7 Easy Steps to Successful Meetings


Introduction Meetings are the cornerstones for consistency in your practice. Team meetings are essential in order to:

• Follow up on old business • Discuss changes & new systems • Implement training, try new techniques or materials • Assign projects and work on projects • Make superior decisions as a group

We often hear team meetings have been boring, or non-‐productive, or gripe sessions, or they stress the Doctor out because they don’t have time to prepare. It can be different! It means that team members must be involved. Encourage team members to be in charge of the meetings and responsible for making change happen. Hold them accountable for results. It won’t be different unless you try something different!

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results!” Albert Einstein

In this guide you will learn: • Tips for building your agenda • When to have meetings and how long they should be • What the Facilitator’s role encompasses • What the Recorder is responsible for • Tools to use to guarantee your meetings end with a plan for action


Step 1. It All Starts In Your Huddle Keep a team meeting agenda handy at every huddle. Whenever something comes up that needs further discussion and is not part of your huddle checklist, put the topic on your team meeting agenda. Pretty soon your agenda will fill up with lots of relevant topics that need to be addressed & resolved.

Keep your team meeting agenda posted in a central area so that everyone can add relevant topics to it. If you want change in your office, it’s up to you and each person on your team! Practices made up of team members that are not fearful of bringing up tough subjects are ultimately more successful and better places to work!

Step 2. Help Your Meetings Be Successful Don’t serve food at meetings (ok, occasionally, if it’s a birthday or a practice celebration). Don’t have meetings while eating lunch. Focus on the business of making your practice the best place to work and the best place for patients to receive care. Eat before or after the meeting, it is a distraction.

We recommend scheduling meetings in difficult to fill patient times and when the most team members can be present. If you are a part-‐time employee and not present for the meeting, you are still responsible for the information discussed at the meetings and for implementing the changes agreed to at the meetings.


Step 3. Have Them! Start with 1-‐hour meetings every month. Eventually, you’ll have so much to discuss that you’ll need weekly meetings.

Don’t worry about taking so much time out of production time for meetings, huddles & administrative time. Offices that have regular meetings, huddles & administrative time increase production up to 25%. By taking the time out of your schedule, you’ll be able to make your schedule more effective. Customer service will be better, the schedule will run better & you’ll be happier, too.

It’s just like going to the grocery store with a list or without. You come home with food either way, but which works better?

Step 4. Be Organized • Assign a Facilitator • Assign a Recorder • Start on time & end on time • Stay on track with your agenda as the guide

The Facilitator is the coach. She/He will keep the meeting on time, make sure you stay on topic & make sure that all team members participate.

The Recorder takes simple, brief notes that will serve to document what was covered and the To-‐Do List that resulted. Start a Meetings notebook. After each meeting, put the notes & the team meeting agenda & the To Do list in your notebook filed by date.


Step 5. Be Prepared Everyone should have a copy of the agenda & be ready to present any items they placed on the agenda. Trust plays a role in whether your team members are prepared. Without preparation you will not have a productive meeting. It is essential for you to be willing to risk trusting others and their ideas for them to want to be prepared. You must believe your team members are competent and share your values and vision to accept their ideas.

Show your commitment to your values and vision for your practice and your team, by always being prepared yourself and holding everyone equally to the practice standards.

Step 6. Participate! If you want change to happen in your office, then be ready to present your ideas and opinions in a professional, non-‐blameful way. Remember: it’s about change. Negotiating change means being willing to hear someone else’s viewpoint. Your viewpoint is no more or no less important than another team member’s viewpoint. An invested and involved team is the key to a practice’s success. Respected, valued, competent team members will participate without hesitation.

Have the courage to pull a team member aside, in a non-‐public place, after the meeting if you feel they were not prepared or did not participate. You could say something like; “It’s really important to me to have your viewpoint as a member of the team. I get

disappointed when you don’t participate. What would you be willing to do at our next meeting to show a higher level of commitment to the team?” PAUSE, let the team member answer! “What can I do to help make that happen?”

Step 7. End with an Action Plan What are you going to do differently to solve the issues the practice faces? Coming up with solutions that support a better work environment or a better patient experience is the goal of meeting. Try something different!! If all you do is discuss, eventually you will decide that meetings are a waste of time.


The Facilitator’s Role is Key! Nine Techniques to Triumph over Bad, Boring Meetings

1. Ensure everyone knows the start and stop time of the meeting. Doctors must show commitment to team communication by not working into the meeting time. Meetings will improve the practice if everyone is committed to participating in an effective meeting that produces real results.

2. The Facilitator’s duty is to keep everything and everyone on track and on schedule. Do not start your patients late as a result of your meeting running over.

