THIS JUST IN: When done right, staff meetings can be productive

I know what you’re thinking: I must be out of my mind to think that a staff meeting can be anything but drudgery. But there is a “Holy Grail” of staff meetings. Let me explain.

First, I must admit that in the early days of running staff meetings for my growing practice, I had no idea what I was doing. My monthly meetings were fairly boring and often left my team frustrated and with no clear direction.

THE ERROR OF MY WAYS

The error of my ways became clear after working at several non-profit organizations and civic clubs as a board member or director, where I observed months of well-run meetings that included actionable items and accountability. These two elements felt like the “magic” my staff meetings were missing, and I realized I could use them to make my gatherings more meaningful and productive!

Through these experiences, I came to realize that in most of my meetings the agenda items were the same month-after-month. The same issues that we struggled with the prior month(s) and year(s) kept re-emerging. The problem: We never had a plan for how to properly address them, and who would be responsible for them.

BREAKING IT DOWN

To properly address most practice concerns, I broke down our staff meetings into departmental responsibilities. At the time, I had a staff of about a dozen team members in three departments (optical, technical, and front office/billing) who supported three doctors. I met with each of the departments in our practice once per month. The optical team met the first Wednesday of every month, front office the second week, and our technicians the third. Meeting with each department and making each department responsible for its own agenda, and for resolving its own challenges, made the staff meetings shorter, more concise, and focused.

The last week of each month, the entire team would get together to discuss how each department was doing and to coordinate how each departments’ new systems would affect every other department.

I found this approach made each team more accountable. Every meeting started with “old business” that we agreed to address or resolve at the prior meeting. Team members were assigned specific tasks and were expected to complete them before the next team meeting.

For example, I might ask our optical team to provide details on a spring contact lens or spectacle promotion. The optical team would then present the details at the next optical team meeting. At the entire team meeting, the technical and front office/billing departments would learn of the promotion and discuss how it would affect their respective departments.

The approach was amazing — things got done and in a timely manner! Once we saw that we were able to check items off the agenda(s) as “completed,” the team came to realize that we were no longer spinning our wheels. We were accomplishing the business of running our business!

ACTION AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Not all practices have a staff large enough to require departmental meetings. However, it is critical to give each item on the meeting agenda a set amount of time for discussion, and to make sure a staff member is made accountable for the actionable items needed to be completed before the next meeting. Get the entire team on the same page and assure everyone that we are all working toward the same goal: a phenomenal patient experience! OM

DR. EARLEY serves as a therapeutic optometrist at Medina Vision Centre, Inc. in Medina, Ohio, where he spent 23 years as vice president/secretary, and was director of human resources. He is the clinic director of Bright Eyes Vision Clinic, a free clinic serving the uninsured, and a member of the AOA and the Ohio Optometric Association. A speaker in the areas of specialty contact lenses, macular degeneration, and practice management, Dr. Earley is a consultant for Alcon, and serves as a KOL for Notal Vision, Maculogix, and MacuHealth. He can be reached at drearley@medinavisionandlaser.com.