Is This Meeting Really Necessary?

Source: Accounting Office Management & Administration Report

A report by the Wharton Center for Applied Research says that leaders of accounting firms, among others, should be devoting about 23 hours a week in meetings. If that is true, CPAs had better make the meetings as worthwhile as possible. Here are some suggestions:

Maybe you should not have the meeting. You may be able to accomplish the objective by phone calls or e-mail. You can set forth the issue and ask the other leaders to “reply to all” and to limit their word counts. Then summarize the responses and make a final recommendation that everyone can agree on. This may work well with widely dispersed groups.

If you do have the meeting—Start on time and keep on track. Unprepared participants should be disciplined. Prohibit extraneous discussions.

Don’t let the participants be too comfortable--Keep the room slightly warm or cool, and don’t serve refreshments.

If some participants can’t attend—Ask them to participate by speaker-phone.

Don’t reschedule. Make sure the original objective is accomplished. Participants tend to be less interested and committed if they must attend a second meeting.

Don’t let anyone dominate the meeting.

Don’t have a meeting if the participants are not prepared.

Minutes should not include the details of the discussions, just the decisions made

From Accounting Office Management & Administration Report. For the complete article, click here or on the following link: http://www.ioma.com/issues/AOMAR/2005_07/1592359-1.html.