance and urgency if necessary to make it a priority for each team member. Motivate your team to work together to achieve your project’s desired outcomes with the twelve elements outlined in this article. The result of following these twelve elements will be a perfect kickoff meeting. Let’s dive in.

Why Listen to What I Have to Say on this topic?

I have completed projects in one form or another for more than 30 years and have instructed how to conduct business meetings. My work concentrates on meeting productivity and obtaining the best results. Businesses of all sizes struggle with business meetings, and there is a real need for information and training. Therefore, my reason for sharing what I know through this article and others on the subject. Here are my insights from three decades of knowledge and experience.

Clear Objectives

Your kickoff meetings should spell out clearly what the objectives are. What’s at stake, and what the outcome should look like? You may want to provide details on the budget, the expected date of delivery, and who will be engaged with the project. Provide details of the vendors and supporting project members that will be engaged that may not be a part of the project’s core group. Mention upfront your expectations and the challenges the team is likely to confront. Get them mentally ready for the challenges ahead by looking at the group’s body language and using the knowledge to ensure they are mentally ready. Your goal is to have participants engaged. They should neither have a laid-back or a passive-aggressive attitude.  Be prepared to address their energy and bring it to the level you think is appropriate.

Create your agenda for the meeting activities and include the meeting time, where it will be held, and how long it will be. Include a motivating statement about the upcoming project. You want to thank the individuals ahead of time for their participation and look forward to their contributions. Mention If they need to bring specific information or materials to the kickoff meeting with the invitation. Kickoff meetings do not need to be lengthy and you must be clear of what you want to accomplish and prepared to address questions and details about the project.

Ground Rules

Ground rules are the conduct expectations that everyone in your project group is expected to follow. List all the ground rules for the group.  Advise everyone on the usage of personal electronic devices and respect everyone’s views and suggestions. Your team members should be chosen based on their skills, experience, and seniority in the company and remind everyone of this fact. Courtesy must be extended to each person, and stipulate that all members respect one another so that everyone is heard in meeting discussions. Advise that some or all topic discussions will have a time limit and that no one dominates the allotted time for personal soliloquies. Respect and teamwork are two cornerstones of a good team that works together for a common purpose, and all team members are to keep that in mind. The kickoff meeting should mention who will lead the project team, and have the decision-making responsibilities.

Introductions

Allow everyone to introduce themselves to one another unless they have all worked together previously. If this is the case, mention each person by name and remind everyone what they bring to the project. Remind the team of everyone’s skill, experience and insights that will propel the project to its success. Have everyone introduce themselves if you have members who don’t know each other. Add the person’s skills and benefits that make them a necessary asset to the project team after each introduction. Set the criteria for everyone to introduce themselves such as the obvious mention of their name, company, position, tenure, experience in such projects, and anything else relevant to the project.

Icebreaker Activity

Icebreaker activities are a great way for the team to bond together. The activity is important so that everyone in the group can feel comfortable enough to convey their thoughts during the project to each other. These types of activities come in three categories, physical, conversational, or both. You should consider everyone’s physicality when choosing physical activities to do as a group. Ensure that everyone will be able to do it. You don’t want someone who cannot do the activity to feel left out and self-conscious right from the get-go. Do this as a group activity and treat it as such. Conversational activities that can be done are what I suggest. I will mention three of my favorites. Have your group engage in these conversational activities around a table or comfortably sitting in a group formation.  I find that people enjoy them, and more importantly, it brings the group together.

Two Truths and a Lie: Have people in the group mention three things about themselves after they introduce themselves. I like it when people don’t know which is the two truths and which is the lie. It intrigues group members and at the end of the introductions, you can have each person advise the group which is the lie.

Bucket List Exercise: This exercise is great when you ask people to mention two things that they want to do in their life and one thing that they have already done.

Share Something Unexpected: Everyone shares something unexpected about themselves that people in the group would not expect after their basic introduction. It’s a great way of getting to know people in the group. They may share a hobby, an experience they had, or something else they think is interesting about themselves.

Your participants will open up about themselves when the icebreaker exercises are done in a light-hearted manner with fun in mind. You will learn personal insights that most don’t expect. The meeting organizer or facilitator should take the lead and start the activity providing others in the group with time to think about what they are going to say.

