Conducting Better Meetings
Source: Accounting Office Management & Administrative Report
Most CPA firms are plagued by obstacles to the productivity of their meetings such as:
v The futility of trying to coordinate schedules.
v Tardiness caused by needs of clients.
v The need for repetition to bring late partners up to speed.
v Failure of partners to read the preparatory material.
v Long-winded partners.
v Failure to complete agendas, partially because of the above problems.
The options for dealing with the last problem are:
v Continue the meeting until you finish. But typically some of the attendees have made other arrangements that cannot be changed.
v Continue the meeting another time—but then you repeat the scheduling problems you had to begin with.
In addition to these ad hoc meetings, firms today have many committees that meet on a regular schedule. These meetings often suffer from having agendas that are either too sparse, or too crowded.
Here are some suggestions for making your meetings more effective:
v Consider dispensing with the meeting. Sometimes the purpose can be accomplished by a few calls to selected partners or by e-mails to a group.
v Start on time, stick to the agenda, prohibit, or limit, extraneous discussion or discourse, and censure those who are tardy or unprepared.
v Use visuals to display information and decisions, but beware of letting this become a diversion.
v Introduce some discomfort—make the room too warm or cold and don’t provide food or drink. Stick to the agenda.
v Allow those who can’t be physically present to participate by speaker phone. But be aware that this kind of communication is less effective because of the absence of body language.
v Use an outside facilitator for major meetings.
Here are some things you should try not to do:
v Schedule another meeting to complete the agenda or decision-making. The participants’ interest wanes.
v Let one person dominate the meeting.
v Conduct a meeting if most attendees are unprepared.
Prepare minutes promptly and disseminate them to the participants. The minutes should be limited to a recitation of the actions taken, not the discussions.
From Accounting Office Management & Administration Report, July 2005, p. 2. For subscription information contact Institute of Management & Administration, Inc., 3 Park Avenue, 30th Floor, New York NY 10016-5902. One-year subscription $329.