23 Tips for Staff Meetings that Don’t Suck

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• 23 Tips for Staff Meetings that Dont Suck
• For employees in most practices, staff meetings
  rank somewhere between office politics and
  learning to use a new ophthalmic EMR in terms of
  productivity and enjoyment. But they can also be
  an indispensible team- building tool, Joy Gibb,
  ABOC told attendees of 2016s Vision Expo East.
  How can you break the cycle of long, boring staff
  meetings where nothing gets accomplished? Follow
  these best practices to make sure your next staff
  meeting is worthwhilenot a waste of time.
• Good Timing
• Time is your most important resourceits
  imperative to use it wisely, and preparation is
  the key to doing that, says Gibb. Before you put
  any meeting on the schedule, ask yourself two
  questions
• What is the purpose for this meeting? Meetings
  must offer value to those attending, so tailor
  them to the needs of your practice and team. If
  there are certain actions you want your staff to
  take as a result of the meeting, identify those
  actions.
• Is this meeting really necessary? Once youve
  identified the desired objectives, make sure that
  a meeting really is the best way to accomplish
  them. For example, a simple announcement that
  requires no discussion could simply be made via a
  group email.
• Tip Research shows that meeting productivity
  decreases as the number of participants
  increases. If you have a larger practice, try
  breaking down staff meetings into departments.
• When every minute counts, it can be difficult to
  set aside time for what some staff members feel
  is a non revenue-generating activity. After all,
  why should you give up chair time or lane time
  (or even your lunch time) for what all too often
  turns into a disappointing gripe session?
  Mornings are usually the best time for staff
  meetings, Gibb finds. Staff wont be enthusiastic
  about meetings if they have to arrive early or
  stay late, and appointments that run behind
  schedule can impact after-work meetings.
• Consider scheduling your first patient one hour
  later to accommodate a regular weekly or monthly
  meeting schedule, Gibb recommends. Yes, you will
  initially lose the revenue from that chair
  timebut youll quickly make

up for it with better staff skills and
communication, which mean better care
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• and customer service for your patients, she adds.
  Also, make sure the meeting ends 15 minutes
  before clinic time. Staff need time to decompress
  and get their patient faces on.
• Stick to the Agenda
• Meetings tend to balloon to fill the time theyre
  allotted, and then some. To keep a meeting well
  within its intended scope, create a written,
  detailed agenda and make it available to all
  attendees at least 24 hours before the meeting.
  This gives staff members (especially introverts
  and those who are reluctant to speak up) time to
  assess meeting topics and devise suggestions and
  input. Train your staff to bring you solutions as
  well as problems. Implement a one-to one rule If
  someone wants to voice a problem, they should
  also offer at least one solution.
• Prioritize the agenda by identifying the
  objectives that absolutely have to be
  accomplishedaddress those at the beginning of
  the meeting so that theres adequate time for
  discussion and decision-making, Gibb advises. If
  you dont get to every time on the agenda within
  the time allotted, carry over the remaining
  items to the next meeting. Better yet, consider
  limiting the action items of each meeting to a
  manageable number, like 3.
• The Meeting Moderator
• The moderators job is to keep the meeting on
  track, encourage contributions, and prevent chaos
  resulting from competing points of view or strong
  opinions. Two obvious choices are the doctor or
  the practice manager. But if neither of those
  choices seems optimalif, say, they are
  people-pleasers who are loath to speak updont
  be afraid to look at a less-obvious choice.
  Either way, a moderator must be able to do these
  important (and sometimes uncomfortable) things
• Ensure only one person speaks at a time.
• Prevent any one person from monopolizing the
  conversation.
• Politely but firmly interrupt people who repeat
  whats already been discussed.
• Hold people accountable for staying on-topic.
  Gibb
• recommends using a phrase like This is
  interesting, but can you help me understand how
  it relates to the agenda item were discussing?
• Meetings require focus and brain power. But
  neurological research indicates that we have a
  limited amount of these cognitive resources
  once they get depleted, the quality of our
  decision-making drops. The

lesson? Keep meetings to a manageable length (an
agenda and moderator
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• will help you do that). Shorter, more frequent
  meetings will give you better output than rare,
  marathon sessions.
• Step Up Your Staff Meetings
• Dont let latecomers delay your agenda, Gibb
  says. If you want to end on time, youll need to
  start on time, so if someone arrives late, Gibb
  recommends saying Sorry you couldnt join us. If
  you meet me in my office for a few minutes after
  work, I can review what you missed.
• When broaching a problem area, try to back up
  your observations with hard data whenever
  possible. Staff will be more receptive if you can
  prove your point with numbers. No one wants to
  feel like theyre being called down to the
  principals office, Gibb notes. If you have
  numbers handy, staff will see you as an objective
  observer, rather than just someone who thinks
  theyre slow and lazy.
• The best meetings are safe zones for ideas,
  Gibb notes.
• Encourage everyone to share ideas and let your
  employees shine. Watch out for longer-term
  staffers trashing potentially good ideas with
  responses like we did that 10 years ago and it
  didnt work. Also, look out for what Joe
  Quitoni, The Ritz- Carltons corporate director
  of culture transformation, calls CAVE
  employeesthose that are Constantly Against
  Virtually Everything.
• Tell attendees not to bring their phones. Youll
  increase focus on the task at hand, and youll
  also discourage digital trash talk
• about participants.
• Aftershock
• Never leave a meeting without an action plan,
  Gibb warns. You want to make sure that the
  meeting motivates staff to perform better.
  Failing to clarify next steps sets a tone that
  nothing really important happened. If a meeting
  is important enough to have, its important
  enough to follow up on, she adds. Be sure staff
  leaves knowing three things
• Who is responsible for what
• Relevant goals and deadlines
• To whom they should report progress
• And what if a scheduled meeting runs shorter than
  youve planned? Just do what you need to do and
  give everyone the extra time to socialize.