Put an end to ineffective meetings

Do your team members look forward to your weekly staff meeting? Or do they dread (at least behind your back) that hour. How do you feel about your meetings?

You, of course, have every intention of running effective and efficient meetings. You want a well trained team — an “A” team that works in harmony and achieves great outcomes.

Unfortunately, many meetings run too long, are disorganized, seem to ramble from subject to subject, and don’t achieve anything. The solution to these problems is to organize and take steps to lead an effective meeting:

Not all meetings are the same; their purpose differs. The purpose, in turn, helps determine the outcomes you want to achieve in the meeting.

Schedule each type of meeting appropriately and do not try to fit everything related to your practice into a weekly staff meeting. Trying to do too much in one meeting creates the feeling of “What a waste of time!”

Here are some common types of meetings, along with their purpose and a generalized statement of a desired outcome:

• Weekly staff meetings. Purpose: To keep team members up to date on the operation of the clinic.

Desired outcome: “Team members will come away from the meeting able to state the status of the practice and the goals the practice is to achieve over the next week.”

• Problem-solving meetings. Purpose: To resolve challenges or problems encountered in running the clinic or with patients.

Desired outcome: A workable solution to the stated problem and an action plan for achieving it.

• Training sessions. Purpose: To teach team members new skills, procedures, or information critical to running the practice.

Desired outcome: Each team member will have working knowledge of the new procedure.

• Specific project meetings. Purpose: To plan special projects, such as patient-education sessions, patient appreciation events, or marketing events.

Desired outcome: The committee will come away from the meeting with a plan and specific assignments to execute the special event.

If you use ideas to plan and organize your next meeting, you and your team will come away from the meeting feeling empowered, not defeated by a waste of time.

Janice Hughes, DC, is one of the faculty members who instructs and creates materials for the CA Certification Program for The Masters Circle (www.themasterscircle.com), co-sponsored by Life West Chiropractic College. She can be contacted directly at Janice@themasterscircle.com or by calling 800-451-4514 ext. 142.

For a downloadable copy of a meeting agenda form, go to www.ChiroEco.com/history. Click on “Bonus” articles.