Status meetings are an opportunity to make sure feedback and learning remain a priority and our plans to achieve them are still on track. Status meetings are also a chance to take a bit of time for critical reflection – a sort of Pause & Reflect ‘light.’
What to do:
Check that plans for responsive feedback are still in place
- Is ongoing learning still built into timelines and budgets?
- Is everyone clear on roles and responsibilities for ongoing learning?
Check that plans for data capture, feedback, and learning are being acted on
- Are feedback mechanisms in place?
- Is feedback being turned into actionable conclusions?
- Is this information being shared across the organisation (not just with the MEL teams)?
Take time to Pause & Reflect
- Even if it’s only for a few minutes, take time to invite people to pause & reflect on how the program is going and how it might be better.
- Provide questions to guide the reflection such as:
- What have we observed about how the program is going?
- What seems to be working well? Not so well? Why is this?
- What could we improve?
- Make it clear that constructive criticism is welcome.