3. The Facilitator’s goal is to encourage discussion and draw people out. Make sure the same people on your team don’t do all the talking. If someone is not participating or involved in the discussion ask directly for his or her input.

“Sharon, what do you think?”

“Mike, what could you add?”

“Jane, how do you feel about this?”

4. Meet with the doctor the day before the meeting to review the agenda and to agree on what can be covered in the time available. Determine the objective of the meeting. If the facilitator knows the “burning issue” the practice is looking to solve, (i.e. Doctors checking hygiene patients at the end of the visit instead of earlier, causing the hygienists to run behind) they will be better at keeping everyone on task. Determine what problem must have a solution at the end of today’s meeting. Know the time limits for each agenda item. To allow for adequate discussion, do not be afraid to table some items to a future meeting,


5. If it is your turn to be facilitator and you are passionate about an item on the agenda, have a back up to facilitate that topic and keep the meeting on schedule. Remember your goal is not just to discuss, you must allow enough time to action plan. Action planning means being specific about what you are requesting that others do differently.

6. To start your meeting, review the Action Plan from the last meeting in the meeting notebook. Check to see that everyone is ready with his or her follow up information. Ask what progress has been made and what roadblocks are in the way?

7. Keep everyone on track! If the meeting gets off topic, say:

“We’ve gotten off topic. Let’s get back to the original issue & I’ll place this one on the next agenda.”

8. Watch the time! End the meeting on time. It shows professionalism and respect for your patients. If time is running out, make the call and tell the group:

“We need to stop now and action plan for our last 10 minutes.”

9. Make sure the Action Plan gets completed and tasks are assigned. Who is promising to do what, by when. Without specifics, accountability is non-‐existent. It’s the Facilitator’s job to make sure progress happens from one meeting to the next by holding others accountable for their promises (see Step 6). Involvement in projects must be spread evenly throughout the team. If one person or one group is involved in every project, the team dynamic suffers and synergy is lost.


TEAM MEETING AGENDA

Meeting Date _____________ Facilitator ________________ Recorder ________________

Topic for discussion Time Needed Suggested by

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. File in Meetings Notebook


TEAM MEETING FOLLOW UP

Today’s Date _____________________ Next Meeting Date Next Facilitator _____________________ Next Recorder

ACTION PLAN AS A RESULT OF TODAY’S MEETING

Activity Who By When

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. File in Meetings Notebook


In Conclusion Holding meetings takes time away from patient care, but the time invested will make for better, more profitable patient care in the future.

A dictionary defines meetings as an act or process of coming together as an assembly for a common purpose. The dictionary did not say it was a chance encounter, a party with friends, or random gathering of people. The raison d’être for meetings is to clarify common goals and reach an end result via superior decisions.

Design your meetings to create a better environment to work in or a better experience for your patients. When everyone is onboard and striving toward the same goals, the results are spectacular. Use meetings to help create the team environment you are striving for; it takes a team to have a successful practice.

By reading this guide you are equipped with the resources and tools to hold your own successful meetings! Meetings are the cornerstones for creating consistency in your practice. Get started now!


About the Authors We are six practice development specialists, each with over 25 years of experience guiding thousands of healthcare businesses like yours to develop the mindsets, skills, and behaviors that prepare you to face and meet any challenge in your business.

We are passionately dedicated to educating practice leaders about the fundamental impact the right organizational culture has on your team and your patients.

Our Faculty offers you support and experience, along with revolutionary education, tools, and coaching to help you build a practice of achievement, loyalty, enthusiasm, and stability.

A practice where Culture Rules™.


About Culture Rules™ We believe culture evolves and exists as a result of core values and sound principles. It is how we think, communicate, perform and thrive. Your culture is the heartbeat of your practice. When lived, demonstrated, experienced, and shared consistently, your culture elevates your practice and your life.

Culture Rules™ implies two things: • Your culture isn’t random. It’s a deliberate atmosphere shaped by values and principles that govern your business. • Your practice’s values and principles aren’t optional. They’re the rules that guide your team and your decisions on a

daily basis.

Culture Rules’™ 9 Cs of Culture offer you usable strategies to establish or amend your practice’s culture. So whether your practice is in a state of chaos with the practice running the doctor, or you’re moving toward organization and communication, or you already possess a clear vision and business plan, Culture Rules™ can keep you heading in the right direction, so you’ll always have a Culture that Rules.

To see how Culture Rules™ can impact your practice, or for help transforming your practice into a Culture that Rules, contact us at [email protected].

For more tools and resources to create a culture of achievement, loyalty, enthusiasm and stability go to http://culturerules.com™.

7 Easy Steps to Successful Meetings

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