The people you select should have a common goal, but their opinions and agendas can be very different. This diversity helps to make your steering committee adaptable and make better decisions. Steering committees usually respond to the senior managers of an organization, provided that they are not themselves part of these executives. These senior executives are the people who have the responsibility to create a vision or direction for the company. The visions, objectives or initiatives invoked by senior managers are then forwarded to the Steering Committee. At this stage, the Steering Committee breaks down the practical aspects of achieving these objectives, visions or initiatives. A steering committee does not lead the project, nor is it a „voting democracy”. Project management is forwarded to the project/program manager. The Steering Committee „monitors” the project/programme managers to achieve the desired result. It is through reflection, search for ideas, reflection, recommendation and decision-making. Project/program managers make all decisions or suggestions of the Steering Committee.

The problem is that when one person dominates, the rest of the committee can begin to orient itself towards the personal preferences of the dominators. Thus, valuable information and perspectives should never be heard by other members of the Committee. Ensure that every member of the Steering Committee or all interested parties is invited to your Steering Committee. If they can`t physically participate in the meeting, it`s best to use a remote meeting tool like virtual meetings or conference calls. Look here at our own solutions for conference calls. If a member of the executive committee or perhaps the president-elect begins to dominate the deliberations, you should consider a common management model for meetings. Ideally, the two designated executives bring different perspectives and leadership styles to meetings. The idea is to find a balance and contain everyone. The decision to complete a project is traditionally handled by the company`s management, but any discussion about it should take place at a steering committee meeting. The Steering Committee then submits its recommendations to the company`s management, as indicated above. The format of steering committee meetings may vary depending on the exact reason why the meeting was convened (as this may encompass all the issues mentioned above).

There will be elements of the meeting that will become a regular event. Based on this, the format of a steering committee meeting may include: steering committee meetings often require a lot of problem solving or idea generation. To support this, there are a large number of ideation tools that can be put in place at a steering meeting to achieve results. It can be difficult to choose the right exercise for you and your team, and a lot of trial and error is required. Here are some exercises that we have found useful in the past and that work well at a project meeting: the ideal number for a steering committee is about 6. . . .