Should we discuss new things in the calls?

In the Work Package Leaders call we had this morning there were a lot of new things that came up that I hadn’t heard before.

Personally, I would love it if we could use teleconferences like this to highlight what has happened, reflect on the general progress that we’re making and solving actual real issues. Ideally, I see news about what has happened with each partner on the community, then we can re-iterate that in the calls, but also create less reliance on the (exclusive) WPL calls for communication.

I’d love to see more updates and news here on the community. However, could we also perhaps change the format of the calls a bit to make it less about telling each other what we’ve done, and more focus on making decisions and moving forward?

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

As a non Work Package Leader I find It even harder to know what’s happening across the Community without trying to follow everything .
Add to that whatever is covered in various exclusive teleconferences and the Project becomes more and more opaque.
For me regular (monthly?) summary updates on where the Project is, what decisions have been / should be made, and direction of travel would be very useful.

In principle, I would agree, however, the calls are unique and convenient for several reasons, including the related commitment to the colleagues (including socially), when we update each other with the added richness of voice and personality, and it is high-bandwidth iterative in a different way than asynchronous, text-based channels, also because it is more intimate, as it were.

So I see the need for both modalities (for sure!).

Cheers,

M

Hi Sydney,

I can fully understand. Today we discussed this, and the consensus (I understand) was to be inclusive in the invitation approach.

The management (the coordinator, supported by the WP leads) should ensure good summaries of activities. But I have a hunch that is also happening now as were spinning up this virtual organisation. Everything should be captured in the WPL agenda/minutes and be available to all partners.

@Claus, correct me if I’m wrong and this is not already the situation/ambition.

In general, hitting the sweet spot between under- and over-communicating is always a challenge. But I trust we’ll find it, together.

Cheers,

M

Great conversation!

In terms of updates about the activity of each individual partner - I realise here I am somewhat a bottle neck (and thus a single point of failure in the communication architecture). I agree with Boris that we should aim for individual (real-time) updates from everyone and to the benefit of everyone, rather than through me as a (delayed) ‘central node’. Particularly as these one way ‘updates’ can then become two way ‘conversations’.

Work package lead calls are indeed open for anyone to join (every 3rd Friday at 10am) and the agenda/minutes are openly accessible in the shared drive (you can find them here). I can send out another calendar invite for those who would like to/are able to join.

In terms of streamlining the update process:
Perhaps the monthly process/progress update could consist of an edited version of the WPL call minutes? For which I prepare a general overview of partner activity and the WPL prepare an their respective WPs? This could then also form the basis of the news letter to the ‘external world’.

(Note: Soon we will also get concrete activity & communication needs at the ‘working group’ level, which will overlap/intersect with the above)