There are many meetings during the project lifecycle, nonetheless a kick-off is the most decisive one. During a kick-off all members of a project team meet for the first time and exchange important information. Firstly, the project manager will introduce him or herself to the team, the project and all information which is relevant and available at this point in time. This may include the goals, the deliverable, milestones and already available plans. Beyond the introduction of the project, a kick-off aims at forming the team. Everybody will introduce him or herself, with a short background of available competences, specific experiences and expectations towards the project. During the kick-off a project manager may want to perform the first three phases of the Tuckman-Development-Cycle for teams, e.g. forming, storming and norming. This will bring the team much faster into a performing mode and helps to accelerate the project. Certainly, there is a cost for that, the time and efforts spent during the kick-off thorougly building the team.

Another key item of every agenda during a kick-off meeting is roles & responsibilities. The project manager may have clarified early with the leadership oft he organisation who will be in the team based on availabilities and capabilities. Now, it´s time for the project manager to clarify each role & responsibility with the team members assigned and reach a clear commitment. The commitment of a team member means „yes, I have understood my role & responsibility and commit myself to fulfil the accountabilities associated with it“. In case of no shows during the kick-off or people in attendance don´t want to commit themselves to their roles & responsibilities, the project team is not ready to start. The project manager needs to perform another meeting for clarifications or escalate already at this early stage to the project sponsor. Starting a project without the commitment of team members means chasing them throughout the lifecycle, escalating or doing the action items myself, which is no option!

In some projects, the planning is already finished before the kick-off is being performed, in other projects the planning starts right after the kick-off. National and international standards are ambiguous in this. Finally, it´s the decision of a project manager when to schedule the kick-off. In both situations the kick-off may address the question of critical success factors, potential risks as well as opportunities of the project. Has planning already commenced before the kick-off, the event could be used to discuss the planning details and adjust where needed. In all cases, the next steps, an action item plan or further activities should be established to get started. Before starting into the project, rules and regulations, the ways of communication, documentation, reporting and escalation may be defined and documented.

Last but not least, building the team spirit, socializing or just getting personally more acquainted with each other is a valuable investment for the team performance. This could be done through a nice coffee or tea setting, informal talks or specific games. Especially for internationally distributed teams, the latter is the most important aspect of a kick-off, building trust and allowing for collaboration. See also the following blogposts: http://blog.ipma.world/rasic-chart-key-tool-collaboration-projects/;  http://blog.ipma.world/managing-collaboration-in-virtual-project-teams/ and http://blog.ipma.world/managing-collaboration-projects/