Spice up your work meetings and see the results

Michael, director with OBC The Accountants, said: “Many look at meetings as a necessary evil and wonder why it’s worth putting more time and energy into them. But good decisions need implementing and because you need others to support your decisions and implement the actions, you will end up in a meeting. Key to remember is decide first then meet second.”

The tone and structure of meetings should depend on the level of importance, impact or consequence of your decision.

Michael said: “If your decision is inconsequential and of no impact then simply make the decision and communicate it to your people without a meeting. For low level impact decisions, focus on buy-in, speed and action-planning in your meeting.

“But for higher level impact decisions focus first on creating genuine debate and conflict in your meeting then generate collaboration.”

For those higher-level impact decisions, key to success is to make the decision in advance but keep it to yourself to start with.

Michael added: “Meetings that result in conflict and collaboration will always prove to be valuable. Sharing issues or challenges will be engaging for your team and will create a high-energy meeting that helps ensure you’ve made the best decision possible. Follow this conflict meeting with a collaboration meeting to co-ordinate actions and people’s participation.”

For further info on how to spice up your work meetings and see results, visit businessbitesize.com/obc_accountants