SUCECESS FILE: 19 ways to make meetings motivating
By Bob Levoy

If your staff meetings have become a waste of time, if the participants sit in stony silence with their arms folded, contributing little if anything to the discussion and waiting for the meeting to end, it’s time for a change.

Transform your meetings by making them livelier, more interactive, productive and fun. Here are 19 ideas to help you:

1. Make meetings a treat. Ask your staff what they consider the best time for a meeting, and pay them if it is not during regular office hours. (Asking staff members to stay late or come in early is not conducive to getting their best thinking.) If lunchtime is selected, make lunch your treat.

2. Meet only as needed. Schedule staff meetings as often as they are needed.

3. Schedule in advance. Give advance notice of both the date and the agenda of staff meetings to avoid catching people off guard and unprepared. Encourage staff members to add appropriate topics of their own.

4. Rotate the leadership. Ask for volunteers. Make it a leadership opportunity, not an obligation.

5. Stick to the agenda. If a real give-and-take discussion is the goal, the meeting leader should make short statements, not speeches. Pass over minor points. Encourage participation.

6. Avoid negativity. At staff meetings held by a Kenosha, Wis., doctor, participants use “clickers” to signal someone who was being unnecessarily negative, long-winded, or otherwise out of order. It keeps the discussion positive and on target. Do not allow staff meetings to become gripe sessions.

7. Act by consensus. Whenever possible, implement changes in office policies and procedures by consensus. People tend to be supportive of decisions in which they have some input. Moreover, they are more invested in a successful outcome.

8. Set a time limit and stick to it. If certain issues or projects require extensive planning or discussion, schedule another meeting for those involved. It is better to end on a high note than to have people looking at their watches, waiting for the meeting to end.

9. Listen, don’t talk. If you are the leader, spend more time listening than talking.

10. Proceed without you. Ask staff members to hold some meetings without you. The doctor’s presence often inhibits the proceedings.

11. Bring ideas. Have everyone bring at least one idea about how to improve office décor, appointment scheduling or collections.

12. Ask for efficiency inputs. Have everyone bring at least one idea about how to save time, money or office space.

13. Award prizes. Best ideas get them.

14. Get everyone to participate. Make it a practice, at least initially, to call on people who appear interested and attentive, to help get the discussion under way.

15. Invite outside speakers. Consider allied healthcare professionals, management consultants and even patients to address the group.

16. Show a video. For a change of pace, use a video for in-service training or inspiration.

17. Focus on a positive approach. There is a world of difference between “How can we work better as team?” and “Why is there so much friction and backstabbing in our office?”

18. Conclude meetings with one or more decisions. Don’t leave everyone wondering What did we decide? Where do we go next? Make sure a plan of action is spelled out along with a schedule of implementation.

19. Close staff meetings with a compliment. Ask each staff member to compliment a co-worker who has helped make his or her job easier during the past month. This includes the doctors, office manager and all staff positions.

Bob Levoy is a seminar speaker and writer. He can be reached at 516-626-1353.