What a Partner Retreat Is – and Is Not

A Partner Retreat is NOT….

Just another partner meeting. Partner meetings tend to focus on operational issues: routine matters, solving an immediate crisis. A retreat is a time for contemplation, communicating, brainstorming, going boldly where the partners have never gone before.

A firm-wide event where lots of staff are invited. Most firms understand the importance of staff. Some even invite their managers and perhaps younger staff to the retreat to give them a feeling of being “involved” – a well-intentioned move that, as a practical matter, can be a disaster. The whole point of a retreat is to address highly critical, sensitive issues. The partners must feel free to be brutally candid with each other while having access to confidential, sensitive information. The presence of non-partners can stifle fruitful discussion of many agenda items. If you want to invite staff, convene another event more suitable for them.

An excuse for the partners to go to a resort on the firm’s dime. The partners can choose to make the retreat more of a perk rather than a game-changer. Just call it what it is – a perk. Most retreats are held in town with no overnight stays. The key is to get outside of the office, freeing the partners from interruptions. For this purpose a conference room at a local hotel is more than adequate.

A forum for beating up or ambushing your partners. The retreat is about the firm, not individual partners. There is a time and place to deal with individual performance and behavior issues. A partner retreat is not one of them.

An event that ends when the retreat is over. Some firms are content with convening a partner retreat where ideas are rarely acted on when everyone returns to the office. They feel that the spirit of communication and bonding between the partners justifies the time and expense of the retreat. But this kind of retreat has two huge drawbacks: (1) The great ideas generated at the retreat never get implemented, leading to (2) frustration by some partners because they feel they’ve wasted their time and “nothing ever happens.”

A good retreat is one where the partners have great conversations AND execute retreat ideas. But the key to implementation is partner accountability, an elusive concept to many firms.

A Partner Retreat IS…

An occasion to assess the firm. Retreats are a time for the partners to take stock of the firm and ask: How satisfied are we? What do each of us want from the firm professionally and personally? What are the biggest problems? What do we want the firm to look like 5-10 years from now? Are we honestly willing to commit to making changes? What will it take?

Opportunity to get sensitive issues onto the table. There should be few “easy” agenda topics. Most topics should make the partners a little uneasy. Do we have partner accountability? Are we willing to be managed (by the MP)? We’re a complacent lot, with below average profitability and no partner accountability- is this OK or should we change? Are we willing to voice long-hidden opinions that risk offending some partners?

A place for strengthening partner relationships. As much as partners may embrace teamwork, the nature of their work causes them to mostly work separately. There is precious little time for these busy people to work on partner relationships. A retreat should create an environment, free of distractions and client/staff duties, where partners can think, leisurely communicate and share feelings and opinions.

A learning experience. It can be learning best practices in areas where the firm is weak. Discovering feelings and opinions of other partners. Truly understanding the depth of a firm problem. Partners should walk away from retreats as smarter people.

Problem solver. Partners are constantly busy with client, staff and firm issues. They may convene regular partner meetings, but these tend to focus on updates and minor troubles. These meetings aren’t good forums for tackling titanic issues such as: How can we grow faster? How can we develop young partners to avoid merging up as our succession plan?

A game changer. Years ago, I facilitated the retreat of a large firm. Before turning the reins over to me, the MP told his 20 partners that the vast majority of the firm’s great ideas, indeed the catalyst for the firm’s outstanding track record of growth, profitability and other achievements, was partner retreats. Everyone attending a retreat should go into it with the goal of making it a game changer for the firm.

The last point above is crucial – every partner attending the retreat should enter the meeting with the mindset that this year’s retreat will be a game changer. Our new monograph, CPA Firm Retreats:The Do-It-Yourself- Guide was written for firms wishing to make their retreats game-changers. It’s also written for those firms who don’t wish to use an outside facilitator and prefer to convene the meeting on their own.