Knowledge

Are Your Partners’ Meetings Productive?

Partners spend a lot of time in internal meetings. But is that time well spent?

A frequent complaint sounds like: “Yes, we have talked a lot, but did we actually solve the problem and decide anything? I am not quite sure. We certainly did not come up with something clear and practical.”

Unproductive meetings may sometimes be necessary. To maintain healthy relationships, some partners regularly need to chat in an aimless, informal, unfocused manner. But this has limits.

At some point, you need the meeting to produce some kind of output in an efficient way. Otherwise, meetings start to be frustrating, and are perceived as a waste of time. An increasing number of partners won’t even show up anymore. The glue that keeps the partnership together starts to deteriorate.

Ensuring productive meetings throughout the firm, from general assembly meetings to strategic retreats to management committee meetings to practice group meetings, is therefore a must not only for the sake of effective time management, but also for maintaining a healthy, energetic partnership.

I am often surprised to see how little attention is paid in law firms to the art of conducting internal meetings. Partners somehow believe that they are naturally gifted to lead meetings effectively, or use in internal meetings the tips and tricks that work in meetings with clients. Both strategies do not work.

Partners, like anybody else, have to learn the techniques that make internal meetings effective. Limited investment, substantial pay off. 

Antoine Henry de Frahan | 28 May 2006 |