Do you notice your team rolling their eyes and sighing when mentioning a team meeting? We recommend making team meetings part of your culture. Plan them out 12 months in advance. Use them constructively and don’t only have them when something is wrong or not working. Be sure to share the good and the improvement needs. Effective team meetings are essential to the growth of your business and always striving to improve.
Be sure when you schedule a team meeting that you allow enough time. That could be a long lunch or a short afternoon with a meeting wrapping up the day. Provide lunch and snacks, and drinks depending on the time. It’s ideal if you can schedule offsite meetings.
Tips For an Effective Team Meeting:
You’re not late to work and don’t want your team to be. The same applies to the team meeting.
Don’t get off topic. You can have a team member be the timer for each item.
Come to the meeting like you’re meeting with your executive team. It shows respect, and you want to project what you expect.
Have the agenda ready or the information for CE or patient challenges.
Leave your phone at your desk or in your pocket. Change the voicemail to say you’re in a meeting. That allows your business office to be fully engaged.
Wind down the meeting, allowing time for questions and feedback.
I have seen in some offices that they post the agenda a week before the meeting, ask for feedback on challenges, and have the team list the challenge and the solution. This helps prevent a complaining session.
Engage the team in the meeting. Make it interactive, encourage feedback and ask for solutions and ideas. Let’s face it; sitting there and having your doctor read the agenda is boring. It’s always fun to open with an icebreaker game and give a prize.
The team meeting can be used for training, updating the state of the practice, reviewing production and collection goals, NPs that month, planning for CE, and giving recognition and sharing success stories. It’s up to you to decide the success of your team meeting.