Strengths and Weakness Analysis

When speaking about the project, provide an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the group and how you will leverage the strengths and strengthen the weaknesses. It’s a great exercise to do with the group as well to get their insights and thoughts. A Force Field analysis exercise is simple to do and provides a structured manner to gather input from the team. Simply draw a large ‘T’ on a whiteboard or easel, then place the project goal or objective on the horizontal line on top of the ‘T’. Then on one side of the vertical line of the ‘T’ place a plus sign just under the horizontal line of the ‘T’. Place a negative minus sign on the other side. Have the group collaborate by presenting and suggesting the positive forces for the project to be successful in point form. Do the same thing on the negative side. Create actions from the exercise that will decrease the impact of the identified negative forces. This is a great first exercise to get people to start to work together and address possible hurdles. It increases the probability of success for your project.

SMART Action Items

Advise the team that action items from your meetings will follow the SMART format. They will be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timebound. It is important for the meeting facilitator to identify individuals who will be assigned each action item. You expect that the responsible individual will report to the group or team leader should any hurdles be identified and cause delays or unexpected costs. You should advise everyone that they shouldn’t wait to report such circumstances in group meetings. Doing so will potentially save time to implement corrective actions to avoid unnecessary delays.

Roles and Responsibilities

The project leader should advise the team on everyone’s role and responsibilities for the project. Typically, you will identify the project leader, the project champion (who the team reports to), the meeting facilitator, the timekeeper, and the meeting organizer. You will also advise or elect a minute meeting taker who will be responsible for keeping a record of each meeting. This person’s role is to document the discussions of the group as it is developing. Note the agreed actions from the discussions and the responsible person for each action. The project leader will also ensure that each action item follows the SMART format already mentioned above.

Communication

It is a good idea to discuss and agree to a meeting frequency. How meeting minutes will be distributed. As well as any platforms that the group will use to share details about the project. It is important to discuss the communication channels that may be used during the project. Include details on emails, software platforms, cell phones, and any other device that may be relevant. You may want to decide how much information about the project you want to communicate to personnel outside the group. Go through the process and discuss how it will be done. If the group decides that there should be a restriction in communication, then you should elect a spokesperson. One spokesperson eliminates different narratives from being distributed that may contradict each other.

Insider Tip: Ensure that the meeting minutes are done professionally and the notetaker uses a professional meeting minutes journal. Consider the Konnect Meeting Minutes Journal for its many features. The Konnect Meeting Minutes journal was designed for project and business meetings in general. It has meeting minute pages with page sections for all the details you will need to keep track of your meetings, and your action items. It has an easy-to-use index system to locate your meetings easily. A separate action items listing so that you don’t have to be flipping pages to find all your action items, and more. The Konnect Meeting Minutes Journal is available in both hardcover and paperback, both have perfect bound binding.

Risks

Communicate to the group the risks that you are concerned about. Present these risks to the group and what to do about them. Have action items for each risk identified. The Force Field analysis exercise should have identified most of the potential negative risks but this is an important topic to address in case something is missed. Use this time to foresee any issues as far ahead as possible that may impact your project negatively.

Resources

Your project will have three components to manage, these are the budget, required services, and human resources. Allocate and organize these and other relevant resources. Disclose as much information as possible to obtain group feedback as such information will allow everyone to understand the project. It is your responsibility to determine all resources that will be needed for the success of your project.

Next Steps

The best way is to get to work right away, as your team’s momentum at this stage is generally high, so use it to your advantage. Obtain action items during the work portion of the kickoff meetings but don’t just stop there and ensure follow-up so that they are completed or progressing as expected. Do not forget to use the SMART format and assign responsible individuals to each item.  Engaging in project work activities after the kickoff portion is done is an option that can be considered, otherwise, advise everyone when the next meeting is scheduled.

FAQ’s

What is a Kickoff Meeting?

Kickoff meetings are the first meeting of a company initiative to establish clear project goals and expectations. Participants will receive information on such items as budgets, resources and their allocation, and member roles and responsibilities.

How Long Should a Kickoff Meeting be?

Treat your kickoff meetings the same way as a regular meeting but be as short as possible to ensure you utilize company resources properly.  Your kickoff meeting should motivate the team, provide the energy needed for the project’s success, and create a stronger bond between participants.

Who Should Participate in a Kickoff Meeting?

Invite and include personnel needed for the project to succeed in the kickoff meetings including company employees, contractors, and vendors. Invite the project sponsor who should provide a statement to the group, but you don’t have to invite others who contribute periodically.

Conclusion

In conclusion, kickoff meetings are an important part of bringing people together for a common goal. Follow the guidelines that I have provided you to motivate and align the participants with the goals of your initiative. You will make a positive impact when your kickoff meetings are done correctly by following the outline just given to you. Your participants will feel the positive impact that your project needs to be successful.