As we wind-down a challenging AND record-breaking year together, Colleagues (funny how challenge always equals opportunity), I find myself counting blessings and pontificating on how we leverage those blessings in the new year ahead. I also find myself reflecting on what are clearly the three greatest challenges of the Virus-and-Post-Virus Era of practice ownership:
1. Team
2. Team
3. Team
At first glance here, it appears I’m making the same point three times. But actually, Colleagues, I’m making (or will make) three separate points regarding the subject of team, and I’d like to dedicate our final post of the year to these three very important parts of the very important whole of team. Perhaps these three parts are best described as The Who, The What and The How of Team.
First, then, The WHO of Team. This is the consideration of who we bring along for this ride. Given some major focus this year on recruiting in place of hiring, and doing so based on how people align with a deliberately chosen (and stated) culture before what experience they have, we’ll call it good on the WHO this year (more to come in the year ahead, of course!). For the time being, I’ll simply say after four decades helping clients recruit, identify, hire, resource and retain team members, it amazes me to this day the difference the right alignment with culture makes over how experienced a candidate is. More than ever, I’ll take a new team member based on the consideration of purpose over the consideration of position EVERY SINGLE TIME! With a plan/program to get new team members trained-up, this has always been the winning strategy and is more so now than ever.
Second is The WHAT of Team. This is the consideration of WHAT we have our people do, and is based, of course, on duties of a given role/position (the job, if you will) and the talents they bring to that role. If a team member has a killer talent that hasn’t traditionally been part of a given position in the practice, I’m ALL ABOUT customizing the new team member’s responsibilities to include leveraging that talent. We live in a time when it pays to consider our peoples’ talents and potential whole contribution, not just what a position in the practice has entailed in the past. In the current “normal,” it’s incumbent on leadership to think about how we can adapt the role to the person, rather than the person to the role.
So let’s talk, then, about The HOW of Team. This, of course, is the consideration of HOW, given our WHO and WHAT, we become the very best team we can possibly be. And although there are many ways we do that, by far the most underrated, and easily the most important, is leveraging “The Big C” – COMMUNICATION. Thus the title of this month’s post.
As you may know, I’ve been working on (and promise to finish at some point!) a book about the dumbest things ever mumbled, and certainly a top-five dumbest thing ever mumbled is communication broke down …
If you think about it, it’s easy to appreciate how dumb this is. Communication is just a thing, right? Granted, we either do the thing or don’t do the thing. Or we do the thing well or do the thing poorly. But it’s not the thing, communication itself, that breaks down. It’s the people doing (or not doing) it. Or the people doing it well or doing it poorly. But either way, it’s definitely the people that are (or aren’t) breaking down!
As we think about communication … the HOW of Team … as always, let’s highlight some specific strategy for impact. Let’s discuss some ways we can stop the break-down and dramatically improve communication team wide; and, very importantly, let’s realize team wide has four specific applications:
1. Communication between Practice Owners. Wow, friends, does this one ever need improvement! (you should hear what the staff says about this one)
2. Communication from Practice Owners to Team (Staff) Members. Ditto.
3. Communication from Team (Staff) Members to Owners. Fair is fair … and staff can do better too.
4. Communication between Team (Staff) Members.
To maximize effectiveness in all four applications, I recommend a system that powers communication with five distinct communication venues:
1. Owner Meetings. When a practice has multiple (two or more) owners, I typically recommend one owner be in the role of CEO. You often see this as the “Managing Partner” role in a law or accounting firm, which is exactly of what I’m speaking here. The team needs an ultimate “go-to” or “buck stops here” person in the organization, and as we think about this, I’m reminded organizational structure is NOT about who’s over whom. I have literally zero interest in the power kick. The vastly more productive and life-giving question is who’s responsible for what? It’s the answer to this question that takes us places.
That said, the CEO should never manage the practice. The CEO should resource the team, and the TEAM should manage the practice! Part of resourcing the team is resourcing the team of owners, and doing so requires setting and following through with agendas followed by Owner Meetings. I typically recommend the Owner Meeting be monthly.
2. Leadership Team Meetings. Whether having multiple owners or not, every practice should have a Leadership Team. I don’t care if there are just two people in the practice (one owner/doctor and one staff), we still need to step into our leadership roles IN ADDITION to our patient care roles, and we need to do so deliberately and regularly as part of our system of communicating and managing the practice. I sit in on practice Leadership Team Huddles literally every day, and this is where we, as the Leadership Team, step-up to the task of resourcing the team that manages the practice. And we remember in doing so this helpful truism: People want to be LED, not MANAGED. I typically recommend the Leadership Team Meeting be weekly or at least every other week.
3. Practice Vitals Reviews. We’ve given this one a good bit of ink this year, so in short, this is the weekly metrics meeting in which team members give reports on the vital signs of the practice. We remember two keys here: First, we don’t have one person (office manager or doctor) keep all the metrics and “announce” all the production outcomes to the team (as I so often see). Instead, we resource our team by having TEAM MEMBERS give these reports, and only then will the team fully buy-in to production management. Second, we never look at an outcome of a metric together unless we do so relative to a defined objective. What good is knowing my acuity if you haven’t established an objective (20/20) first? I typically recommend the Vitals Review be weekly.
4. Team Development Meeting. Again, we’ve talked a good bit in the Podlectures and Blogs about this one, but basically, this is the policy/procedure and training meeting. This happens to be the perfect time of year to plan next year’s twelve monthly training topics, and I always encourage here that we remember teams support what they help create. Reach out to all team members and ask for their recommended training topics (literally ask them in what areas they most feel we need/want to develop our team), and upon receiving their input, I’m betting you’re more than halfway home with a master list of training topics. Then it’s just a matter of organizing next month’s training before that date comes. I typically recommend the Team Development Meeting be monthly, and there are LOTS of us out here to help you deliver that content when needed.
5. Team Retreat. This, of course, is the easiest one to skip, but with a little planning and done right, I find this to be the most rejuvenating, the most exciting, the most life-giving communication venue of them all! It’s amazing how fired-up a team can and will become about achieving its objectives when we’ve had a chance to be involved in celebrating them, in setting them, and in motivating one another to achieve them. The Team Retreat is something I recommend we do yearly, and typically right around the first of the new year.
Well Colleagues, that’s a wrap! We’ve managed a pretty comprehensive conversation this year about leading and resourcing your team, working on soooo many important fronts, and perhaps saved the best – COMMUNICATION – for last. And as we think about improving communication, let’s finish out the year together remembering that communication is like all aspects of leading your team and managing your practice … in order for it to be fully leveraged, it must first be systemized!
Like all THRIVE content, the purpose of BOWEN’S BLOG and SUMMIT TALK Podlecture conversations is to keep us driving 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.