Conflict makes for productive internal meetings in your Accountancy firm

Are your firm’s internal meetings as productive as you’d like them to be?

Internal meetings within your firm should be designed to help you make or implement decisions. Productive internal meetings should help you move your firm forward and grow into a firm you’d be proud to own and run.

But remember the meeting is not the decision-maker, you are.

It’s you, as the leader, who makes the decision.

The tone and structure of your meeting depends on the level, impact or consequence of your decision:-

1) Before you organise the meeting decide what grade of decision you are making, there are 3:
     • decision of no consequence
     • decision of low consequence
     • decision of mid to high consequence

2) If your decision is of no consequence, simply make the decision and let your team know – there is no need to even have a meeting!

3) If your decision is of low consequence, run an internal meeting to share the decision with your team. These meetings should be about finalising the decision you have already made
and generating buy-in, so you can agree follow-on actions.

4) If your decision is of high consequence, then the quality of the decision really matters. During the meeting get attendees to share their thoughts on the issue first before you share your thoughts. Focus on generating genuine debate and conflict from your team within the meeting, working towards a collaborative agreement which results in actions.

Your firm’s success depends on your internal meetings being productive, especially if you have lots of meetings every week.