While running the PMO at Zendesk, one of my most naturally instinctive program managers came to me one day in frustration, worried that there were too many people in her program meeting. It had started out well enough, but after a few weeks, given the importance and visibility of the program to the company, invitations had been forwarded and the room was now full of people, most of whom weren’t participating. They were there “so they didn’t miss anything,” but that wasn’t really a good use of their time. I encouraged her to cancel the meeting and start over, inviting the right people based on her RACI diagram, and making sure the meeting invite wasn’t modifiable in order to limit attendees. She also added the people who were no longer included in the meeting to the status report distribution list. She got things back on track and the meeting was once again productive. A good example of when less really is more!
Less is more
