As more and more colleagues have adjusted to a shorter-staffed workplace in the post- Covid era, we find ourselves in more and more conversations about maximizing team efficiency with more deliberate organizational structure.
Every day we hear practice owners saying things “the team is stressed out,” or “_____ has too much on her plate,” or “we need to do more with the team we have,” and so on and so on and so on. When you boil it down, all of these are just different ways of saying We need to delegate! However, when you use the actual word delegate, the stop sign goes up, and in some ways, rightfully so! The last thing that the practice owner or long-time office manager who cares deeply about the wellbeing of the practice wants is to lose control of responsibilities or processes and have things drop off, and this is admirable, missionbased- thinking (maybe a better word is believing).
The problem, however, with this thinking is it leads to one person doing everything. In a small practice (say one doc and a couple staff), this is obviously how it needs to be, but as the practice grows and additional team members are added, space is expanded, etc., if one person continues to do all the management, that person ends up in the very situation we’re trying to avoid – losing control! The truth is, no matter how organized a person and how much a team member works and cares, no one person alone can manage everything needing to be managed a well patronized practice. One person simply can’t get it all done, and despite the very best effort, all she/he can really do is run in place, put out fires, and give limited attention to what’s boiling over. On top of not being able to get to everything (and again, not for lack of effort – no matter how good someone is at their job, it’s just not possible), it also likely earns a dedicated, hard-working manager a label as micro manager, control freak or other not-so-flattering term and also likely leads to some sort of division and/or friction between the team members. The person we ask to manage everything will likely feel the team doesn’t like, respect and/or value her/him, and the team feels the doing everything person doesn’t trust them or appreciate their contributions and capabilities.
Does any of this sound familiar?
The good news is there’s a simple and easy way to get it all done, fully leverage andengage all the entire team, relieve stress, take things off of people’s plate when they have too much, operate more smoothy and efficiently AND not force someone to be a micromanager or control freak. We simply need to put some team organizational structure into our operation.
THE MATRIX MODEL
There are plenty of models and systems out there for defining and implementing organizational structure, including models specifically for small business operation (we think of this as the patient care team doubling as the management team). If you have one in place that works well, kudos to you – that’s something few small businesses have defined and we’d love to hear about your system! If you don’t, our preferred and recommended strategy is based on what’s known in business administration as a Matrix Organizational Structure, which operates on two axes of organizing/team leading; our Management Centers, which are the physical places (often thought of as departments) within our practice, and our Business Functions, which are more our practice-wide focuses/systems/procedures. We prefer a system in which each Management Center has an assigned Team Leader, and each Business Function has a Coordinator. If that seems confusing don’t worry, we’ll take a deeper dive.
Management Centers and Team Leaders
As we discussed above, the Management Centers are the different locations/departments throughout our practice. Think of these like departments in a store, or different colleges within a university campus. So a few Management Centers we’d likely designate in most practices (among others relative to a practice’s specialties) would include things like Front Office, Back Office, Optical and Clinic, and once designated, we’d invite a team member to be our Team Leader for each of these, and among the Team Leader’s first leadership tasks would be to list all the focuses, responsibilities, duties/tasks and key performance metrics within that Management Center. So for example, a few tasks that would fall under Front Office would include physical patient reception, phone reception, keeping patient No Show metric, etc. Once we’ve designated our Management Centers and their Team Leaders and focuses/responsibilities/tasks/metrics identified, we can subdelegate certain of these to other team members working in that management center. So, continuing with our example, we’d have a Front Office Team Leader, Back Office Team Leader, Optical Team Leader and Clinic Team Leader. As we’re consider who might fill these roles, we like to keep three considerations in mind – who’s doing it now, who has a knack for it, and who’s being underutilized. Once we have our person in mind, we “invite” that person to our Leadership/Management Team.
Business Functions and Coordinators
OK, as we mentioned above, the practice also has certain Business Functions, or across the entire practice focuses, procedures and systems that are not specific to a Management Center. So these would be things like Marketing, Finance, I.T., Training or other across the- practice focuses. Again, think about the department store. They have their different departments, but marketing is needed in all of them. Finance touches all of them, as does training. So regardless of department, these focuses are needed practice wide. So like our Management Centers (departments), once we’ve identified our Business Functions, we want to invite team members to lead us in these focuses, starting again with documenting the focuses, responsibilities and tasks that fall under that function of the business. So, under Marketing, for example, we would designate focuses, responsibilities, duties/taskslike website, social media, outdoor and indoor signage, seasonal displays, keeping the New Patients metric, etc.
As we discussed before, once we have our Business Functions identified, we then need toinvite a Coordinator to lead us. Remember our considerations in selecting someone ...Who’s doing it now, who has the knack for it, who’s being underutilized? And again when we’ve made our selection, we invite that team member to take that Coordinator position and lead the way.
Some Things to Keep in Mind
Hopefully after reading this, you’re not finding yourself thinking, “Wow, that sounds like a ton of work!” If you are, it’s important to remember all of these focuses, responsibilities, duties and tasks are already happening in your practice as we speak. You already have different Management Centers, in which your team is operating all day. The new frame poster is up, your website is operating and social media posts happening, someone’s handling payroll and watching accounts receivables, updating the on-hold message, the new employees are being trained and all the rest. The difference is now instead of one or a couple people doing ALL OF THAT, all of us our doing our part. Provided we’ve gone about having the right people in place, this will be a WAY MORE effective way to manage the outcomes, rather than run in place.
Also, let’s remember that just because somebody is a Team Leader or Coordinator, that does not make them responsible for doing everything that happens in that management center or function of business. For example, when we think about everything that happens in optical, we may have 15 or 20 or even more focuses, responsibilities, duties/tasks and metrics listed in that box; but that certainly does not mean one person does all of that. We share the work. But we look to a team member to lead us there and be sure everything is accounted for. Let’s again think about our department store parallel. The Sporting Goods Manager at Walmart spends 90 percent of her day doing exactly the same things as all the Sporting Goods employees... helping customers find what they need, stocking the shelves, etc. The difference is, the Manger is also the person responsible for making sure we’re proacting and accomplishing in the Sporting Goods department and reporting back to the team and General Manager of the whole store. So the Manger might sub-delegate a few focuses/tasks to others, keep a sales metric or two to share at the next meeting, etc., but mostly the Manger spends her day doing what we do in Sporting Goods, she’s just accountable to see that all the boxes are checked. The last major thing to consider is that It’s very possible that one person ends up with multiple positions. Remember that just because a practice might have one doctor and a couple or three staff doesn’t mean that all of these things don’t need focus. It simply means each one of us is responsible for a bit more in the organizational/leadership structure. So Doc, you might be the Finance Coordinator and Clinic Team Leader. The same staff person might be the Training Coordinator and the Optical Team Leader. Again, being a Coordinator or a Team Leader does not mean they have to do all the work that falls to that Management Center or Business Function, it just means we see that every box gets checked.
Delegating leadership of the team and management of the practice across your team, as opposed to asking one person to do it all, presents a huge opportunity for your team to work more efficiently and maximize the out outcomes of the team and contributions of each team member. If we structure that, we better engage team members, be the TEAM that manages the practice and not lose control of operations and outcomes. There is certainly more than one way to crack an egg, but if you don’t have a team organizational structure in place or you need to figure out how your team can get more done, this is a great way to go about it and I hope this helps!
Like all THRIVE content, the purpose of BOWEN’S BLOG and SUMMIT TALK Podlecture conversations is to keep usdriving together toward IMPACT. If something here has struck a chord, shoot us an email or give us a call and let’s talk it out! Tbowen@mythrivecoaches.com or 402-794-4064.