Improve Metting Efficiency Habits in Your Private Practice
There’s an epidemic sweeping this country that is costing businesses millions of dollars every year — and no, we’re not talking about the coronavirus! It’s the unproductive meeting. The average employee lists sitting in unproductive meetings as one of their biggest complaints and biggest hurdle to completing their job. So what does that mean? These meetings are wasting your time and money … and could even be a culture killer in your practice! Improve meeting efficiency in your private practice and you will see the results on your bottom line.
The good news is that you do NOT need to fall victim to this epidemic. Just like with every other area of your practice, applying some intention and discipline can make a huge difference.
Here are some tips that we use at the Scheduling Institute to keep our meetings on track, productive, and efficient!
1. Schedule meetings in the morning when possible. Your mind is awake, alert, and not bogged down with all the tasks or emails that can cause stress and distractions. Keep in mind that on Production Days your team will be distracted. Don’t turn a huddle into a full-blown meeting on Production Days.
2. If you can do so safely, get your entire team together. This can be difficult with social distancing and other safety requirements right now – but adding connectivity (and yes, fun!) back into your practice will increase productivity and boost morale.
We were struggling to get our entire team together for an All Team Meeting. At first we tried spreading out over several conference rooms and using Zoom – but this just did not cut it! Then Jay took the extra step of renting the ballroom at a nearby hotel so our ENTIRE TEAM could be together, while still social distancing. It was amazing and just what we needed to back together again as a cohesive team. Get creative and get your team together!
3. Plan your meetings in advance. Sure, there are always some meetings that just pop up, but most of them can wait a week. If you’re pre-planning your meetings, you will give yourself time to really think of what you want to accomplish in that meeting and the result you want to produce. It also allows you to stick to your calendar blocking!
4. Prepare an agenda. To improve meeting efficiency, this may be the most important tip! If you prepare an agenda before a meeting, set times for certain topics, and pre-determine the goal of the meeting, you are significantly more likely to actually achieve that goal. Often, people are “figuring it out” as they go, meaning they’re wasting time (and money), when they could have spent 5 minutes preparing beforehand. That’s just laziness!
5. Know when a short meeting won’t work. Sometimes a quick 20-30 minute meeting just isn’t enough to accomplish what needs to happen. Look at your areas of concern and see which discussions are in need of more time and attention. It may be better to have one full day meeting, a “vision meeting” as we call it, rather than several short meetings.
6. Always start with a win. Even in your meetings, you should be staying in your bubble! So start every single one by going around the room and sharing a win. It can be personal or professional, but it will force everyone to get in a positive mindset so you don’t spend time complaining about things that aren’t quite perfect.
Mastering your meeting time is vital to mastering your human capital.
For all doctors and team leaders, when you’re in meetings, remember that you are a leader and you should be acting like it. Your tone, comments, and engagement are a direct reflection of the quality of the meeting and the quality of your practice. You’ll see that when you improve meeting efficiency a really successful meeting can produce outstanding results and get your human capital focused and engaged on your vision and goals for the practice!
