Holding Effective Chiropractic Staff Meetings
When holding a staff meeting, how effective do you think your meetings are? Since staff time is a valuable resource, every effort should be made to make sure that meetings are as productive as possible.
Here are some tips to help assure you are holding effective meetings with your staff:
1. Set a clear objective for every meeting. What is the purpose of the meeting? What do you desire as the ideal outcome?
2. Distribute appropriate advance material before meetings. By distributing relevant information before a meeting, those attending the meeting can be more productive because they have had an opportunity to get oriented to the material rather than seeing it for the first time in a meeting.
3. Schedule morning meetings rather than afternoon. Generally, people are more alert and attentive in the morning than in the afternoon. Less has occurred during the work day to distract them.
4. For recurring meetings such as a weekly staff meeting, hold the meeting at the same time and on the same day. Build a basic agenda that can be followed for the recurring meeting.
5. Recap and summarize- At the conclusion of a meeting, it is helpful to recap the main points of the meeting and summarize the discussion. This helps everyone walk away from a meeting with a better understanding of what was accomplished.
6. Make sure appropriate follow up actions are identified during the meeting and that notes are taken on what has to be followed up on. Follow up on the date something is expected to be done as a result of the meeting,
7. Involve your staff. To get the attention and cooperation of your staff attending a meeting, some of the things you should do is:
– Invite employees to suggest topics for meetings
– Encourage employees to actively participate in meetings. Ideal meetings are
interactive where you solicit and exchange ideas
– Unless absolutely necessary, limit the meeting to no more than 45 minutes. After 45
minutes, you will often lose the attention of your staff
– Assign someone to take notes so that there is an official record of what was said so
that everyone has written record of the discussion
– Assign clear responsibilities for who has to do what and when based on what was
discussed at each meeting
– Make the meeting something attendees look forward to. For example, bring pizza in
once in a while and make it a lunch meeting.
Holding effective meetings can directly impact the efficiency and effectiveness of those on your staff. Besides helping clarify important issues and get things accomplished on a more timely basis, effective meetings provide a tool to get your staff working as a team focused on the important goals you have outlined for your practice.
If you need some assistance in making your meeting more effective, there are many books and online Internet resources to help you have better meetings. Simply do a little research and you’ll soon discover your meetings are more effective and more enjoyable to everyone as well. Why not start having better meetings today?