The Practitioner: Kids make more sense than clients
As The Practitioner tries to simplify workflow, an appreciation of a child-like attitude to debt is formed
WITH ONLY a few weeks until the Christmas break attentions has turned towards outstanding personal tax returns. It only seems we were only just enjoying the summer sun and thinking there was plenty of time to get the returns in, done, and approved.
We have employed a daily meeting routine in the office to make sure these last few weeks of 2014 are used effectively and everyone knows that ‘we are all here to help each other’. Every day at 9am we sit down and run through these three questions in turn:
1. What are you currently working on?
2. What issues are you facing?
3. Anything else?
I believe the technique is known as a ‘scrum’ and is more commonly used in the IT sector, but I do like the simplicity of it and the structure it provides to short meetings.
One thing it does do is force people to participate in the meeting. Everyone has to run through their answers in turn. Too many times in the past people have sat in the meetings and said nothing then at some point later in the week I have been made aware of issues they have had. Having our daily scrum is going to force people to play the game properly!
We have also recently engaged with a local high school as part of our new marketing push, and have set up a competition to find the best business idea from within the Year ten business class. The firm also got asked to attend several classes and talk to the younger pupils about the importance of saving. I wish my clients were half as receptive as the children…They were really keen to learn about saving, as well as what they could spend it on the future of course.
I may well set up a seminar for our clients and ask a few of the children to present to them. It will save me banging my head against a brick wall. If I had a pound for every time I’ve told certain clients they are spending too much I’d be able to spend as much as they do.
The Practitioner’s uncensored thoughts come from within their own practice – having left a regional firm in the heart of England