You are managing a multinational IT implementation project with team members across five countries spanning four time zones. The project follows a traditional waterfall approach with phase gates. Your project management office (PMO) requires weekly status meetings with all core team members present. After three months, you notice declining participation, with team members frequently joining late, multitasking during meetings, or sending delegates. Survey feedback reveals that team members find the meetings unproductive and poorly timed for their time zones. However, the PMO director insists the meeting format is a governance requirement and cannot be changed. Your sponsor is concerned about team engagement scores dropping from 85% to 62%. What is the BEST way to address this situation?

Question

Accepted Answer

The correct answer is B. This question tests the ability to balance organizational governance requirements with team needs while demonstrating leadership and innovation. Option B is the best answer because it addresses the root cause (meeting format doesn't serve distributed teams well) while respecting the PMO's underlying need for governance and visibility. Proposing an alternative approach that meets governance objectives through modern collaboration methods demonstrates both respect for organizational requirements and advocacy for team effectiveness. This aligns with PMI principles of servant leadership and creating an environment for high performance. Option A, a common distractor, appears fair but actually perpetuates the problem—everyone continues to suffer from poorly-timed meetings, just on a rotating basis. It treats the symptom (timing) rather than the core issue (meeting effectiveness for distributed teams). Option C adds complexity and additional meeting overhead rather than streamlining communication. Option D uses escalation prematurely without attempting to solve the problem collaboratively with the PMO, which could damage the working relationship and be perceived as undermining organizational governance. Effective project managers should attempt collaborative problem-solving before escalation, especially when dealing with organizational process assets and governance requirements.

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