Practice

5 ways to get the most out of your team meetings

Take your finger off the snooze button, meetings don’t always have to put you to sleep! Successful meetings can be hugely beneficial, to both individual employees and the practice as a whole.

One of the most important aspects of any successful dental or orthodontic practice is a positive team culture. For a practice to run efficiently and cohesively everyone needs to be on the same page when it comes to how the business operates.

Team meetings are a great opportunity to bring employees together and collaborate to ensure everyone’s goals are aligned.

It’s also a fantastic opportunity for employees to share their ideas and opinions and contribute to the future plans of the practice. Unfortunately, team meetings aren’t always easy and they can be challenging. People may not see eye-to-eye, keeping everyone’s attention isn’t always easy and meetings can easily veer off track without clear direction and leadership.

Here are 6 ways to help you organise productive, outcome oriented meetings.

Always set an agenda

Every meeting needs an agenda. It creates focus and outlines a clear direction for the meeting. An agenda allows you to set priorities and organise the structure of the meeting. It’s important to allow a few days before the meeting to set the agenda. This will give your team enough time to prepare and ensure everyone has the chance to contribute.

Stay on schedule

One of the biggest complaints is about meetings that run overtime. It puts undue pressure on employee’s schedules and often ends in frustration.

Meetings shouldn’t be too short or too long and they should always run on time. When you set the agenda, it’s important to block out time to ensure there is enough (but not too much) time spent on each agenda item.

Create a meeting vibe

Serious information needs to be discussed in meetings, but that doesn’t mean you can’t add a little fun. It could be as simple as going across to the cafe to buy coffee before the meeting starts, bringing snacks to share or something more creative like having a pop quiz before the meeting starts.

Creating a vibe at your meetings can set the tone for the rest of the agenda. It’s an effective way to increase connectedness and encourage teamwork between employees – and lightens up the mood of the meeting.

Team Meeting Dentistjpg

Stay on track with effective leadership

During a meeting it’s essential for everyone to stay on track. The agenda will help with this, however you also need a leader to direct the conversation back on track when it veers away. But it doesn’t always need to be so serious. At Microsoft the team uses a rubber chicken, which gets passed around and given to the person who is speaking.

Nominating someone to lead the meeting is essential and will help you reach your desired outcomes without wasting time, while also allowing everyone to have a say.

Change the location

Do you hold your meetings in the same old boardroom every week? You’d be surprised what a difference a change of location can make. It can lift morale and make the meeting more productive.

Keep the meeting fresh by getting creative with the meeting’s location, whether it’s out in the park, at a cafe, down the beach or in another location.

Focused meetings are good meetings. When you change how you meet you can improve your team culture, keep your meetings on track and improve productivity in your dental or orthodontic practice.