Effective Chiropractic Systems to Create an Inspired Team
PRACTICE MANAGEMENT
Tom Preston
Behind a successful practice, there is an inspired team. Behind an inspired team, there is a courageous leader. However, we weren’t taught in Chiropractic College how to hire, train, and lead a team!
In my previous (very successful) practice, my team members were dedicated, inspired, showed up on time, and rarely called in sick. I contend it was because I had systems in place to create synergy, as well as to create an environment of open and safe communication.
Our team meetings were critical to the success of the practice because it allowed the team to feel as if they were working with me, not for me. They were empowered, and together we moved the practice forward and continued to touch many lives.
Here aie the secrets to running effective and efficient team meetings.
The first thing to keep in mind with team meetings is that they need to be scheduled in advance and not only when things are “going to hell in a hand basket,” which is when most people tend to book their team meetings! These types of “reactionary” meetings tend to quickly become vent and/or gossip sessions and really are of no value to anyone. Booking meetings in
* *The meeting should always start by having a member of the team recite the team’s mission statement. 5 5
advance and having an agenda for each team meeting is the first step to take.
The reason having an agenda is such a great idea is because it focuses the group on the important tasks at hand and tends to limit the scope of the meeting. I have attended too many chiropractic team meetings that turned into either evangelical speeches or soapbox grandstanding, and the only result was lost time.
I also believe there is a value to each team member contributing equally to the team meeting. As the old saying goes, “There is no I in team.” So let’s allow each team member to share his or her brilliance and ideas with the rest of the team.
In our team meetings, every member of the team was expected to bring at least one idea to each team meeting, and no more than three. That allowed us to fulfill our mission statement in a more efficient and effective manner.
The ideas your teammates prepare are to be written on the agenda sheet before the team meetings. The team member is expected to be prepared to present his or her idea, the potential upside and downside to implementation, any perceived roadblocks to effective implementation, and a timeline for the effective implementation of the idea.
Team meetings should be no longer than 45 minutes to an hour in length and should be done on a weekly basis to maintain momentum and continuity in the practice. If you have never held team meetings before, you may choose to start out doing them once every two weeks, or even once a month until you begin to realize the value of them and get the hang of them. Then you can gradually increase to having once-a-week meetings. The more regularly you schedule meetings, the more pressure there is to come up with creative ideas to serve your community better.
I believe it is valuable to alternate the team meetings between business growth and personal/team development to allow each teammate to grow into a more authentically inspired individual.
The meeting should always start by having a member of the team recite the team’s mission statement. If your team does not have a mission statement, I strongly encourage you to make this a high priority and focus of your first few team meetings. Everything you do in your team meetings should be done with that mission in mind.
In my previous team, every member must have the mission statement of the office memorized within 30 days of starting with the team and was to be prepared to recite it at any time that they ai e called upon to do so in a team meeting. This ensured that they truly knew and have incorporated the mission statement into their being, and understood the importance of it in this part of their life.
Once the mission statement has been recited, we then move on to acknowledgements. This is a chance for any member of the team to publicly acknowledge any other member for some great achievement or assistance they have offered since we had our last team meeting.
This is a great time for the team leader to express gratitude to the other members of the team who help make life easier, more rewarding, and more fulfilling because they choose to participate in accomplishing their mission together.
I made it a personal habit to acknowledge every member of the team for some unique and special thing I had to be grateful for since we were last together. This was not only a great way to honor the heartfelt connection I had with my team members,
^1 am a big believer in finishing or completing one task before moving on to a new one, so I highly recommend at this point that you go over old business. 5 5
but it was also a great way to build a sense of community and just be honest about how much I appreciated these people who chose to be a part of my life.
From here, I recommend that you move on to whatever mechanism you use to follow up on marketing leads developed since you were last together. In our office, we called this a “master lead generation sheet,” and it was just a simple tool for keeping us focused on asking for referrals and then having the integrity to follow up with them.
I am a big believer in finishing or completing one task before moving on to a new one, so I highly recommend at this point that you go over old business. This is a chance for each team member to report on their past ideas, strategies, and things that they aie responsible for bringing back to the team. Sometimes it is as short as a team member saying, “I am on track with X, Y, and Z, and everything is moving forward as per our timeline.”
Sometimes it is a statement that is more like, “I'm freaking out and need help with X, Y, and Z because of A, B, and C, or I’m not going to be able to hold up my end of the team agreement and we are going to miss our deadline.” At this point,
the team member was responsible for briefing us on what had been done, tried, and attempted to keep the project/idea moving forward. They then were able to offer at least one specific solution they felt could help end the roadblock before offering it to the team for brainstorming and assistance.
Once all of the past business was finished, we would then move on to each team member bringing forth their one to three ideas that they felt would move the whole team forward toward accomplishing our mission.
The idea/project needs to be broken down by the team member before the meeting so that the individual parts can be discussed and/or delegated at the team meeting. A timeline for implementation is brought forward, and if the idea is accepted as beneficial, the timeline is written out and marked on a year-at-a-glance calendar so that everyone is clear on the timeline and his or her role in the project/idea.
We always ended our meetings by sharing the emotion of our dreams and why we do what we do by sharing a testimonial/miracle story that we have witnessed in the office since we were last together. This was always my favorite part of the meeting, and it was amazing what some members of the team will know or hear that other members of the team weren’t exposed to in the office. This allowed every member of the team to stay connected to the big picture of why we do what we do together. This piece of the meeting is an amazing way to build community!
That is how I structured my meetings in a nutshell, and by following this simple strategy, I always had team members who felt like they were working with me instead of working for me. What a difference that can make in your team and in the results the team can achieve together! I promise that if you follow this protocol for team meetings in your practice, your effectiveness as a team in accomplishing your mission will go up exponentially!
Good luck in adapting this to your own authentic recipe for an inspired team!
Dr. Tom Preston is a highly sought after trainer, adviser, consultant, and coach who helps people “be ” more so they can “do ” more. For more than 20 years, he has been helping people unleash their unlimited human potential to live the life of their dreams by assisting them in connecting to their most authentic version of self. One of the keys Tom has discovered in his many years of helping people perform at their peak is that getting more information isn’t usually what is inhibiting people from growing into their full potential in life and in business. Instead, he has found that removing the blocks to applying the knowledge they already have is one of the main keys to personal andprofessional growth and transformation. Helping people discover these blocks and then removing them is what he does best.
Read more chiropractic success tips atwww.drtompreston.com/team.
